Sustainable Hotels- Win $$$

Costa Rica is currently giving away $1,000,000 of travel money. Winners will stay only at resorts with 5 leaves. We wanted to know what these leaves are! Therefore, we stayed at El Establo and Hotel Parador and learned about many sustainability practices that earn them leaves. Leaves represent how sustainable they are, at the same time earning them credits on taxes to save money.  El Establo has 1 leaf. They are sustainable in several ways, here are a few: 1) key cards are required in the room to run the electricity, 2) rooms have no heat or air conditioning, 3) rooms have organic and inorganic recycling, and 4) they purchased 40 hectors of land to build the hotel on so they could conserve the area and its resources. The hotel property is breath taking.We also learned that customers are not always happy about following the rules and often find methods to prevent sustainability efforts from working properly (like rigging the room to run electricity even without the key card). They are working very hard to attain all five leaves.

We traveled to Hotel Parador, stopping by the Monteverde Reserve on the way to see hummingbirds and at lunch we spotted several crocodiles while walking over a bridge. They looked hungry, yikes!

When we arrived at Hotel Parador (5 leaves!), we toured the facilities to learn all about their sustainability practices. The hotel is very beautiful and has been rated the best hotel in Costa Rica since 2004. Some of the things that caught our eye is that they conserve by 1) saving rain water, 2) creating compost (and selling it for a hefty profit), 3) recycling, 4)  conserving energy with key cards, 5) using energy efficient appliances that use less water and run on fewer cycles, 6) using biodegradable detergents and soaps, and 7) using a water treatment plant to clean water from the sewage and cleaning. It was really neat walking through the trails to see Sloths and Tucans, although it is about 100% humidity and 90 plus degrees. Pool wasn't bad looking, though we never had the time to take advantage of it.










Overall, it was great to see the differences and similarities between a 1 leaf hotel and a 5 leaf hotel. Students will be writing about these and sharing details soon! What a cool comparison!



Bryant University Sustainable Marketing 385