The future of tourism: embracing sustainability and regeneration initiatives

welcome to the future of Tourism podcast I'm David peacock stop owning your own contents young leaders are stepping up bring everyone to the table and imagine they're wild anew [Music] sustainability and regeneration initiatives are by definition activities that leave a lasting positive impact on places and people they are also an opportunity for dmos to build meaningful Partnerships outside the cohort of The Usual Suspects there are innovators from outside our industry who are certain that the destination organization is the key to unlocking the community alignment necessary for success Edmar Louise Xavier NATO and Joel Marriott can read the writing on the wall Edmar is the creator of the strong farm and Rural Shores destination program a Canadian project focused on creating new paths for sustainable development to become a reality for families and businesses and communities in rural areas Joel Marriott is an indigenous entrepreneur from White Bear First Nations in Saskatchewan he's a Visionary and the founder of top carbon capture Inc a construction technology company with a focus on Industrial Hemp building materials that are Net Zero both Edmar and Joel came to tourism because they see its potential to engage and align communities and visitors to create new holistic regenerative opportunities for places and people good morning Edmar how are you where are you what's it like good morning good morning thank you good morning Joel I'm here in Kimberly in Nova Scotia Canada and it's a beautiful day outside and I am very excited to be here today speaking to your podcast thank you well it's great to see you again Edward I know you've been crisscrossing the country Joel how about you how are you where are you what's it like I'm doing good I'm over in Richmond BC uh but just got back from the states doing some uh import export uh and so yeah it's been pretty exciting and thank you for this morning hey it's a pleasure to have you both here and just before we get into the details list let me tell everyone um one of my roles is to is to crisscross the country and pay attention to the world about what's going on and I was really really moved and impressed um within about three months of each other I met both of you and I Met You in really for what I believe what I would say is almost unusual circumstances we're at the tourism internet tourism industry Association in Canada conference in Ottawa admire I think that was November and you were asked to speak on your project strong farmer Royal Shores and you blew me away I mean what you talked about was fantastic but the funniest thing you said when you're up there just so everybody knows this this is my first formal presentation in English in my life thank you I was a bit nervous that time well you totally nailed it and then Joel um it's funny you know about three months later I'm in Victoria for the impact conference and you were one of the guest speakers on on specifically The Net Zero work of top carbon and I mean to to draw a line between the two of you I almost couldn't type fast enough to say admire you got to meet Joel Joel you got to meet admire so that's that's where I meet you both but what really hit me we're going to talk about this in a minute or two is you both have such incredible confidence and tourism being a lever that can help us unlock regenerative and sustainable destinations and I think that's a message in this industry we really need to hear we need to be reminded of our strengths so that we can get to work on this so I'm going to go to you Joel first your your history's one of sustainable development when I say that I mean it in its holistic sense um you know social economic and environmental you've been working in charity with First Nations uh as far back as your CV goes you've been trying to empower places and people what I want to talk to you about today is top though and that's probably what you're doing in the states I know you've acquired a facility down there to manufacture uh Net Zero uh Building Material well I'll tell you what why don't you tell us give us a timeline on top all right so my name is Joe Marriott um my partner is Mary Mason she's not here today um and we're the co-founders of top carbon capture Incorporated uh we're a net zero building Manufacturing Company built out a hemp powered by hemp so we're currently in the process of building up our uh Nelson property uh we have nine acres out on the mouse on a Mountaintop in Nelson and our goal is to turn that into a destination our goal is to create connections between 60 scoop people uh people that are from Urban indigenous communities and then we start connecting them and building a place for everyone to gather so that was what the Nelson property was supposed to be so hang on let's let's educate The Listener a little bit 60 scoop it's it's a particularly Canadian term and please explain the listener what we're talking about there please so the 60s group is um part of what the Canadian government did to the indigenous communities back in 1960 to 1980. um I'm was from 1981 and what they did is they took indigenous kids from their families and then put them into new houses and non-indigenous families and so by taking the indigenous out of them they were creating a new person and getting rid of the traditional indigenous communities um and so I am one of those that kind of got through and have now decided to start helping by returning to my land and giving opportunities by continuing what I'm doing right now well Joel first start I thank you for that and the reconciliation piece is so important and so awkward and so engagedly and we and we have to deal with it but that really does inform your whole ethos I mean you've got um sort of a