SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2016

BLUE OYSTER HOTEL LTD. P.O. BOX 007, JAMBIANI ZANZIBAR - TANZANIA

Content

Legal notice
Introduction
Company portfolio
a. History and company data
General principles
a. Mission statement and vision
b. Commitment
c. Quality
d. Transparency
e. Loyalty
f. Respect
g. Fairness
h. Sustainability
i. Responsibility
j. Efficiency
k. Team spirit
Company ecology
a. Energy
i. Energy management reports
b. Emissions
i. GHG fossil fuel emissions
c. Waste
i. Measured volume of solid waste
d. Biodiversity
e. Water
i. Water reports assessment
f. Land utilization, buildings and equipment
g. Chemicals
h. Environmental risk assessment
Employees
a. Employment structure and handling
i. Environmental training modules
ii. Report of exploitation and harassment policy
iii. Recruiting report iv. Employee turnover
v. Advancement of local employees
iv. Statistics: Equality of women and benchmarking
Health and safety
a. HIV and Aids information
b. Risk assessment
Purchase
a. Responsible purchasing
b. Suppliers
c. Report of locally purchased goods
Community involvement
a. Corporate social responsibility
b. Code of conduct
c. Support of a nature conservation project
d. Use of indigenous plant species
Guest satisfaction
Improvement plan and future sustainability

1. Legal Notice

Blue Oyster Hotel

P.O. Box 007, Jambiani

Zanzibar, Tanzania

Tel.:

+255 783 045 796

+255 779 883 554

Mail: blueoysterhotel@gmx.de

Website: www.blueoysterhotel.com

Collection of data in year 2016

2. Introduction

The Blue Oyster Hotel is a small family-run hotel with a personal atmosphere – we take it for granted that every human being at our hotel has priority over any decisions or activities we make. We take over responsibility for all our employees, the community and the environment where we live at.

Responsible tourism has a high importance to our daily business and, of course belongs to our general philosophy. Furthermore, we do not offer facilities such as a pool or air conditioning as we are trying to reduce the environmental, social and economic impact which is caused by tourism. We constantly try to improve the environmental situation by organizing or joining many sustainability projects which distinguishes us from many other hotels.

With this concept in mind, we are looking forward to show you our current results in the following report.

The report serves as first survey within our steady improvement process.

Anwar Beiser

3. Company Portfolio

History and Company Data

The German owner Klaus Beiser has opened the hotel on December 26, 1999 – today the hotel is led by the manager Peter Mpenjwa and the assistant manager Anwar Beiser.

Now, managed in the second generation by a team of highly motivated employees mostly made up of locals from the surrounding village Jambiani or the island Zanzibar, the hotel provides a great holiday experience.

We have been constantly improving our hotel to offer the best possible services and comfort.

At the moment, the Blue Oyster Hotel offers 15 rooms, either classic sea view rooms or budget-option garden view rooms. The most of our guests came from Europe.

Rooms

Beds

Permanent

Employees

No. of guests per employee

1.2

4. General Principles

The general principles of the Blue Oyster Hotel mainly contain to have a very low impact on the local environment and culture in all activities. We also consider the wishes and desires of our employees and the community.

Our overall objective is to increase the level of sustainability in all areas as much as possible by considering all the principles that are important for all involved, so that we will still persist as family-run hotel in the following generations.

a. Mission Statement and Vision

Our vision for the future is to have the lowest impact as possible on the local environment and culture and to generate (future) employment for local people. We want the development to bring positive experiences for locals, the hotel and tourists. It is also our Target to have a sustainability over many years.

Our mission, in large part, consists of the appreciation of the nature. We try to directly combine environmental, social and economic goals and attempt to let the community participate in our planning. We do all our activities with a certain sensitivity towards global effects, like for example concerning the rising sea level and we try to mainly work with green products. We advocate for fair working conditions and wages and want all of our employees to be contented with their workplace. Reliable work and respect comes first and we try to offer as much transparency as possible concerning all our activities.

