Presentation on the challenges of building a sustainable business. These are based on the 8 steps we took to established our multi-award-winning eco resort. It was delivered at the second annual World Ocean Day 2019 at the Marine Conservation Building I focused on the steps and changes we made to reduce our impact on the environment and our oceans. This presentation was sponsored by the Canadian High Commission for Brunei.

1. Brunei Annual Ocean Festival 2019
The Challenges of Building a Sustainable
Eco Resort
Robert Scales
PADI Master Instructor
Co-founder Ceningan Divers
Green Fins Operator
Winner BlueGreen360 Award 2018 & 2019

2. This is not sustainable

3. At home, school or work

4. "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can
change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead

5. Why Should We All Obsess Over Supporting
Green Businesses?
The world needs our help to keep our ocean sustainable for future generations.
Green businesses tend to adopt a higher code of conduct. They aim to limit their
impact by offering alternative solutions and services.
Because the alternative is no alternative.

6. In this sustainable business talk, we will explore the process we
followed while building our eco friendly PADI 5* Dive Resort.
Are you thinking of “going green”?
Developing an Eco Resort or an alternative business with a
focus on conservation, the environment, sustainability and
maintaining eco-friendly standards is a noble goal however it
requires research, capital and time investments, and patience!

8. (4 years later, we are still working on our action plan…)
8 Steps We Followed While Transforming
Our Legacy Infrastructures Into A
Sustainable Eco Resort.

9. 1) Dreaming of Going Green
This is where most of us
get stuck.
We have great ideas, we
subscribe to the eco
ideologies however, we’re
unsure how to move
forward.
We need to take the first
step to turn our dreams
into a reality!

10. 2) Researching Options
We committed to building an eco business, we read
about successful case studies and we aspired to follow
these principles and turn our intent into actions.
There’s plenty of resources for businesses to access,
information is at our finger tips.

11. 3) Reaching Out
Realizing that others had already achieved similar goals, we
sought their help and expertise.
There was no need to reinvent the wheel: We could learn
from others.
We reached out to the community! We were amazed by the
support we received.

12. 4) Finding Role Models
We looked for other people who
had “been there, done that”.
We recruited experienced people
to assist us realize our goals.
When we started to reach out, we
found likeminded people who had
already tried different options.
We learned from their mistakes
and experience.

13. 5) Setting Goals
• Where should we allocate our resources and time?
• What are our priorities?
• How can we reduce the impact of our business on our local
community?
• What are our main issues: A lack of power, lack of water, need
for more help/human resource, local conservation, waste
management, community education, community outreach and
development programs?
Once we identified our problem areas, we planned to resolve each
of them accordingly.

14. 6) Planning our Projects
We had problems and solutions. We
had many ideas and great examples to
follow.
Which project(s) should we tackle first?
We needed to be smart with our
allocation of resources.
We prioritized our list and weighted the
pros and cons.

15. 7) Developing our Projects
We committed our energy and moved forward with our action plan.
We started by upgrading our old / legacy facilities or building following sustainable
standards. We banned single-use plastic, optimized our energy conservation, built bio
septic system, installed rain water cache, committed ourselves to using no chemicals, setup
recycling and composting systems. The list is long!
We turned our ideas into reality however it required trials and errors. Despite our research
and hard work, we learned by making mistakes. Things that worked for others failed for us.

16. 8) Maintenance
Once we had our eco resort running, we needed to maintain these
new facilities and systems. We realized the learning was just
getting started.
We needed to allocate more resources to ensure our new policies
and systems remained sustainable. This required ongoing
commitment: Staff training, community outreach and a continuity
action plan needed to be put in place to ensure our hard work was
not in vain.

17. Building a
Sustainable Business
D e v e l o p i n g a s u c c e s s f u l ,
sustainable eco business required
a great deal of resources and
commitment on our part.
There were many reasons for us
to Go Green. We opted to make
these changes because we
wanted to create a space that
reflected our personal values.
It is one of the best decisions we
ever made. Our guests love our
eco friendly PADI 5* Dive Resort.
“Be the change you want to be in
the world you seek to create.”

18. Eco Initiatives Ceningan Divers Has Put In Place
GREEN FINS OPERATOR
Green Fins is an approach to sustainable marine tourism activities that works with business operators,
communities and governments. It helps to implement environmental standards for the diving and
snorkelling industry through a code of conduct. The overall aim of the initiative is to mitigate damaging
impacts to the marine environment from the marine tourism sector and improve sustainability. The code
of conduct is a set of 15 points designed to tackle the most common and detrimental effects of SCUBA
diving and snorkelling activities on the habitat in which they operate.
EDUCATION PROGRAMS
As part of our ongoing goal to ensure our Ocean Planet remain a sustainable environment for future
generations, we hired an in-house marine biologist who created and delivers workshops on various
subjects at our PADI 5* Dive Resort. While staying at our resort our guests can learn about Project
AWARE Specialties, attend a Manta, turtles, reef and marine life or Mola workshops, access general
information and publications around our resort to help them better understand the impact we have on the
local environment, reef and ocean. From our conservation-focus arrival briefing, our workshops to our
morning boat briefings, we aim to share our knowledge and passion with our divers.
REFILLABLE BOTTLES AND WATER STATIONS
We provide free drinking water to our guests with refillable, recycled, glass bottles as opposed to plastic-
bottled water. We have several water stations throughout our dive resort and on our boats for our guests
to refill their own personal bottles.