a many generations perspective on sustainability and you come by it naturally obviously through your heritage but you've been driving that you've been trying to build communities from the ground up look at a regenerative opportunity and then when we talk again when I talk to you you talk to me about sustainability it's always social economic and environmental all three at once all right let's jump to Brazil okay so Born and Raised on farms in Brazil's and we're talking large-scale Farms your experiences range from sustainable biomass and methane energy to the social welfare of community groups in the building and the building of networks of communities and stakeholders um you've dedicated your life to creating sustainable development Tools in your own words dedicated to creating sustainable development tools to help people Foster regenerative strategies for business communities in the planet okay Edmore tell us about AXA what are you doing here in Canada how long you been here and what are you up to uh a chemical calendar event 2018 to learn the English about them this country called my attention yeah Mao I call this country as home I have two beautiful kids my wife and everything Happening Here in Canada yeah it's a group candidates uh uh I can't say it is like a an initiative to to develop sustainability uh worldwide we created the as a group Canada business plan in 2020 in Ontario to to bring a risk management Concepts to our our industry and you start a new conversation about uh risk contingence and management to avoid stock base like we had in 2020 and then I immigrated my startup to love scholarship we start to to work with some Farms here and last year I I started a research in in eastern shore of Nova Scotia it's a personal it's at 70 communities with 23 000 people living then this program called the attention of the tourism industry Association of Canada they invited us to participate at the red program I have been traveling across Canada since November 2022 and researching gaps challenges needs barnetts of Huron distance and remote communities uh we we do regular services like a business plan marketing plan marketing management project management but our main service is create solutions for rural areas for our communities it's really important for us to look for a new way to create economics in our mean and it's time to what our areas have some voice to share its importance word I if we need look solutions for the economy we need linked tourists to rural areas to bring this sustainability to our community okay so that's that's that's the part where you two intersect so admire when I first saw you speak you presented um actually an entire model for a thing called strong farm and Rural destination it was a self-sufficient biomass driven energy uh project for farming that created a circular use of resources Joel you sort of hit me with the same thing you were talking about building the center in is it Nelson yeah and there's there's a thing in circular there that I just want to underline here circular doesn't just mean wow cool hemp's low carbon we're using that circular actually means a real inclusion of all sorts of other materials that that have a just talk to us a little bit about circular building practices because that is the core of top isn't it yeah so um we start from seed all the way to harvest so we start off planting the seed uh we grow the hemp and during that process our goal is to clean this oil and do laundry regeneration um that's a big product and a big problem over on different reserves because there has been so much damage that's been gone to the soil around us so we can actually grow our stuff so we go from seed to growth up to the seed again which gives us our biofuel and that gives us the ability to create energy that is going to go um back into the raw stock that we turn into building blocks and so we're not only using our own raw materials we've now partnered up with a bunch of different organizations in the State uh one is U.S Freedom Farms and uh the veterans Alliance so they grow hemp down in the states and they're going to be one of our suppliers for our materials so we're going to build blocks out of hemp lime and water and a few Aggregates um and the process is to try to create a net zero build so it's all the way from seed to build and you've got multiple different levels of carbon credit carbon capture throughout the whole process and that's our circular economy okay so once we build the homes the biofuels go in to heat the homes so that one plant is actually building the blocks and the heating source and the energy that's put together and right now really there's sort of two places to doing it one in Canada that you start and the one in the US that you're just you're in the process of acquiring or have a choir down in Arizona right yeah so we've taken on uh uh control of the facility in November and are just getting ready to launch this year um we're working with the Freedom Farms to get all our products up there and we're building some specific materials for them right now which is patio stones and uh that'll be an outside product that they're working on with some of their veterans fantastic Edmar you can you can see the overlap why I got excited when I ran into Joel because strong Farms really was a self-contained circular Farm concept and I I know you're doing a lot of work with the government of Canada now and a lot of Consulting projects but strong Farms is the thing that caught my attention really briefly give us strong Farms uh that prototype we showed that the Congress the tourism Congress lasting Europe it's adaptable to different scenarios and we can have different solutions uh through uh using sustainable Concepts to create Echo Villas uh worldwide uh we we use it containers because our