IGBA Announces New IGLA Group with Focus on Sustainable Island Living

 

The new logo for the new organization dedicated to solving wider issues facing St. John.

As the Island Green Building Association approaches its 10th anniversary in 2014, the local non-profit that works to promote sustainable and environmentally responsible development and construction in the Virgin Islands has decided to expand its mission and broaden its membership.

IGBA is proud to announce the creation of the Island Green Living Association, which will act as a larger umbrella organization, allowing the non-profit to focus on wider solutions for the issues facing St. John, including loss of natural resources, mounting waste and recycling challenges, crippling energy costs and economic uncertainty.

With the creation of IGLA, the group hopes to brand St. John as a “green tourism retreat” and tackle other issues by joining forces with the public and other organizations to develop sustainable living programs.

IGLA will continue to run the popular Green Thursdays Seminar series, and is excited to announce its brand new Green Villa Program, which aims to address the impact of the approximately 1 million people who visit St. John each year.

IGLA hopes to preserve and encourage the villa rentals that represent a significant component of the island’s economy while addressing the fact that vacationers who stay in the island’s estimated 1,000 villas each year freely use electricity and water; purchase food and other commodities; produce large amounts of solid and organic waste, gray water, and recyclable materials; and create potential pollution caused by vehicles, poor land use, and inadequate septic systems.

The Green Villa Program offers guidance to guests and rewards to villa owners who take steps to make their vacation rental more environmentally friendly. The program seeks to encourage vacationers to take part in keeping St. John green.

IGLA members believe that through their new Green Villa Program, the non-profit can significantly reduce the impacts of visitors to the environment and foster a world view of St. John as a “green island,” encouraging sustainable tourism and a sustainable future.

In addition to the Green Villa Program, IGLA plans to establish a Green Business membership program, as well as a Sustainable Living Center at the current site of the ReSource Depot.

IGBA will continue as an important component of IGLA, with plans to expand the ReSource Depot, promote the Residential Tropical Green Building Certification Program and get a glass crusher up and running for the island.

There are also plans in the works for IGLA to foster green jobs and green business opportunities with the development and operation a state-of-the-art Resource Recovery Facility for island-wide recycling and recovery, a large-scale composting area for organic waste, and a native plant nursery.

For more information on IGBA, IGLA, or the Green Villa Program, or to help support the association, visit www.igbavi.org, or contact IGBA Executive Director Barry Devine at (340) 514-3532.