Continuous improvement and the happiness of all involved people is always ranked first.

b. Quality

We give our best to satisfy the desires and needs of our guests or even exceed their expectations. In addition, our employees, local and other suppliers and all other partners always attempt to serve the best quality they are able to offer.

c. Commitment

As we act as a service provider to our guests all of our employees are highly motivated and we give our best to meet and satisfy the wishes of our guests. We set our employees an example of how to work with dedication, so that both, employees and guests feel in good hands under our guidance.

Beyond our activities at the hotel we collaborate with and support the local

community Jambiani which brings enormous efforts for both sides.

d. Transparency

We always try to give everybody the most widely transparent insight in our internal and external processes as possible.

e. Loyalty

One major objective for us is to gain long-term partnerships with employees and suppliers as well as having regular guests. For us, it is very important to remain in good standing with our reliable partners.

f. Respect

Respect is one of the key values we always impart to our team. We create cultural and historical respect in all our employees and guests. Respect contains also the terms of total equality in gender, wages, religion, race and nationality.

g. Fairness

As well as respect, also fairness is a priority for us. Fairness towards our guests as well as between our employees is seen self-evidently for us.

h. Sustainability

In terms of sustainability we aspire after reaching our long-term vision objective – to impact the local environment and culture on the lowest possible level. In future, the development should bring positive experiences for locals, our hotel and tourists. Our guests and our employees work together on sustainability.

i. Responsibility

Every employee of our hotel is responsible of his work area and is a role model for everyone else. Our employees have the chance to develop their skills and gain more responsibility within time.

j. Efficiency

To use all resources in the most efficient way, we always measure and report the consumption of all used resources and materials.

k. Team Spirit

Through a great team spirit, our employees always work with big pleasure and motivation. It encourages their dedication and pride what also impacts the satisfaction of our guests.

5. Company ecology

a. Energy

Energy consumption has a huge impact on the climate change and our environment – therefore the objective of the Blue Oyster Hotel is to save energy through:

measuring, monitoring and recording electricity consumption to identify saving opportunities in electricity and gas consumption
a maintenance System to avoid wasting through leaks
using bulbs with energy efficient compact fluorescents CFL’s
a solar water heating system

In the rooms:

signs on the door to advise guests of saving energy by switching off the lights when leaving
towel changing policy to avoid the daily changing of towels in the rooms

Measurements to save more energy in the future:

linen change policy to avoid the daily change of linen

Through these measurements we are able to have a constant low energy expenditure during the whole year.

b. Emissions

We reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by raising the awareness of our staff and guests and by practicing good management techniques.

Together with our awareness of keeping waste and the use of water and energy to a minimum we are also able to restrict the greenhouse gas emissions because it is interrelated.

c. Waste

We keep waste to a minimum through the efficient (re-)use of materials and resources. We avoid the use of paper wherever it is possible (e.g. emails, reuse of papers). All of the waste is managed and disposed in a responsible manner – glass, plastic and iron sheet are picked up for recycling. Biodegradable waste is composted.

i. Measured Volume of Solid Waste until December 2016 *

	Kg	% of waste	Grade of separation	Average kg/month
Organic	1122	47.91%	1.0	1555.5
Non organic	1056	45.09%	1.2	1104.0
Glass	54	2.31%	1.0	84.0
Recyclables	110	4.70%	1.1	115.0
Garden waste	0	0.00%	0.0	0.0
Total	2342			2858.5

*provided by ZANREC

d. Biodiversity

We protect the biodiversity through the control of crows with a cage.

e. Water

Water is one of the most important resources of the world – therefore, the Blue Oyster Hotel constantly deals with water in a very responsible way through:

a solar water heating system
a maintenance system to avoid wasting water through leaks
measuring, monitoring and recording our water consumption to identify new saving opportunities

Garden irrigation

is only used in the morning or evening to minimize evaporation
avoid watering during strong winds

Rooms:

towel changing policy to avoid the daily changing of towels in the rooms
sign keep off the grass on each door to safe water in the garden irrigation
low flush toilets (1.5l water bottles in cisterns)

Measurements to save more water in the future:

flow restrictor / aerators
grey water system
linen change policy
Please save water signs on each mirror

f. Land Utilization, Buildings and Equipment

We operate our facilities and conduct its’ operations in compliance with all applicable environmental laws, regulations and permits.