folks at that time was to develop this this prototype in the arch key uh in the theaters North in Canada and then we created everything to use they waste and containers it's our biggest shoes in the art of Canada because it's going to be uh always uh always and our idea was to create a container Farm to to plants High nutritional foods and be a part for nutritional part for 300 people per communities we use like 15 old containers we renovated it and transformed it into farms and then we use two other different contents to create the poor efficients of the plant of this container Farm one is for animal manure that is just a few animals at this place and then we use a few manure to to buy to create the biogas at this container this container will climate the container for the human fastest human human and animal contributions yeah yeah okay got it we we usually call with us I don't know I think I think Joel's you know built by him powered by him plays a little better than poop power but hey to do the transitioning from fossil fuels to Green energy we can use different materials doing the importance thing is acting for this transition happens you know so okay and that's that's that's where this conversation turns so um thank you for both you sharing your stories you're leading in your Fields it was remarkable to watch you both you weren't selected as speakers to those events because you're unremarkable but I got a big question for you both I mean I work in the sector and I am really proud of what we can accomplish and I think tourism done well um the authentic sharing of people and places to care for places is probably the absolute opposite award I think it's one of the highest callings but in this industry we are just getting our footing on sustainability and regeneration and I will tell you being at impact or even being a tayak you can see that the industry's so ready they recognize the importance of this imperative they recognize that there is no future without sustainability tourism or otherwise so we've got to get on it but we're kind of stumbling to get started we've got a lot of Assessments going on the pandemic vaulted sustainability to the front of our awareness there's a lot of Assessments going on are We sustainable what's our use Etc but we worry that we're not well equipped how are we going to do this what's our role in function in our communities you guys don't see that you both end up on tourism's doorstep saying wow this is the one organization structure the destination organization that I can work with and now explain that to me explain that to our peers who really need to understand just how much power you see us having because I agree and when you when you explain to me I agree as well we have lots of skills to help move this forward but why tourism I'm going to start with you Joel why why did you pick tourism because uh in growing and building throughout the fields to getting all the way into the materials and then building up from the ground up um we wanted to make it so that it was a circular economy that required no emissions lower emissions for everybody and so when we looked at our heating system it was going to be a in-house in the walls built heating system that requires no fuel being burnt but just heat it up and warm through heating pumps and then circulated throughout the house and then I thought on a larger scale how is that going to benefit and create Community around there so we thought about how to utilize our materials on a mass scale and be able to offer that as a destination because a lot of people are looking for Net Zero materials but the cost is so astronomical right now so cost of Timber is super high cost of Steel and concrete is super high and we wanted to make it an affordability side so we maintained our facility into a very affordable material so it's by the brick it's done um the same as a cinder block we have different uh additives that are going to work into it to create a very compact block that will give you the stability that you need for sustained not just a sustainability but the size and the build that you're trying to accomplish this so you can scale you can scale for sure but but why tourism why what did you see as the strength in this industry that could help is it is it is that it is the fact that it helps move the whole thing forward like what's our strength um I think that the option is the fast the ability to be able to grow fast um a lot of destinations are now looking like especially in the Indigenous communities we're looking at an option of trying to build up our uh indigenous tourism Association but a lot of the issues that we're running into this year was that there wasn't a lot of funding put into it so a lot of Nations aren't able to keep building as much as they wanted to this year so we decided if we're able to connect with the right people then our affordability of our materials should help them uh change from the alternative of being cement and concrete back into a net zero material okay so I got part of the solution very good okay I'm gonna switch over to you Edmar you come from far away um you come from Brazil a a wonderful place and and I I remember it really fondly um Mass farming culture you come to Canada you state your life's ambition is to create sustainability tool but then again why tourism what do you see there what's the magic piece that we have that makes it so attractive to you or so necessary to your vision uh I think I was born with tourism in my heart because I know myself and I was chilled tourism is part of my life and I dedicated all my my academic pathway all my professional life to create links between tourists and other economic activists because I know tourism is a powerful tool for sustainable development we have 17 sustainable development