As part of a regional initiative for Costa Rica, El Salvador and Honduras, supported by German cooperation (GIZ), the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Program (4E) and the Central American Integration System, different tourism companies in these countries have been carrying out actions focused on modifying their energy consumption schemes.
The process seeks to reduce the carbon emissions that companies in this segment produce annually and achieve C-neutrality, through participation in an energy efficiency and renewable energy program.
In Costa Rica, for the moment, five tourism companies associated with the National Chamber of Eco-tourism (Caneco) were selected, these organizations are: Ara Tours and Grano de Oro (San José), there are Arenal Observatory Lodge (San Carlos), Hotel Villa Blanca (San Ramón) and Hotel Si Como No (Manuel Antonio).
The companies chosen from the tourism segment to participate in the initiative had to go through a process in which the diversity of the tourism product was taken into account, that is, that they are beach, mountain and urban hotels. "They had to have a minimum of 20 employees and a maximum of 100 and whose minimum electricity consumption was 3,000 Kwh," said Nathalie Carballo, from Canaeco.
Likewise, they verified that they had already been working with the environmental issue for some time as part of their commitment and their green responsibility.
According to the official, these companies have just begun with the stage of audits, measurements of their footprint and diagnoses.
For Rafael Soto, coordinator of safety, maintenance and sustainability of Ara Tours, knowing for sure what energy consumption is is a fundamental pillar to set goals in the future.
Some of the measures that are already planned to be implemented in this company are: make the most of natural light and leave artificial systems only for hours where they are necessary, install a solar energy backup system with which it would maximize efficiency and avoid thermal shocks or unnecessary consumption.