g. Chemicals

We avoid phosphorus because too much phosphorus can cause algal blooms in the water which could kill other life forms. Biocides are also chemical substances which we try to limit in our cleaning products.

h. Environmental Risk Assessment

What are the hazards?	Who might be harmed and how?	What are we already doing?	What else needs to be done?
Air pollution	All humans and animals who are located in the proximity	Reducing all kind of emissions successfully	Identify the relationship between wind velocity and pollutant dispersion
Historical sites	Local community might be affected by the destruction of the local culture	The local community gets supported and cultural aspects are respected	Increase the awareness and respect of tourists concerning the local culture. Connect local community and tourists more.
Hazardous material/waste	Local people, animals and the environment by getting more and more polluted	We nearly do not have any hazardous waste or hazardous material because we avoid buying them	Train our staff to gain more knowledge about hazardous materials and waste and the consequences there out
Noise pollution	Local people and visitors might be affected by noise	During night, at the morning and evening we demand our staff to be as quiet as possible. We keep noise conditions to make it pleasant for our guests, as well as for the surrounding community	–
Threatened/endangered species	Local animals and nature/environment are endangered	For example, we protect the biodiversity through crow control with a cage. We also inform our guests about the endangered coral reefs or other species.	Provide info material about endangered species for visitors
Water pollution	Local people, visitors and animals might be affected by the water pollution	We keep our beach as clean as possible and also attempt not to flush pollutants into the waste water	Organizing more Beach Cleaning events and working together with the community and other hotels in the future
Flora/Fauna	The Flora and Fauna might be endangered or attacked if visitors are not fully aware of their hazard and importance	We protect the local Flora and Fauna and also have our own vegetable and flower propagation.	Provide info material for tourists
HIV/Aids	Staff and visitors might not know about the high risk of catching HIV/Aids	We inform our staff about the risks of catching HIV/AIDS and advise them safety measures against the disease	Provide some info material and preventive measures for our staff

6. Employees

The Blue Oyster Hotel commits to implement best practices in human resource recruitment, training and management. We ensure that the rights of all our employees are respected and national employment laws are adhered to.

Furthermore, we attempt to ensure that our employees maintain high levels of interest and motivation at their workplace.

For our employees, we provide opportunities to further develop their skills and offer a clear path for them to make progresses in their career within the company.

a. Employment Structure and Handling

Making employment decisions on the basis of merit

Blue Oyster Hotel recruits its’ staff based on their qualification and knowledge without consideration of their gender, race, ethnicity, age (only employees older than 18 years), religion, pregnancy, marital status, HIV status, sexual orientation or hairstyle, as long as they are capable of doing the job. This commitment extends to other employment decisions such as promotion, training compensation, discipline, discharge and to terms, benefits, privileges and conditions of employment.

Nevertheless, Blue Oyster Hotel actively seeks to recruit qualified staff from the local community in order to pass on income and development benefits to them. We are supplying our employees with a legal contract upon employment. The following particulars which are required by law are provided in the contract when the employee starts the employment: – Name, age, permanent address, sex of the employee

Place of recruitment
Job description
Date of commencement
Form and duration of the contract
Place of work
Hours of work
Remuneration, the method of its calculation, details of benefits or payments, any other prescribed matter

Paying fair wages

Blue Oyster Hotel commits itself paying fair wages to our employees. A fair wage for each job is determined by and based on the nature of work, the required skills and level of knowledge for the job. We attempt to offer competitive wages compared to other organizations within the industry in order to attract and retain quality staff. Our management is aware of the latest wage rates recommended by the government and the organizations rates are set at least at those recommended levels.

Having clear, disciplinary employment termination procedures

Blue Oyster Hotel clearly communicates to its staff that sanctions will be taken if there is a breach in the terms of employment. We are open to employee input about what sanctions should be taken – both parties agree on them in written form at the beginning of employment. Sufficient notice of termination of employment will be given to the employee in written form (28 days for staff, employed longer than one month), or appropriate remuneration will be paid to cover the notice period if the termination of employment is immediate. Severance payment rates are adhered to in accordance with the Tanzanian and Zanzibar law.