goals to achieve in 2030 and when I speak to people about it most part most part of the people they don't know about the 2013 agenda but they are traveling no and they are not just traveling domestically they are going uh overseas and they they don't understand about sustainability and when we look back to to all the agreements we have in the International System close was like in 1992 Rio conference Kyoto Protocol and then all these International guidelines all these International agendas they they were not achieved and and why so something was wrong in the middle of the way but now if we look tourism so fill these gaps that the the market the offer to us you can create these Bridges between agriculture between construction between real estate between Gastronomy between uh farming between different other economic sectors uh that will leave every day we just need to to start your thinking in new ways to to bring Economic Development to our communities because this pathway we are living it is going to be collapsed in a few years if we do nothing right now fantastic great articulation Joel over to you then the best destinations are the result of engaged communities the most sustainable destinations the regenerative ones will be the result of engaged communities that are actively involved you can't do this one person or ten people it's got to be a community right yeah absolutely um a lot of it is uh the direction because we we build materials but the direction is going to have to come from the communities so that we can help flesh out the idea of what they're trying to create and the best part about what we do is that we have as many connections as we can to help kind of guide where they want to go um a lot of this has been really exciting for us because being able to get into tourism has been one of our one of our goals for the last little while and we bounced into travel we bounced into destinations and now we're like we've realized that this is the way that we would be able to help other communities reach their their goals in their future okay so Edmar are you seeing then that the the alignment so one of the basis of both your plants is the idea of engaging a wide swath of stakeholders to actively participate in something that honestly they're paying attention to they're just not sure where to start I'm not just talking about destination organization I'm talking about stakeholders in Market um producers restaurant tours accommodations attractions retailers who all want to be part of the space big part of tourism's challenge post covet is creating those networks do you see that is that the network piece that you say well that completely overlines with our necessity in sustainability we need to create these networks yes for sure it's it's with people that we can be strong to change situations now and I I have been speaking with Joel for for a few months now yeah and we our work has a a beautiful alignment to to deliver Solutions across Canada with all this travels I did for for tayak researching these these home units uh I have been seeing a huge issue not just with accommodation but with housing and when housing has it shows accommodations suffer with the impact and all the tourism industry and then Joe I always bring these Solutions with a wonderful technology that transitioning to a green construction bases easily and it's so so good that is is cheaper practical and sustainable no there is thermal properties and for for Canada in communities like hey heaver in Northwest State towards an example I I will do right now I went there they had a fluid into in May 2022 this flood destroyed our house around the river and then they they needed to rent the the tourists accommodations to to live in and last year was the first year that Northwest states tours opened the board for tourism after covid-19 hit Canada and they imagine the negative impact on tourism industry because of solutions relate to housing and this technology Joel built and is developing it's really important because they don't need to to cut trees uh to build these forms they can use hemp gradual to support it and the heat oil to to transitioning from from the the energy that comes through the house in art we are talking about diesel imagine it's it's it's unbelievable now yeah so it's good that you say that in a couple of your peers were on the radio today at my um kayak um uh the head of Tourism HR Canada was talking and the head of um tourism industry Association of Ontario number one crisis uh generally acknowledged across the board in tourism in Canada right now is a completely fragmented Workforce with real difficulty returning people to positions that due to the nature of of you know restricted travel have been have been less than they're talking about Frontline accommodation jobs being less stable because they're on demand in some sense they're not continuous employment so in there though one of the subsets of that discussion was a breakout on the idea that one of the two of the primary problems facing employment is accommodation and transportation both of them completely related to energy and building so so you're banging on on that front um what's next guys what do we need to do next is destination organizations to embrace our role to make these things happen faster and and from you know from the perspective of what we need to do or what you need us to do open discussion here um throw to you first Joel um I think that a lot of the work that could be done over the next little while would be collaboration um there's a lot of needs and a lot of stuff that can be put together just by having open communication about what your needs are and what we can do to help fill that um for me personally a lot of this has been learning learning learning learning and I have kept my head