Aruba’s Minister of Tourism, Transportation and Labour, Otmar Oduber, presented Bert Kamsteeg of BK Consult with the island’s SHOCO National Award, as recognition of his efforts in the area of sustainability.
BK Consult is an architectural firm specializing in project realization and management including architectural design and engineering, and it has just completed the construction and furnishing of its own new headquarters in Oranjestad.
True to the company’s core values BK Consult showed its contemporary approach to business and functionality with its own office building, situated on Galileistraat 2, in the heart of Oranjestad, contributing to the town’s much-needed urban revival.
Bert Kamsteeg reports the new building is a perfect example of integrated architectural design and technology creating a sustainable building with the final goal of creating a co-efficiency of all components, thereby reducing the Carbon Footprint of the structure significantly, which is excellent news for the island’s environment, as well as good news for the developer: The building’s design will save in energy consumption, and create much less pollution when operational.
To accompany the clever design, Kamsteeg approached Lynn Maduro of local furniture store EQ3 Furniture + Accents to give the modern office space, inviting and comfortable interiors.
This week, The Minister of Tourism, Transportation and Labour and the Aruba Hotel and Tourism Association presented the Shoco National Tourism Awards of Excellence 2011, at the end of the first Tourism Summit, in a festive gathering at the Renaissance Convention Center.
The gala evening celebrated recognitions of outstanding achievements awarding BK Consult with one.
Hotelier Ewald Biemans who presented the environmental awards at the Shoco celebration reports that as usual the environment and sustainability of our precious natural resource are often secondary in the minds of people and governing bodies — I sincerely hope that in the future it will be at the forefront, he added, because with our “one and only natural resource — our precious environment,” there will be no happy island — no welfare no revenue and none of the other factors which propel the economy.
While in past years the Shoco recognitions were bestowed by the Aruba Hotel & Tourism Association, this year the awards were taken over by the Ministry of Tourism, Transportation and Labour, lending the program extra stature which accompanies official government citations. AHATA however remained as one of the proud main sponsors in conjunction with Digicel and Caribbean Mercantile Bank.