Respecting work and rest time

We ensure that our employees have sufficient breaks and rest time in between working hours and during the working week.

For employees, it can be required to work 6 days a week. The normal daily working hours are 8hrs, the weekly 48hrs.

Overtime hours are compensated at the legal rate of 1.5 times the basic wage. Blue Oyster Hotel gives an appropriate number of vacation days to employees – at least, following the national guidelines, 28 consecutive days in each leave cycle (or less if the employee was granted to get paid occasional leave during the year).

Ensure to meet the (training) needs of the staff

Blue Oyster Hotel ensures that the management is aware of the training needs of the staff by conducting training needs assessment upon the recruitment of staff and during their employment. Training opportunities are offered as and when needed in order to enhance staff skills and their attitude. Team building activities and retreats are implemented in order to enhance the ability of staff members to work hard and to make them achieving the organization’s vision, as well as individual employee’s career ambitions.

Maintaining the comfort and safety of employees at the workplace

We ensure that the employees have a safe and pleasant working environment. Protective gear is used in jobs where it is required. Staff and management are aware of occupational risks, hazards and of the procedures for dealing with accidents.

Respecting and including employee’s ideas and inputs

Blue Oyster Hotel appreciates the input of employees regarding management and the conduction of the organization day by day, as well as on the overall company vision. We try to bring out creative ideas of our staff that help us to improve our organization and lead them into new, exciting and sustainable directions. During interactive staff meetings and discussions and by encouraging direct verbal communication with the management we want to encourage our staff to share their ideas and thoughts.

Respecting employee’s rights to Freedom of Association

The Tanzanian law includes the Freedom to join any association, including worker’s trade unions, for every employee as long as the associations are legally registered.

Opportunity for advancement

For ambitious employees, we offer the opportunity to adopt more responsibility and to be part of bringing forward several departments and to help them to reach their potential and maximize their contribution. Equal opportunities are given to members of the local community.

Declining discrimination

We do not accept physical, verbal and mental abuse or sexual harassment or discrimination on the basis of ethnic origin, religion, gender, age, marital status or disability towards employees.

i. Environmental Training Modules

Target:

Our target of the environmental training modules is that our employees can better understand what the environment is and what effect our hotel may have on it.

We want them to realize that they are an integral part of the environment and that the survival of the earth and future generations depends on the treatment of our surrounding now. The staff should be able to find ways to prevent damage to the environment and to understand our environmental concerns better.

Methods:

Introduce staff to the basic environmental concepts (understanding the relationship between the environment and economic and social development)
Introduce staff to an understanding and knowledge of the causes of the environmental problems and threats to the planet (air pollution, water pollution, waste, natural environment)
Introduce staff to a knowledge of the social and institutional contributions to environmental crisis (organizations working on environmental issues)
Introduce staff to a general knowledge of their environment in their region (situation in Tanzania, Zanzibar, Jambiani)

ii. Report of Exploitation and Harassment Policy

The Blue Oyster Hotel prohibits sexual harassment or exploitation of any applicant or employee by anyone.

Sexual Harassment includes any unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors and other physical or verbal sexual conduct. Non-consensual sexual contact can be defined as verbal, nonverbal/visual, physical or other sexual contact

Sexual Exploitation refers to a situation in which a person takes nonconsensual sexual advantage of another (e.g. taking pictures, prostitution, etc.)

Retaliation includes threats, coercion, discriminatory actions, etc.. Procedure for reporting suspected sexual harassment, exploitation or retaliation:

Suspected persons will be investigated and consulted as well as the

alleged victim. All complaints will be reviewed and investigated promptly and impartially. If necessary, intermediate measures may be taken to ensure that further sexual harassment, exploitation or retaliation does not occur.

