Sustainability
As you can see from browsing our website, Exuma is a paradise that we are fortunate enough to have a slice of. With owning a slice comes great responsibility - to the environment, to the local people, and to our guests. This responsibility is taken seriously and passionately.
Solar Power
We love the Sun and enjoy Exuma's sunny days year round. Taking advantage of what the Sun provides is fundamental to our responsibility to Exuma. From feeling the warm rays on your skin to the green hills and landscaping and the way the ocean lights up in those incredible hues of blue, we knew early on in the design process that we had to incorporate solar energy into our house. Crazy as it may seem, the government wasn't keen on solar and the laws seemed to discourage its use, so we skipped pursuing solar during the construction. Within the first year of opening The Salt House, we were back to having solar on our minds and installed a first phase of solar panels and all of the equipment and batteries needed to get a system going in December 2017. The goal was to produce at least 40% of the energy the house needed through solar power. We learned a lot during the first year of operating the house and then again in the first year that we had the solar system and we didn't quite hit that goal. We expanded the system with phase 2 adding 50% more solar panels in December 2018 and hovered just below our 40% goal with some fluctuations throughout the year. We installed phase 3 in late February 2021 and phase 4 in September 2023 to surpass the goal of energy coming from the Sun!
Electricty Reduction
As we have been told many times by our solar electricity installer, it is much easier to use less electricity than it is to make more. This doesn't just apply to us, but to all of Exuma where the island suffers from power outages from its aging generators and grid. Electricity reduction is quite the challenge when summer lasts all year round and daytime temperatures rarely fail to hit 80+...even night time lows are usually in the mid to upper 70's to low 80's, which means air conditioners are running throughout the year. Beginning with the design phase, we worked with our architect and builder to incorporate a few traditional Caribbean building techniques - position the house to take advantage of the ocean breeze to cool the house, design windows and doors to be covered by overhangs for shade, utilize covered porches and pergolas for shaded outdoor living space. We also incorporated LED and efficient lighting throughout, which use 1/6th to 1/10th of the electricity of a normal bulb and have added additional insulation to the house over the years. In the summer of 2020, we swapped out 2 power hungry pool pumps for 1 variable speed pump that uses about 1/8th the electricity of the old ones. In Fall 2024, 5 electric hot water heaters (one for each bedroom and one for the kitchen) were swapped out for 2 highly efficient heat pump hot water heaters that will use less than 1/4 of the electricity that the old heaters used collectively. We are constantly thinking about how we can reduce our power demand and what we can do to be better.
Caring for the Environment
One thing is for sure, it's a sad but true reality that when living on an island, there's no where for trash to go. Sadder yet, some trash ends up being tossed out of car windows into the roadside bush. So each trip our family takes to The Salt House, we spend time picking up litter along the road near the house.
Exuma's beaches have mostly been spared from the trash that you see or hear about in other tropical locations. Yet, we still have our share of plastic and foam bits that wash ashore, so we also do a beach cleanup on each trip. I recommend this to all of Exuma's homeowners as pristine beaches are one of our main selling points.
Beyond the litter, Exuma doesn't have a recycling program, which means that garbage piles up fast. The island's waste disposal process is burning it at the dump. One way we have come up with to reduce trash waste is to encourage our renters to enjoy the purified tap water we have from our well and the reverse-osmosis filtering system. We have glass bottles for storing and cooling it in the refrigerator...and did we mention it tastes incredible? Our hope is that by drinking the tap water, we are able to significantly reduce the single-use plastic bottles used by our guests. If only we could figure out recycling for all of the beer bottles and soda cans.
Exuma's beaches have mostly been spared from the trash that you see or hear about in other tropical locations. Yet, we still have our share of plastic and foam bits that wash ashore, so we also do a beach cleanup on each trip. I recommend this to all of Exuma's homeowners as pristine beaches are one of our main selling points.
Beyond the litter, Exuma doesn't have a recycling program, which means that garbage piles up fast. The island's waste disposal process is burning it at the dump. One way we have come up with to reduce trash waste is to encourage our renters to enjoy the purified tap water we have from our well and the reverse-osmosis filtering system. We have glass bottles for storing and cooling it in the refrigerator...and did we mention it tastes incredible? Our hope is that by drinking the tap water, we are able to significantly reduce the single-use plastic bottles used by our guests. If only we could figure out recycling for all of the beer bottles and soda cans.
Encourage others around Exuma
Exuma has seen a fair amount of vacation home development over the last few years...and each one seems to be getting bigger and bigger. It is our hope that others will view our success with solar power and sustainability efforts and considers it for their homes - whether from the onset in the design or retrofitting energy reduction or solar power system in their home like we did.
Friends of Exuma is a relatively new charitable organization based in the US started mainly by 2nd homeowners to seek out and provide financial and other support to Exuma-based organizations and persons taking on projects in the areas of conservation, sustainable living, cultural preservation, and youth development. You can check them out here: Friends of Exuma.
I've seen where Exumians are teaming up with 2nd home owners to spend time picking up trash on the sides of the road which is encouraging. Organizations like Bahamas Plastic Movement, based in Eleuthera, are making great strides to educate the country about littering and the impacts it has on the environment as well as shifting away from single-use plastic use overall.
Friends of Exuma is a relatively new charitable organization based in the US started mainly by 2nd homeowners to seek out and provide financial and other support to Exuma-based organizations and persons taking on projects in the areas of conservation, sustainable living, cultural preservation, and youth development. You can check them out here: Friends of Exuma.
I've seen where Exumians are teaming up with 2nd home owners to spend time picking up trash on the sides of the road which is encouraging. Organizations like Bahamas Plastic Movement, based in Eleuthera, are making great strides to educate the country about littering and the impacts it has on the environment as well as shifting away from single-use plastic use overall.