Get involved in the Community Center’s Festival of Sustainability 2022

[Sybe]

Hello everyone,

With planes emitting carbon emissions, fuel-burning rental cars, and large quantities of plastic water bottles left behind by guests – travelling can leave a big footprint on the planet but sustainable tourism is ever-growing.

As more travellers are looking for eco-friendly holidays, more hosts are adopting eco-friendly practices, to reduce their footprint, so that guests can still enjoy trotting the world with less of an environmental impact. With a desire to help the planet, through our own individual action, we can make an impact on a global scale.

As part of Sustainability Month at Airbnb, we are launching our first ever Festival of Sustainability!

From April 22nd to April 29th, the festival will be held here in the CC. It will be entirely online, full of great topics, collaboration, and fun conversation. 

We do need your help, though, so we would like to invite you to get involved.

Here are two ways:

1. Community Photo Collage:

Snap a selfie of yourself somewhere green. Perhaps in the favourite part of your garden, next to the tomato plants in your greenhouse, with the tree you planted last spring, at your local botanical garden, with the houseplant you named Susan, or even from that trip you took to the Amazon where that monkey climbed your back. The possibilities for “green” photo opportunities are endless!

We will stitch all the images together to make our very own community collage that we will share on the first day of the festival as a featured post on Earth Day. 

 How this works: 

• Take a selfie of yourself somewhere green
• Landscape or portrait
• Clear, quality photos using your smartphone (or other device if you prefer)
• Ideal image formats: JPEG or PNG
• Send your submissions to airbnb-cc@airbnb.com to be included in the grand reveal on Earth Day or post it below.

1. Create a detailed topic all sustainability:

If you would like to create a topic to be included in the week, please comment below or contact me directly to discuss this further. We also have topics we can suggest.

We are asking for a maximum of 750 words (if you can!), which we will translate into all the languages we support here on the CC to share during the Festival. 

We hope that this festival inspires you to make at least one change to be more sustainable. Let’s all share and learn from each other during the Festival of Sustainability!

Thanks so much,

**Deadline for submissions is Friday Apr 14, 2022 

*Disclaimer 

By submitting your image to the email address above, you authorize Airbnb to use your media, your first name, profile photo, and city and country of residence in marketing materials to promote Airbnb.

Throwing in some mentions of Hosts I know love sustainable hosting @Anna1403 , @Veronica-Of-Excel-Proper0 , @Clara116, @Kitty-and-Creek0, @Lawrene0, @Delphine348 

[Deirdre122]

May we share the article link in our community FB groups? Absolutely love this and will send my submission soon!

[Stephanie]

@Deirdre122 Absolutely!!! We would love to hear from all our wonderful Host Community!

[Anna1403]

Here's my photo folks! One of the greatest love stories ever told - me and my willow coppice ❤️ 😂  I have planted just over 1000 willow trees now (hopefully the same again by 2025) for our bio fuel coppice which will be coppiced every 5 years to provide fuel for our wood burners in both listings! Willow is the most amazing tree - it contains a chemical to stimulate root growth so makes an amazing overnight soak for new cuttings, the trees provide some of the first pollen and nectar for bees and other insects as they emerge from the UK winter and it is the most fabulous material to weave with, I have given away lots of lovely willow wreathes to guests! Our guests love hearing about all of our learning and what we are trying to achieve on our sustainable hosting journey.

[Felicity11]

Beautiful photo and wonderful meaningful actionable story.. Inspired Anna

[J-Renato0]

Certainly it will be a great event @Sybe  !  I wish I could, but I can not get involved because now I am somewhat tight with work.

[Emilie]

@J-Renato0 Completely understand, maybe next time! You could still enjoy participating this year by reading the posts during the Festival, or maybe even submit a green photo for the collage, all the way from Brazil? 😃

[J-Renato0]

@Emilie 

Good idea! I will see if I can take some picture somewhere green or if I already have some of the kind saved somewhere in my computer.

[Laurelle3]

@Sybe @Stephanie @Emilie  Great news and the environment is valued part of everyday life even the creatures that visit our Airbnb. 

At the moment we are experiencing rain and more rain and the garden is drowning. I hope the sun is out for the photo shoot for the Festival of Sustainability. I'll try and put something together for Earth Day.

[Stephanie]

Stay safe @Laurelle3 ! it'll be wonderful to see you Earth Day snap, weather permitting!

[Mary1173]

Hi
On a different tack, living in a resource scarce country we try to use our very expensive water and electricity as little as possible and encourage guests to do the same. On the whole, most of them respond to our request positively and our bills are manageable and within expectations.
However, I do think that because we use natural ventilation and cooling, Airbnb "penalises" hosts like us who do not have artificial air-conditioning. I would suggest that rather than the primary question being about the presence of air-con, a more sustainable approach would be along the lines of: Cooling and ventilation/ Natural or artificial/ Please describe. We could then add that each room has opening windows on 3 sides, and that our thatched roof is a natural insulator against heat in summer and cold in winter. Similarly, the list of amenities includes a tumble dryer which we don't need as laundry dries in an hour or two outside on a fine day so Drying facilities/ Please describe would allow for the more sustainable option.
These are just two ways in which Airbnb could indicate their support for sustainable living in their documentation.
Mary

[Clara116]

@Mary1173 Wow, I didn't know or realize that was the case but makes sense that so much of the world is so addicted to air conditioning/heat and our view can be narrow for certain. You raise a really important point and I hope it will be looked into and addressed.

I haven't looked at your listing  yet but hope you have written in the photos about how you have windows, and your ventilation system for your part of the world.

I wish you the best and many blessings, Clara 

[Clara116]

@Sybe @Stephanie This is a terrific idea and many of us do efforts in our community to promote a smaller footprint. Our community is plagued with littering which goes beyond the streets, roadside, parks, beaches but also into the ocean, beaches and then in turn impacts and often even kills our fish and other animals in nature. 

Before Covid we had 2 community gatherings of our local Airbnb hosts and we joined our local organization Ocean Hour where we did 2 Sat. morning clean ups during our "Week For Good."  We are having another cleanup/meet up  all around Earth Day - April 16th at an area we call Graffiti Bridge where many homeless camp and live and the litter is never ending and enormous, overflowing and constant. Hoping to have many of our community group to join in and share, enjoy being near the water and doing such a good thing for our community. Plus its right next to one of our Visitor Centers where we can pick up maps, literature, brochures of everything happening in and around Pensacola and guests love having this stuff in their hands to assist their planning when they arrive in a place that's new to them. Many follow our recommendations and that's a super bonus for connecting and offering excellent hosting to all our guests.  Pictures to come for certain.

[Michael-O-Reilly0]

This is my ongoing sustainable garden project, every item in the garden has been upcycled, from the old electric cable drums to the pallets used for the decking, all the plants around the decking are cuttings or plants that were thinned out from other gardens. Since I began the garden,  wildlife has frequented the area, from birds and hares and foxes.

[Michael-O-Reilly0]

Nice to share amongst your groups,  it shows how long items would need to fully decompose...

[Sybe]

I know plastics can take a really long time, but it's still always a shock to see that it can take 450 years for just a plastic bottle. Thanks for sharing @Michael-O-Reilly0 !