The investigators will prepare a summary report with sanctioning recommendations. Disciplinary action will be taken against anyone who was engaged in sexual harassment, exploitation or retaliation.

iii. Recruiting Report

The recruitment of workers constitutes a big step on our way to guarantee a pleasant workplace and to have motivated and highly skilled employees. We select our employees through realistic job previews which results in a lower turnover intention of our employees. Either we do a normal assessment of the applicant or we give the chance to former trainees to work for us if they did their work well during their time as a trainee at the Blue Oyster Hotel. We also focus on generating as many new jobs as possible for local people to encourage them. In one case, a new cook was needed, so we promoted one female cook to a higher rank as chief of the kitchen and a dishwasher was promoted to a cook, so that we had to employ a new dishwasher. Through this method we could motivate the involved employees extremely and gave them more responsibility based on their good work before.

iv. Employee Turnover and Benchmarking

In the today’s world of economic growth and with a dynamic labor market almost all organizations face the problem of employee’s turnover and so do we.

We try to motivate our employees, give incentives and the chance to take over more responsibility and develop if they do their work well.

For comparison, other companies have nearly 68% employees who are completely dissatisfied with their work, 9% who are completely satisfied and 23% who are neither satisfied nor dissatisfied.

The high turnover rates of the hospitality industry arise through the lack of highly trained and qualified staff and the lack of career growth opportunities – the turnover rate was 72.1 % in 2015. Other general hygiene factors are for example poor compensation and benefits, cutting of incentives, a bad working environment or the ability to access a new job or to further develop the career.

Up to now, we just have a turnover rate from 7.7% in 2016 – two former employees, one from the kitchen, one from the restaurant quitted their jobs because they did not want to come to work anymore. We are glad that we have the chance to work with many of our other employees together for many years now.

v. Advancement of Local Employees

The Blue Oyster Hotel supports all local employees and nurtures their career as well as assists for daily life matters. We offer training facilities to turn our staff into highly skilled people and assist them also in general matters. We can see a major advancement of knowledge and skills in our employees during their training at our hotel so that they conform with worldwide standards.

For example, we pay school fees for local trainees from our village so that they can go to college and have the chance to improve their skills and knowledge in order to get good jobs in the future.

The following table shows the total number of employees coming from different regions.

Foreign employees

Employees from Tanzania

Mainland

Employees from Zanzibar

(not including Jambiani)

Employees from

Jambiani

vi. Statistics: Equality of Women and

Benchmarking

Department	Male	Female	Total
Office	4		4
Hotel Management	2		2
Housekeeping, Laundry	3	1	4
Maintenance, Garden	3		3
Restaurant	3	2	5
Kitchen	6	1	7
Trainees	1	2	3
Total	22	6	28

In comparison to other companies, we place value on giving women the chance to do equal work like men do. We do not care about the sex of our employees as long as they do their work in the same manner. If women apply for a job, we ensure that they will not be disadvantaged because of their gender.

In many African countries, like for example Kenya, Sudan, Malawi, Zimbabwe the rate of employed women in non-agricultural areas is below 25 % and men still make up the majority of people employed in different sectors.

7. Health and Safety

Blue Oyster Hotel is committed to provide and maintain a safe and healthy workplace for all our employees and provide the information, training and supervision which is needed to achieve this.

We are responsible for health and safety procedures because the employees need to be aware of their responsibilities and comply with the company’s health and safety policy.

Each employee is encouraged to play a vital and responsible role in maintaining a safe and healthy workplace through:

being involved in the workplace health and safety system
sticking to correct procedures and equipment
wearing protective clothing and equipment as required
reporting any pain or discomfort as soon as possible
following a training calendar to ensure regular refreshments (e.g. first aid)
ensuring all accidents are reported
helping new employees, trainees and guests to understand the safety procedures and why they exist
telling the manager immediately about health and safety concerns, including pregnancy
keeping the workplace clean to minimize the risk of trips and falls

The Blue Oyster Hotel provides a safe and healthy workplace through:

having a firefighting equipment and visible warnings which are accessible to all and functional at every time
having a visibly displayed escape route, exit directions and fire extinguisher plans – having a trained team of individuals conversant with H&S regulations and how to apply them
taking special precautions in fire prone areas (e.g. kitchen)
providing suitable working gear to various workers
ensuring that every inspection and certification is done correctly
ensuring that hazardous material are handled responsibly

Hygiene:

Every employee has to clean and maintain the cleanness at his own workplace. The trash should be emptied regularly as well as the floors and toilets are cleaned regularly. From all our employees we expect personal hygiene measures.

