Sustainability Efforts in Pensacola

Lodging
Locally owned, Oyster Bay Boutique Hotel’s goal is to create rich experiences for travelers and locals alike that focus on locally driven authenticity, modest luxury, and natural design. The accommodations are sumptuous, and the service is personalized. With only eight rooms, this adults-only hotel offers easy access to Historic Downtown Pensacola, local restaurants, shopping, and more. The property’s mission is to advance eco-friendly travel, community empowerment, and sustainable tourism while connecting to the city’s vast and diverse culture.

Local hotel brand, Innisfree Hotels, is opting for a green approach on several of its local properties. The Holiday Inn Resort Pensacola Beach, Hampton Inn Pensacola Beach, and Hilton Pensacola Beach all boast a Florida Green Lodging certificate. Given by The Florida Department of Environmental Protection, it designates and recognizes lodging facilities that make a commitment to conserve and protect Florida's natural resources through the Florida Green Lodging Program. As a part of that, the properties host educational seminars about “Dune Defenders” and its part in protecting the gulf of Mexico and beaches of Pensacola.

Sustainable Activities
Every Saturday in Downtown Pensacola, Palafox Market brings together original, local farmers, makers, and artists within 100-miles of Pensacola. Connecting with local consumers, these vendors are supplying sustainably sources meat, produce, flowers, natural products, and more.

For those looking to make a difference local non-profit Ocean Hour focuses on cleaning up cleaning up the beaches and waterways of Pensacola.

For sustainable shopping and grocery efforts, look no further than Ever’man Cooperative Grocery & Café. grounded in a rich history and driven by commitment to actively create a healthier, more vibrant community, Ever’mans continues to be the local source for natural and organic foods and educational classes about conscious living.

Now known as the Lionfish Capital of the World, Pensacola is taking eco-tourism to the next level. Lionfish are an invasive specifies of fish that just so happens to be delicious. With beautiful diving conditions, the area is encouraging outsiders to hunt these intruders for a true Gulf-to-table movement.

Community-Based Initiatives
Project GreenShores is a multimillion-dollar habitat restoration and creation project in downtown Pensacola along the urban shoreline of Pensacola Bay. This habitat restoration effort partners DEP's Northwest Florida Aquatic Preserves with the city of Pensacola, Escambia County, the Ecosystem Restoration Support Organization, the EPA Gulf of Mexico Program, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, NOAA, Gulf Power, local agencies, businesses, and volunteers in a community-based effort to restore oyster reef, salt marsh and seagrass habitat within the Pensacola Bay System. Restoring the Pensacola Bay estuary to its historic state stabilizes shorelines and provides essential habitat for wildlife propagation and conservation.

The City of Pensacola is taking strides to prioritize renewable energy to power homes, businesses, and local government buildings produces little to no greenhouse gas emissions and reduces air pollution compared with burning fossil fuels. In April 2022, Pensacola was awarded the SolSmart Gold designee, making it the the first City in the Gulf Coast. SolSmart is a national designation program recognizing cities, counties, and regional organizations that foster the development of mature local solar markets. SolSmart was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies office.

Pensacola has had a vibrant Urban Forest and has maintained the Arbor Day Foundation Tree City USA designation for over 30 years. We keep this designation not only because we have a beautiful historic urban forest but because we value the benefits provided by trees. Therefore, we dedicate portions of the general fund to maintaining the urban forest. We also have strict Land Development Codes that protect trees and require developments to mitigate tree loss. This ensures that we sustain a beautiful urban forest for today and invest in a healthy urban forest for the future.

The Pensacola Oyster Cluster is a growing collective of dedicated industry workers, passionate about bringing Pensacola’s blue economy to the next level while counteracting the long term decline of the wild oyster population. “Blue foods” like oysters rank highest in nutritional value, while having the lowest environmental footprint of all animal proteins on Earth. The cluster is working hard to build Pensacola’s local oyster industry into a sustainable, eco-conscious protein producer. From seed to plate, they’ve perfected the most sustainable model for harvesting hand-crafted, delicious oysters, with all our conservation efforts built in.