down but learning around what you guys have in each Community what what the needs are and how we can facilitate the growth in those communities just by the collaborations um so I I would be very open to any open conversations about kind of what the needs are there because I'm focused on Canada fires worth mold and pests and that's kind of like why haven't Creed is such a strong material is because they're fire resistant mold resistant and pest resistant and they're super strong so for us that was kind of why if those are an issue in any of those communities that are looking for Net Zero building materials that will be one of the next ones that would be able to work for you excellent Edmar same question to you what is it we need to do next uh I'm I was acting uh I cannot stop the world claim Zone uh I I really here in Canada uh Our intention in start all this conversation with uh top carbon capture it should deliver together solutions for comments I have been traveling uh for this tayak program uh in 2020 to 2023 we we are developing as well an International Event on multilateral Corporation in tourism law and sustainability to to bring more people to speak about the same kind of development we are creating in Canada it's really important for us to to focus on the goal 17 and create strong partnership not not just uh inside our own country but uh tools underdeveloped and developing countries you are running a tourism sustainability and economic conference in Brazil this year aren't you yes with the order of attorneys of Brazil that is our Brazilian Bar Association and the University of Southern Santa Catarina when is that Gloria North sorry when when is the when is the event September 25 to 28th two days off workshops and two days off conference and we will work in a block man to deliver it to their night Network tourism organization in 2020 for it's our past event uh action we want to to be together at this event and then create a document a guideline to share with night Nations and tell them okay we are here uh a popular uh initiative to bring you a solution okay to create New Politics for our development super okay do me a favor when you're there when you're there and you're speaking uh on the first day I need you to say them I want you to understand this is my first speech in Brazilian in quite some time it's sorry Portuguese in quite some time okay for sure all right Joel what's next for you what are you doing um we're on the plans of coming down and starting our facility getting full run uh we have our first pilot project is gonna generate six houses uh we're gonna do two in the states two to Vancouver Island and then two to Nelson BC uh each is just for climate control and to find out the difference of the materials and see how they stand up um and just a lot of testing uh we're doing uh our site icces testing this year and we're just getting ready to get off the ground that's excellent Ed Mark oh look at that hand raised I've never seen that before can I do a question for sure okay there is a space for this uh container farming be part of your development here in Canada I think so I think that some of the conversations that we have with different communities um and the needs for the communities um there is food security that needs to be done there's uh Opera operations for each of the communities to be able to generate their own food security because if you think about how many nations are across Canada within a nation it's absolutely astronomical and we still have issues with water we still have issues with power and internet and being able to start with food may be one of those keys that we start working into and maybe that's one of the first stepping stones into safe uh safe sustainability for the communities because food is the first key yeah I totally agree so so both of you here live here open open for business and ready to work at work cooperatively Canada us and elsewhere in the world um way what what would it take to have a demonstration Success Through the next two years of a small Eco Village built on a combination of strong Farms sort of uh um structure and um a top building infrastructure what do you think what would it take how what would we need to get together who do we need in the room I personally think that right off the bat um we have all the land we have the materials we have your company and your organization that specializes in the farming I think that we maybe need investment um to get that off the ground and then Partnerships because sometimes in destinations have a larger Network than what we can create on our own and with the Nelson plan and uh land plot that we have out there that's one of the goals is to be able to create a sustainable destination for that area so that we would be able to keep that going and use that as a stepping stone to keep going across Canada okay are you having those discussions at the Province and and the district level Joel uh so we're talking with a Nelson right now and the Chamber of Commerce so we talked with Tanya Finley from the BC Chamber of Commerce she does uh some work with indigenous writing for policy and for other work and so we're talking with her right now she usually sits on the Chamber of Commerce in the city and has a really good work and collect uh working relationship with them so we have been really working on that and so having all these different things uh I think that over the next year this will be up and running it's Cooper Edmar you're going to say go ahead yeah and Nelson it's important just to put a note Nelson is part of the unimportant immigration program here in Canada Echo Village It's a Wonderful initiative that can be replied in North Canada okay um we're gonna roll it out we're hitting about 30 minutes Mark I'm gonna give you okay final comments