Security services for guests:

Our guests have the possibility to keep valuable and important things in our safe. Also

our area is guarded by security officers during the night. We also have safes in the Rooms of our guests

a. HIV and Aids Information

As we want our employees to be healthy we feel obliged to inform them about HIV and Aids.

HIV stands for human immunodeficiency virus from which the body cannot get rid of. HIV attacks the immune system and destroys cells which makes the human body more likely to get infections. HIV can be controlled, but Aids is the last state of the HIV infection.

HIV is spread through blood, (pre-)seminal fluid, vaginal fluids and breast milk that gets in contact with mucous membranes (inside the rectum, vagina, penis, mouth) or damaged tissue or that is directly injected into the bloodstream.

The only way to know if someone is infected is to do a test. We support all employees who want to make a HIV test and help them to arrange it.

This is the statement of general policy and arrangements for:	Blue Oyster Hotel
Overall and final responsibility for health and safety belongs to:	Anwar Beiser, Peter Mpenjwa
Day-by-day responsibility for ensuring this policy will be followed is delegated to:	Khamis Haji Mwinyi

Statement of general policy	Responsibility of (Name / Title)	Action / Arrangements
To prevent accidents and cases of work-related illness and to provide adequate control of health and safety risks arising from work activities	Deograsia Leonce Sulle, Khamis Ramathani Rajabu, Ali Hamad, Anwar Beiser, Suleiman Ali, Haji Ali, Peter Mpenjwa	See above
To provide adequate training to ensure that employees are competent to do their work	Anwar Beiser	Training calendar (e.g. first aid, food security)
To engage and consult with employees about health and safety conditions day by day and to provide advice and supervision occupational	Peter Mpejnwa	See above
health
To implement emergency procedures (e.g. evacuation in case of fire or other significant incidents)	Anwar Beiser	Training calendar

Health and safety policy is displayed:	Office
First-aid boxes and accident books are located at:	Office, Kitchen
Accidents and illnesses at work are reported to:	Anwar Beiser
Department	Name of responsible person
Restaurant	Deograsia Leonce Sulle
Kitchen	Khamis Ramathani Rajabu
Laundry	Ali Hamad
Housekeeping	Ali Hamad
Office	Anwar Beiser
Maintenance	Suleiman Ali
Garden	Haji Ali
Hotel in general	Peter Mpenjwa

b. Risk Assessment

What are the hazards?	Who might be harmed and how?	What are we already doing?	What else needs to be done?
Stumbling and Slipping	Staff and visitors may be injured if they trip over objects or slip on spillages	All areas are well lit including stairs. There are no trailing leads or cables. Staff keep work areas clear, e.g. deliveries stored immediately, offices cleaned, etc.	Better housekeeping is needed in staff kitchen, e.g. on spills
Inadequate Lightning	Staff and visitors may be injured if they trip over object or not visible animals when it is dark	All areas are well lit, inside and outside	More lights at the beach at night
Fire	All participants	Accommodation meets national standards. Continuous inspection of fire equipment, escapes, alarm and procedures	Ensure that any electrical equipment taken by guests is compatible with electrical system in the accommodation. Use more guiding signs.
Blocked fire exits	Staff and visitors may be injured if they cannot get out of the burning accommodation	All fire exits are passable and reachable	Check the fire exits every day again
Narrow passages	Staff and visitors may knock against sharp edges or get caught on something	Staff and Management checks the passages every day	Prevent any sharp edges or objects
Falling from the balcony	Visitors may be injured if they climb over balcony and fall down	We have a wooden balcony rail to prevent visitors from falling down	Put warning notices in every room
Defective of water installation	Visitors and staff may be affected in their daily habits and needs of using water	Continuous inspection of the water installation system to prevent a breakdown	Striving for alternative water sources in case of unavoidable breakdown
Electricity failure	Visitors and staff may be affected and depend on electricity	Continuous inspection of the electricity system to ensure all appliances are working	Have a backup power supply in case of unavoidable breakdown
Traffic outside of the Hotel	Visitors may be endangered if they do not know how to handle the local traffic	Remind participants that road traffic regulations and priorities are different	Provide information material about the traffic
Poisonous animals	Visitors may get attacked by poisonous animals because they do not know that they are dangerous	Explain and name the most common and important dangerous local animals at arrival of the guests and tell them how to behave if they meet one	Provide information material about local animals

