Sustainable practices are taking over the daily life of Costa Rican hotels as an added value for the offer to tourists who visit the country's beaches.
Nowadays offering beaches, rest and beautiful landscapes is no longer irresistible or novel for guests. Much more is needed than that, it is necessary to face the industry with social and environmental responsibility for a traveler much more aware of ecology and its treatment.
For this reason, every day more hotel establishments are committed to sustainable construction and the implementation in their practices of sustainable and environmentally friendly processes.
Nowadays it is common to visit hotels built with certified and sustainable materials, wood, among other renewable elements that cause a minor impact on the ecology. Hotels that have documented the total treatment they give to their waste, that use solar energy or reduce their consumption as much as possible, that have their own organic gardens to prepare their food, use only biodegradable products and dry clothes in the sun.
These are some of the practices that have been adopted by the most visited hotels in the Central American country and that have become attractive actions for users.
To ensure that this type of strategy lasts over time, the Costa Rican authorities created the Tourism Sustainability Certificate (CST), in order to control the management of the social and environmental quality of companies in the tourism segment.
The CST measures how environmentally friendly a company is and rates it from 1 to 5, rather than the traditional stars of the hotel industry awarding leaves of trees. This certification is recognized in the international context and by the main tourism agents in the world, which treat certified hotels with preference in their offers.
Today there are 29 hotels in that country that have the highest sustainability rating: Five sheets. This ensures that their operations produce a very low carbon footprint, low ecological impact and are socially supportive and responsible.
