Mediterranean Sea: Sustainability and Team building
Learning more about nature and the environment can be a wonderful experience not only in understanding the importance that has for the world around us, for animals and for our own future, but also an experience to improve ourselves in the way we relate with other creatures and people, and in the way we work with them.
In EcoMarine Malta we offer an Eco-friendly way to do Sea tourism reducing to minimum pollution and the disturbance to the local wildlife. We make people experience a profound connection with nature. Through our tour we show to people the beauty of nature, so that they can enjoy the wildlife in its true form.
To do so, we follow an international code of conduct to approach the animals, so we can minimize our impact on the wildlife
This concept is strengthened by the support of our expert marine biologists as we think that sharing knowledge and experience is the best way to increase people’s awareness of the environment.
The environment surely is one of the most important hot topics of this period. We humans have caused severe damages to nature and are going toward our downfall. But we are still in time to make things better, and to do so we need just a few simple actions: for example, reducing the use of plastic, preferring to use recycled and reusable stuff, wasting less water, separating the garbage collection, ecc… Every single action made by millions of people makes a huge difference.
For this reason, we must choose a more sustainable way to interact with nature.
Environment is social
With Sustainability we refer to the ability to coexist and develop nature and people without depleting natural resources for the future. The aim is to avoid a future in which resources are scarce without decreasing the present quality of life.
Sustainability is important as we as a species make an intensive use of natural resource, treating nature as something that we own, and disrespecting it and the other lifeforms. In this way, we interfere with the delicate natural equilibrium that sustains all life being, including ours. We are still in time to save our “home”.
As sustainability is a way to improve not only earth but our own life, we can definitely define a link between environmental sustainability and social sustainability as both aim for the protection and development op people’s life and health through economic basis and ecological, social and cultural environment.
As Environmental Sustainability requires cure for nature and environment, Social Sustainability requires cure for people, looking for the differences and working for the understanding and cooperation of them.
Social sustainability aims to meet the needs, now and in the future, of the present generations without compromising the future generation to meet their needs. This concept is applicable in everyday life, both for private and working.
For companies and organizations, the understanding of social sustainability can be a key factor for improving and strengthening their own business. Having the possibility to access more points of view, while understanding how to interact with different counterparts means having a plethora of options to interact with. Also, employees, suppliers and partners that feel respected will see the company or the organisation in a more positive way, trusting it and resulting in an increase of productivity.
This is the reason why in 2015 the Sustainable Development Goals or SDG were set up by the United Nations General Assembly. SDG are a collection of 17 interlinked global goals designed to aim for “peace and prosperity of people and the planet, now and into the future”. That both are designed to fight social and environmental issues.
Through SDG we aim to build a more sustainable world for the environment and for the people.
Team building with Nature
Believing in the relation between social and environmental sustainability, in collaboration with Global Mindset Development, we designed a programme that help people learn the importance of marine environment, nature and also the importance of collaboration and teamwork.
Global Mindset Development is a company that aim to develop a Global Mindset to work productively across cultures. GMD help organization to work in cross cultural context, teaching effective cross-cultural communication and negotiation strategies, supporting the development of competences to lead and work in an intercultural team, helping in internationalize, building an understanding of the opportunities and challenges of the global market, teaching how to value and transform a diverse workforce into a real competitive advantage.
we cooperated to tailor the perfect experience for people and teams that want to improve their compatibility and inclusivity, and also learn more about the nature around us that sustains our life, while experiencing a pleasant day on a boat.
The activity includes not only a direct experience with marine wildlife in their natural habitat, but also important lessons held by our marine biologists that share their knowledge on many marine species, such dolphins, whales and turtles, but also a large variety of activities that aim to develop different social skills.
We propose team building activities that want to emphasise the differences and the contributions of every single individual, creating a situation in which different kinds of points of view can open different paths to find solutions. This also helps in developing problem-solving skills that in a world in a never-ending evolution become something that we can consider as indispensable.
We also promote various activities that aim to identify different leadership styles and develop intercultural communication skills as today is something that has a critical role inside business and company, as creating a safe space for employees and having an open mindset improves the overall performance.
All this kind of this team building activities develop a sense of belonging, not only as a respected member of a company that show appreciation towards is employee, but also as a member of a society that shows observance towards his/her culture and his/her relation towards reality, and as part of the nature that as a mother, surprise us and teach us the wonder of our own world. Participants will not only gain invaluable marine experience, and personal development but they will also grow as responsible citizens and reliable teammates.
As an example, one of the team building activities proposed requires the division in two different teams. The two teams must recollect a ball that is floating in water using with the help of all components of the team, that must touch at least one time the ball before bringing it back near or on the boat. This kind of activity shows us which member has a leaning to take the leading role inside the team and spur the team member to develop and show their problem-solving skills.
We organize our activities taking great consideration of the Sustainable Development Goals.
Six are the SDGs that we pinpointed to develop our programmes; four social goals and two environmental goals.
“Good Health and Well-being (3), Gender Equality (5), Reduced Inequalities and Peace (10), Justice and Strong institutions (16)” are the Social SDGs we cover through our proposal, as a long day on a boat can be a relaxing and free from thought experience, lulled by the marine air and the wave motion, in a context in which gender, race, culture and religion differences are important but not as an obstacle, but as an added value, in the creation of a more open-minded and fuller of continuous exchanges world.
“Life Below Water (14) and Climate Action (13)” are the Environmental SDGs we cover as we want to research and protect the Fragile marine ecosystem and we want to share our knowledge on it, to teach and raise awareness about this wonderful world and the dangers that humanity constantly creates for it and for ourselves.
Why are we different?
The kind of experience we provide give the opportunity to work in an environment that let people feel part of something bigger, not only being surrounded by the sea, but making direct contact with it, working in a different element and meeting different creatures, learning about them and understanding the beauty of differences not only in human minds, but in the different lives that our fragile ecosystem hosts.
We offer a different kind of experience, tailor-maded on the needs of the clients, that brings people together far from the usual aggregation activities, showing that we can have fun in different and more sustainable ways.
Breath-taking landscapes, Crystal-clear waters in which people can swim, tasting nibbles that comes from the Maltese culture, while relaxing on a day boat-trip with a small group of people, so that not only the team building activities, but all the moments spent together during this experience improve the fellowship of the team.
We work with nature and not just in nature, we help in making people understand we are part of something bigger that has a place for us to stay and feel we belong to.
