Fisher, proprietor of the Empathy Funeral Home in Portmore, St Catherine, was not so much startled by the award, but by the competitors he had beaten to win the award.
As The Gleaner reported yesterday, Fisher said, "I was truly surprised that I won this award because I was up against the Urban Development Corporation (UDC). But because I have cleanliness as my policy, I knew I stood a chance of winning this prestigious award." He added: "The public-health inspectors are impressed by my environmental practices. After I bathe the bodies, I use chemicals to treat the waste water twice before it runs out into the sewage."
While not being morbid and macabre about it, we could say that Fisher (who says that empathy is at the core of his business) cares as much about the living as he does for the dead.
Still, on an individual level, there seems to be a perception that caring for the environment is best left to huge corporations, whether by adapting approaches that will prevent their products or by-products from harming the environment or through proactive policies which actually nurture the environment.
However, while the image of a huge chimney spewing smoke into the air is certainly dramatic, thousands of cars throttling in peak traffic have a serious impact on the environment. Similarly, large companies draw ire and are penalised for dumping their waste where it should not go, while householders contribute significantly to garbage pollution in their waste disposal.
treatment systems
And this does not apply only to the people who live on the renowned (and revered or reviled) gully side.
In addition, from proper sorting of garbage to reduced use of plastics, using domestic waste-water treatment systems and employing alternative energy sources, individuals can do much more to take care of this very finite resource which we have called the Earth.
In this vein, then, it would be appropriate if a domestic environmental-care programme were to be implemented with responsible householders recognised and rewarded. It is not, we believe, far-fetched and can point to various best housing-scheme programmes and the general pride Jamaicans take in their homes as indicators that it should have some impact.
environmental responsibility
This is not, of course, an attempt to remove environmental responsibility from companies, large or small, but simply to acknowledge that we all live under the same skies and it is our collective responsibility to take care of the world we live in.
And just as Mr Fisher was surprised that his Empathy Funeral Home got the nod over the gigantic UDC, we would be pleasantly startled at how much difference our seemingly small individual efforts add up to.
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