We’ve all seen it before: the company that promises work-life balance but expects emails at midnight, or the “sustainable” brand that’s secretly still filling landfills. It’s easy to say the right things, but much harder to live by them. At The Go Pro Family, we’ve made sustainability a core part of what we do—not because it sounds good on paper, but because we believe in it.
As a dive center committed to sustainable dive travel, we focus on reducing our environmental impact while offering incredible experiences. If you don’t already know, we use solar panels to generate our own renewable energy, and we also harvest our rainwater. These are just a couple of examples of how we prioritize sustainable dive travel every day.
And while we’re proud of our eco-friendly efforts, we know there’s always more to do. Our focus is on action, not just checking boxes, which is why we’re excited to share some of the ways we’re making a difference on our sustainability journey.
We are Green Fins Members!
We are proud to announce that we are now Green Fins Digital Members. Green Fins is an independent certificate aimed at stopping the environmental impact from marine-based tourism worldwide. As digital members we have made a commitment to follow their Code of Conduct and have implemented an Action Plan to make positive change on our sustainability journey.
Over the next months we will be training our staff to educate customers and encourage responsible diving and snorkeling our reefs, as well as taking steps to minimize plastic waste.
We are fighting plastic – on a large and small scale
One of the biggest problems that our marine environment faces is marine debris and in particular, plastics. Plastics are everywhere. Wherever you are reading this, look around you. I can fairly safely bet that you will see some item of single-use plastic. That might be a discarded water bottle in the trash, or a food wrapper innocently discarded. Even if we can’t see plastic, it’s still there. Studies have detected microplastics in human lungs, placentas, and now human brain tissue. Dive Against Debris findings show that nearly 70% percent of all items reported were plastics.
So what are we doing about it?
Diving is thirsty work and it’s important to hydrate ourselves. At our dive center we are making it easier for our divers to opt for one of the many alternatives to single-use plastics. On our cenote trips we bring a big water carrier and reusable cups in case our customers don’t have their own refillable bottle. We also have a plastic-free vending machine at our dive center which has only cans for sale. And our customers can re-fill their water bottles from our in-house purification system free of charge. So there’s really no excuse not to say “No” to single-use plastics.
We also have more labelled trash cans so that any waste that is generated by us and our customers, can be separated and recycled.
An impossibly high mountain to climb?
Whilst we are taking these steps to reduce the use of single-use plastics and choose better alternatives, this can sometimes feel like we are fighting a losing battle with the Goliath of plastic producers. Did you know that Coca-Cola sells more than 100 billion single-use plastic bottles each year?! Many of those bottles end up in landfills and the ocean.
Whilst our tiny actions make a tiny difference, collectively we can make a bigger difference and also shift the onus to those big companies to make change. One example is with the global plastics treaty currently being drawn up.
Sign the Petition!
Whether or not you are a diving, you can help the war on plastics, today! Nations around the globe are getting together to agree to a global plastics treaty. PADI AWARE Foundation will be taking an active role in the treaty negotiations and will be pushing for limits on production and disposal of single-use plastics, with real consequences for countries that don’t comply. They will be using the information from the Dive Against Debris database to help push for legislation to hold plastic producers accountable and support greener alternatives. And you can help them by signing their petition!
We have adopted a dive site, and we’re helping to keep it clean
Please welcome our new Go Pro Family member – Ojo de Agua! Adopt the Blue is a program run by the PADI AWARE Foundation which asks dive centers to adopt a favorite dive site which they will visit regularly and report data on the state of those sites. Their goal is to accelerate the pathway to Marine Protected Areas around the world at sites that are relevant for protection and conservation. Our adopted site is Ojo de Agua – a shore dive which is already part of the Marine Park of Puerto Morelos. We will be visiting the site regularly to carry out Dives Against Debris. Our first event was at the end of August with our Divemaster trainees. We were able to remove a (thankfully) small amount of rubbish from the dive site which we reported onto PADI AWARE’s Dive Against Debris database.
We’re moving in the right direction
When we decided to open a dive center, environmental sustainability was a priority. At The Go Pro Family, sustainable dive travel is more than just a trend – it’s part of our commitment to protecting marine life for future generations. But we know that these words are meaningless without action. While our individual efforts might seem small, they’re part of a much larger movement. Real, lasting change requires us to push governments and policymakers to take climate action seriously. The PADI AWARE Foundation is amplifying the voices of divers, and together, we’re moving in the right direction—one step at a time. By working together, we can help ensure the ocean we love remains vibrant and healthy for years to come.
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