With one of the world’s fastest-growing economic regions and as the site for upcoming international events like the World Cup and Olympics over the next two years, South America and the Caribbean offer an exciting area of opportunity for sustainability.
Ampleen was fortunate to have had an opportunity to learn more about the opportunity in this part of the world when we attended and helped sponsor the World Entrepreneurship Summit 2014: South America & Caribbean on Feb. 20 in New York. The event was attended by entrepreneurs, international business representatives and thought leaders, and was hosted by New York Business Consultants, a boutique consulting firm and specialist in sustainability and business development for emerging markets.
My experience with Latin America and Caribbean has always been with tourism, so I was simply amazed at the diverse and numerous sustainability activities taking place in these regions. These rapidly growing regions are making significant investments in sustainability that are opening a number of opportunities in agriculture, infrastructure and energy. I was excited to get a firsthand report at this conference.
Rosi DeJean speaks at the Summit
First, I was especially interested to attend a presentation by MADEL. The presentation concerned a green business project that will help solve Haiti’s trade deficit and bring much-needed jobs and economic opportunity to the country through sustainable greenhouse farming.
Among the highlights of this presentation was the pleasure of meeting Rosi DeJean, co-founder of the company. She has lived in New York for decades but felt that this was high time for her to move to the Caribbean and help out the communities in Haiti as a full-time resident. She is passionate about the initiative’s success and confident the people in Haiti are motivated and responsive to her company’s initiative.
DeJean also mentioned that they are not coming to the community to take over their power, but want to empower people with education and training so that they can be sustainable in the long term. The project will include building a sustainable farming operation, a training school and a housing community — a sustainable living area that will not only be able to support its own food production but also be able to export food to the world.
Lovoy Rubin speaks of Urban Belize Project
Another session discussed the project development and investment opportunities in Belize, and was presented by the Assistant Vice President at US Oil Properties, Lovoy Rubin. Petroleum forms a major part of Belize’s exports, representing about 29%, and energy companies play a big role in the country’s economy. The most interesting segment of this presentation concerned a big upcoming project in the areas of agriculture, tourism and eco-tourism. Rubin discussed urban farming in Belize, and we learned that the urban farming movement is spreading quickly around the world now.
Another interesting presentation was by Peter Fusaro (his picture is shown on the top), Chairman of Global Change Associates, Energy and Environmental Consulting firm based in NYC and Adjunct Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. He discussed how to bring renewable energy to the Caribbean. One of the Caribbean region’s concerns is high electricity prices and dependency on oil. Sustainable energy derived from biomass and solar energy offers promising solutions to this issue.
After learning so much that is going on in these regions from a sustainability perspective, we at Ampleen are very excited about various development opportunities.
What do you think of these developments? How can we assist with sustainability development in this part of the world? We would love to hear from you! Please leave a comment.
Great job! Please keep me abreast of what you are up to and conferences such as these.
Thank you! We will keep our readers informed what’s the latest in the world of sustainability!