8. Purchase

a. Responsible Purchasing

Cleaning products

Use cleaning products that are effective at lower temperatures
Source biodegradable chemicals for laundry, etc. and avoid phosphorus and limit biocides in the product – Use the right dosage
Use of cartons as packaging
Buy in bulk

Lighting

Use energy saver bulbs
Suggestions on the door of guestrooms to switch off the lights when leaving – Design the buildings in an energy efficient way

Food and Catering

Buy organic food where possible
Buy sustainably produced or caught fish
Use seasonal vegetable and fruits
Buy reusable cutlery, crockery, glassware, napkins and tablecloths

Office and Furniture

Buy energy efficient models
Buy products with restricted amounts of hazardous materials
Buy properly acquired and managed wood
Buy repairable furniture
Buy from recycled materials if available

b. Suppliers

We ensure to consider all environmental aspects, potential impacts and costs of a product when buying products or services. Our target is to buy as much as possible locally and we prefer transparently produced products and materials, if available.

i. Report of Locally Purchased Goods

Item	% sourced in Zanzibar	Comment
Fish and Seafood	100 %
Eggs	100 %
Herbs and Spices	100 %
Honey	100 %
Vegetables	70 %
Fruits	90 %
Rice	0 %	Bought from mainland Tanzania
Milk	0%	Import from Germany, Arabia and mainland Tanzania
Jam		Bought from mainland Tanzania
Coffee, Tea	0 %	Bought from mainland Tanzania
Potatoes	10 %	Bought from mainland Tanzania
Furniture	100 %
Soaps, etc.	100 %
Toilet Paper	100 %

9. Community Involvement

a. Corporate Social Responsibility

The Blue Oyster Hotel is aware of the importance of corporate social responsibility. We are committed to communicate our objectives of the Corporate Social Responsibility to our employees who work within our organization as well as to a wider audience.

This policy will be updated annually to ensure that our commitment to the environmental responsibility and the community and our ethical policy addressing current issues keep up with the times.

The CSR policy consists of four key areas:

Environmental Impact:

Ensure that there is a sustainability culture within the business and our employees
Comply with all relevant environmental legislations, regulations and approved codes of practice
Protect the environment by minimizing our pollution of land, air and water
Keep the waste to a minimum by using materials and resources efficiently
Manage and disposal of all waste in a responsible manner
Provide environmental awareness trainings for our employees to ensure that the policy can be followed
Ensure that environmental factors are considered during planning processes and implementation

Procurement Management:

The Blue Oyster Hotel will ensure that when products are bought and services are used, the environmental aspects, potential impacts and costs have to be considered.

We try to reach for sustainably produced food products and follow seasonal trends by using seasonal ingredients to also support the local community.

Community Investment and Social Impact:

We consider the participation of the community as an essential part of our existence. Without their presence, we would and could not exist, and this is why we strive to ensure that the only impact we have in the area is a positive one from which the local community just benefits in a transparent and sustainable way.

We support the local community through:

Donations:

We support the local school through donations, pay bills of poor community

members if they are in financial distress, we share food with the community at Ramadan and support a local bicycle rider by paying transfers to the races.

Cooperation:

We pay needed medicine for the local hospital. Also we cooperate with and assist some community members, such as Captain Zapy who can offer his sailing tours at our hotel and retain all the gained money. Zena offers massages and Henna designs to our guests – we have supported them for many years now and they retain all the money they gained from their business at the Blue Oyster Hotel. We also support local farmers and shopkeepers by purchasing locally, we support the South-East Coast Security Project to improve the security situation for citizens and tourists and we support local sales people, for example an old blind man who braids baskets and has the chance to earn some money through selling his products in our souvenir shop.