20. Eco Initiatives Ceningan Divers Has Put In Place
ELIMINATED SINGLE USE PLASTIC PRODUCTS
One of the leading global issues is the increasing amount of plastic pollution in our oceans. In an ongoing
effort to eliminate such waste, we vowed to not use plastic straws or single use plastic products at our
eco resort and dive operation. Instead we serve our juices and cocktails with a stainless steel straw. We
pack our food in our kitchen and snacks for our boats in reusable containers. We do not offer single use
shampoo or soaps in our eco resort. Instead we provide organic body soap from dispensers and we sell
organic shampoo bars to guests looking for
alternative options.
REEF-SAFE SUN PROTECTION
Our eco-friendly dive resort put in place a policy allowing guests to only use reef safe sun protection. We
sell a suitable, locally produced cream made with Illipe butter. Guests are not allowed to use toxic sun
protection products on our boats, pool and at the resort. Educational material on the impact of chemical
on get reef and ocean is made available in our briefing area. Guests can use alternative sun protections
to ensure they do not sunburn while out enjoying their water sport activities.
ISLAND CLEANING INITIATIVE
We host weekly Ceningan Trash Hero cleanups. Our team along with volunteers from around the globe
take an hour each each Monday from 5 to 6pm to pickup rubbish from the beaches, mangroves, streets
and fields of Nusa Ceningan in an effort to keep the island clean. As part of this initiative, we provide free
education and share information with other likeminded people.

22. Eco Initiatives Ceningan Divers Has Put In Place
ECO RECYCLING, UPCYCLING AND WASTE SEPARATION
At the resort we have separate rubbish and recycling stations, this allows us to separate
recyclable material such as plastic, cardboard, glass and other materials. We also have several
composting areas around the resort which help eliminate organic waste from our rubbish.
HYDROPONIC GARDEN AND LOCAL PRODUCT SOURCING
Our restaurant and bar use ingredients which we source from sustainable, organic vendors or
local distributors. Our aim in working with fair trade producers and organic farmers is to provide
our guests with healthy options which aren’t always easily accessible when traveling. We have
an hydroponic garden on site, we grow our own herbs such as basil, mint and other ingredients
we commonly use at the resort. Looking towards the future, we also planted several fruit trees
when we opened our resort in 2015. We are always looking at other options to expend our
garden.
MANGROVE NURSERY
We are currently collaborating with Indo Ocean Project to launch a Mangrove Nursery at our
resort. Our goals with this new addition is in two folds: Mangroves play an important role in
protecting our coastlines and our reefs. This also help with our goal to become a carbon
negative operation and will help reduce our overall carbon output.

24. Eco Initiatives Ceningan Divers Has Put In Place
WATER CONSERVATION
Fresh water on Nusa Ceningan and in Bali is particularly scarce. That is why we use the
grey water from our bio-septic toilets to water our garden. In 2018-19, we build a 68,000
litres ground reservoir to catch rain water, we will use this water for our dive pool, our
showers at our training facilities and to water our garden during the dry season.
ORGANIC CLEANING PRODUCTS
We source organic products for cleaning so as not to pollute our eco-system. Our staff has
been trained to conserve energy, in keeping electricity and water consumption and non-
organic waste to an absolute minimum.
REEF MONITORING AND CONSERVATION PROGRAMS
Ceningan Divers is working in partnership with various community partners around Nusa
Penida, Nusa Lembongan, Nusa Ceningan and Bali to ensure our local reefs remain healthy
and pristine. We participate in annual coral watch and reef monitoring programs. Our team
is composed of passionate educators and divers who dedicate their time and energy to
share their love of our Ocean Planet. We take part in community coral transplantation
initiative as well as other activities aim to preserve the beauty of our Marine Protected Area.

25. Ceningan Divers was recognized by the United Nations Environment Programs, The
World Reef Foundation, the Coral Triangle Centre, Green Fins, and UW360 Magazine in
2018 and 2019, we were awarded The Dive Operator of the Year Award and Dive Resort
of the Year Award at ADEX – Asia Dive Expo in Singapore.
Multi-Award-Winning Dive Resort

28. The answer to the ultimate question?
What is the meaning of life, the universe and everything?
42
CeninganDivers.com
Questions?