The award-winning Jade Mountain Resort in which we stayed and reported on here has added yet another award to its growing collection. This time it has won Gold for being Green
The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has announced that St. Lucia’s Jade Mountain resort has become the first hotel in the Caribbean to receive the coveted LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold certification status.
Nick Troubetzkoy, the resorts owner designed and built the resort which overlooks the Piton Mountains rising from the Caribbean Sea in front of Jade Mountain,
Troubetzkoy described Jade Mountain as “Artfully sculpted into the mountainside,” He added, ” It is a response to almost every hotel I’ve ever visited, where I frequently found myself disappointed by what I encountered.”
Upon learning of the award Troubetzkoy, said he was pleased but not altogether surprised saying “The beauty of St. Lucia’s landscapes, the warmth and character of its people and the unlimited potential to create something very special here captured my imagination.”
Having together created the successful Anse Chasternet resort on the beach below Jade Mountain, he and his wife Karen set about redesigning the basic concept of a holiday related hotel experience. “I wanted to create individualized spatial environments that would enable guests to forget the fact they’re in a hotel room – and in essence to forget every preconception and to experience the psychology of a dynamic and monumental space on an intuitive and primal emotional level.”
Eliminating the fourth wall in all rooms, or sanctuaries as they are known on property, gave Jade Mountain another clear distinction: “We aimed to give our guests the feeling of entering a private space fully integrated into the island’s ecology, where they could simply relax, breathe in the air while basking in the surroundings and enjoying a wonderful sense of calm and peace – versus being boxed into a traditional hotel room breathing re-circulated, machine-processed air,” said the visionary.
Troubetzkoy’s devotion to sustainable design means the resort has its own rainwater fed water purification plant system and recycles treated sewage water which irrigates a nursery which in turn propagates thousands of tropical plants for landscaping.
The design, which merges the free flow of air and the free flow of water through the infinity pools and waterfalls of the sanctuaries, according to Troubetzkoy, is a direct reflection of the natural attributes of the land of St. Lucia itself: “When you combine water with air and the earth itself in this way, you unlock a profound potential for an almost magical level of enjoyment and celebration – a magic that may very well be the ultimate achievement of Jade Mountain and St. Lucia.”
The Green Building Council adjudicators certainly felt Troubetzkoy had succeeded and noted: “This is a very impressive accomplishment for such a unique project, and we congratulate you and your team on implementing some pioneering, non-traditional approaches to the LEED prerequisites and credits.”