Denaye Hinds grew up watching her grandmother recycle everything from cardboard to fabrics.

It's possible that set her on her current path. The 25-year-old engineer is also a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) expert and a Green Globe auditor.

And she's hoping to sway Bermuda to her way of thinking.

Ms Hinds is now in talks with Bermuda Hotel Association president John Harvey to host a Green Globe Summit here to educate hotels about the benefits of going green.

If all goes well, hotels will attend a December summit on the Green Globe certification process, environmental awareness, the benefits of conservation and how Bermuda fits into the world of "green".

The former Berkeley Institute student decided to become an engineer after a careers day at the school.

"Being a last-minute decision maker, I had no clue what I wanted to do professionally and was placed in the last group which was headed to the Tynes Bay incinerator," she said. "I remember thinking, 'Oh man! I should have picked something, now I have to go look at stinky trash all day!'

"From the moment I heard that word [engineer], I knew I wanted to do what they did," she said. "It just sounded so complicated yet interesting.

"I remember doing research on the different types of engineering and asking my design and technology teacher what he thought. And now I'm almost right back where I started – talking about the environment and trash."

Ms Hinds attended the Bermuda College before transferring to Florida A&M University.

While there she co-founded a chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB), a non-profit organisation dedicated to providing sustainable engineering solutions to impoverished countries.

"I saw not only how these people lived but how they cherished everything and were resourceful," she stated. "They lived off of nature and required basic engineering needs to survive – such as a water pump and a filter to clean the water they drank.

"I thought, if I could just provide every country in need with basic engineering, they too could be afforded the opportunity to do something great like go to school and not have to search every day for clean drinking water."

She then visited one of the world's largest engineering feats, China's Three Gorges Dam.

"I was there standing in front of this humongous, once-in-a-lifetime man-made accomplishment that was said to bring renewable energy resources to millions of people in China, through hydro-electrical power [the production of power through use of the gravitational force of falling or flowing water]," she said.

"It was said to be an engineering marvel, one of a kind. I appreciated the structure and all it had to offer, however, I couldn't help but think about the millions of people displaced to build it."

On her flight back to the US she watched 'An Inconvenient Truth', former US vice president Al Gore's documentary on global warming.

"It was from there and other works I did with the EWB that I began to build, in my mind, the concept of simplicity in engineering and designing structures that would work with the environment and not against it," she said.

Back in Tallahassee, she volunteered for numerous non-profit organisations. After graduation, she completed a short tenure with Works and Engineering.

In December she began a master's degree in construction management with a focus on sustainability at Florida International University.

She also works as a sustainability consultant for Ecosante Consulting, a company that helps hotels comply with, and achieve green lodging certification.

The firm's mission is to create sustainable hotels in South Florida, Latin America, Bermuda and the Caribbean following Green Globe and LEED policies.

Such practices could prove beneficial to Bermuda, she said.

"Sustainability of life through business operations and lifestyles can be accomplished by large amounts of people taking small steps that can equate to an enormous difference.

"Environmental awareness and conservation efforts are simple yet vital.

"With a dependence on tourism, encouraging the hospitality industry in Bermuda to become sustainable and environmentally aware whilst receiving attractive returns on investments, makes sense."

Miss Hinds hopes to eventually return to the Island and help create a sustainable Bermuda.

"There are many divisions within Government – such as the Sustainable Development Unit – that are dedicated to creating a more sustainable Bermuda. And Keep Bermuda Beautiful and Greenrock are already making strides to educate and preserve our resources."

Sustainability is not a new concept, she added.

"It is only now that the topic of sustainability has opened up to include a broader spectrum of benefits, such as health and productivity, market power and energy savings."

For more information send an e-mail, info@greenbeaninc.org, or visit www.greenbeaninc.org.