Employment Practices:

Provide a workplace in which diversity is valued and with equal opportunities
Provide a mechanism by which employees can affect and change the company with their ideas and views
Provide a safe, secure and healthy workplace without any kind of discrimination or abuse
Support employees with trainings to reach their full potential
Reward individuals on the basis of their own performance
Pay wages and benefits that meet or exceed national minimum requirements and adhere to working time regulations where applicable
No employment of workers under major age
Give employees the freedom to associate or bargain collectively without fearing discrimination
Allow employees to report any concerns that may have unethical business practices, dangers, etc. – it will be investigated immediately
No donations to any political party or similar organizations
All achievements in CSR will be reported on an annual basis and the report will be communicated to all stakeholders on the website

b. Code of Conduct

Blue Oyster Hotel has a code of conduct relating to the respect of local culture which is explained to all employees and guests and displayed in relevant areas such as the website, guest rooms, staff area notice boards or lobby information.

Travel means to gain knowledge and experience about other cultures. Each person has to make a decision about how to behave. For some people it is difficult to give up their daily routines and habits. But also the local people are learning from tourists about another culture. For many Africans, a white person (mzungu) is rich just because the person can afford the flight and is able to travel great distances. It requires a big amount of care and responsibility as a guest to know the do’s and donts here. For example, for children it is like a habit to get some donations from the tourists but normally they should either go to school to get some education to improve their standard of living than waiting for donations of tourists.

c. Support of a Nature Conservation Project

From time to time, Blue Oyster Hotel arranges clean-up activities to help the community which is asking for support and practical solutions to improve their living situation concerning the waste. The community of Jambiani has no house-to-house or business garbage collection service, so the streets are very dirty and littered with rubbish.

This is why our employees, together with local and foreign volunteer helpers clean up Jambiani and the beach from time to time and also separate recyclable materials such as glass, plastics and metals. We help the community to learn about ways to improve waste management and environmental protection.

d. Use of Indigenous Plant Species

The Blue Oyster Hotel prefers to use indigenous plant species for landscaping and restoration and we try to ensure the eradication of invasive alien species. Our gardener is aware of the caring methods which are needed for indigenous plant species.

10. Guest satisfaction

One of our major and permanent objectives is to guarantee a pleasant stay to our guests without having to complain about anything. We always improve our services and for this we need the feedback of our guests and use their criticisms to do it better for the next time. We also have many guests who come to us for more than one time which validates our behavior and service.

Among other things our guests mentioned the following points:

Positive:

+ location and accommodation

+ friendliness of our well trained staff

+ food and kitchen

+ our sustainability

+ familiarly atmosphere

+ nature and garden

+ cleanliness

+ offered tours

Negative:

variety of breakfast
bathroom and shower
waiting time for dinner

Of course, we use the negatively mentioned aspects and try to improve our service in these areas to guarantee a pleasant stay for our future guests.

11. Improvement Plan and Future Sustainability

After investigating the current sustainability state of our hotel we discussed different suggested solutions and developed our improvement plan. We came to the decision that we have to prioritize our improvement on the following areas:

Suppliers
Energy
Water
Waste
Internal / external communication
Using still more green and organic products
Encourage guests actively to contribute towards local environmental and cultural initiatives and show tourists that their money helps locals

Objective

Methods

Employees

– Improve medical standards of employees

– Register all employees for National Health Insurance Fund

Suppliers

– Improve sustainability standards of suppliers

– Sustainability guidelines written down in contract

– Ensure reliable supply

Energy

– lower the electricity consumption

– Information about how to be energy efficient for employees

– Use of Solar Power

– Install bigger Solar Thermal system

Water

– lower the water consumption and rely on own cisterns – warm water

– Renovation of bathrooms

– New cistern to save even more water

– Renovation of water pipe

Waste

– lower waste

– Check if some packaging waste can be prevented

Internal/External communication

– Increase awareness of guiding principles of employees

– Bring up the values of the company continuously

More green and organic products

– more green and organic products, like soap, etc.

– Buy products from local suppliers who offer natural products

Encourage guests to help locals

– bond guests of the hotel and local people

– foundation of an organization that offers sponsoring of ill people and children of Jambiani through donations from tourists