Edmar uh you're speaking to probably 900 destinations worldwide um parting thoughts um ideas things to share things to motivate what he got okay uh for a long time uh hold all the areas was uh you need to to achieve New Economic Pathways principally because people look at just to the cities metropolis and a different way to to look for tourism and now we've been part of covid-19 feeling oh and a lot of impacts around the world that has changed our economy model uh it's really important to look for rural areas because we can deliver uh Solutions faster for the generation of the planet and to create authentical person it's for tourism experience uh it's for for us it's really really in it to create Partnerships uh not just here in Canada but worldwide should we talk more about policies Hotel development policies we have different International guidelines principal info from oecd that we can follow and create these policies locally it's really important to to understand that each for our community have their own system their own way of living and we need to respect that and also we need to create policies to for for their production and well-being of these communities tourists will always be the best solution for sustainable development and the best solution for other economic Industries transitioning for a green economy for the sustainable economy and let's do it together I want to invite you both Joel David and everyone that is watching and listening this podcast to to come with us and bring solutions for the planet together together so thank you for that and I'm in and I know so many other people who are and that's the point of these podcasts is to bring together a critical mass of people can make a difference I want to I want to touch on something you stressed there you said the word rural about nine times is that part of the attraction of of the process is I love working in rural economies because you can see changes you can see differences you can prove out things in a Petri dish like setting that you can then scale to the next part of it maybe that's part of the attraction of rural tourism you know tourism that brings resources into a rural destination and leaves the place better than it starts it's very easy to measure and look at the Delta and we can use that as we scale up is that is that the focus on Rural yes yes for sure uh it's it's really important we understand that everything we have in the cities come from a hotel area then if we understand that we can understand the Imports of this place or on our economy you know in our leave as well very good all right closing thoughts Joe Mary it's it's been a great pleasure to have you as a guest as well I'm so glad you two guys Matt um count me in on the team when you need resources call me you know to say what we're going to do here is exciting uh you're an exciting addition to this industry I think you both remind us that we are well placed to build the kind of networks that we need in these destinations Nations we are well placed as really great uh keepers of the narrative to help move the discussion forward we need to find more innovators from outside is my opinion so that we can Empower them inside and then that will make us look at our own skill set but final word to you Joel Marriott what do you have to share with the world um just thank you I'm honestly looking at the opportunity for indigenous person like myself to be out here and talking to you guys uh it makes a huge difference uh because what it is is it's a stepping stone for other indigenous people to get into this business um there's always somebody that'll lead the pack but at the end of it there's always a pact behind that lead and so for us having these conversations and being able to talk to that many destinations is going to be huge um I just wanted to say I wanted to thank and think about all right thank you David and Edmar for this conversation and um I wanted to get you guys to think about what your footprint is going to be in the future because we are all talking about carbon credits we're talking about all these different things but in that building that you're going to put up next or that destination you're trying to think about those Stepping Stones of where you're going to get to that that's going to change your communities as you grow and as a net zero building materials manufacturer this has become one of those ideas and stepping stones for this is going to be huge for the Next Generation as well and long lasting there's still here's one here's a here's an interesting fact there's still one uh Bridge that's that was built by the Romans back when France was gone and it's from 500 A.D and it's built at a hemp Crete and it's still a tourism destination now so that's good that's just good marketing Joel way to go um no I did read an interesting stat you just propped in my head on the weekend in the paper of a net new mid-rise high-rise building 60 of its carbon footprint in its entire life including the fossil fuels used to heat it the repairs the tar 60 of its carbon footprint exists in the concrete it was built with yeah yeah no that you just you just you just made me remember that stat okay guys it's great um let's let's figure out how to get something started in Canada with one of these with one of these projects on a big scale because this is really exciting this is Leading Edge stuff um let's have you back and talk about that um we got all our attention I'll include your uh LinkedIn links on the um on the podcast so people can get a hold of you thanks for being here the really great to meet you both um it keeps so many of us inspired to to be able to you know touch and work on things like this and remind us why we're here foreign

2023-06-14 04:45

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