Green Hotels of Costa Rica

Both Villablanca Cloud Forest Hotel and Si Como No Resor and Spa are members of CST (Certification for Sustainable Tourism) the ony with four green leaves in the program of Costa Rican sustainable hotels. We encourage you to support their efforts and review our section entitled Si Como No's Ecovision for details on the efforts to comply with these important conservation standards with our Green Hotel properties. We welcome your feed back on our efforts and policies included in our Hotel Guests Surveys and printed information you will find in each hotel room, the concierge desk, and in the Hotel Web Sites. Lets all make a difference before the Planet allows our species to become extinct for the earth's sake.

The Certification for Sustainable Tourism Program (C.S.T.) was designed to differentiate tourism sector businesses based on the degree to which they comply with a sustainable model of natural, cultural and social resource management. C.S.T. is regulated by the Costa Rican National Accreditation Commission and consists of a scale of 5 "levels" of sustainable tourism achievement. (visit C.S.T. website)

What C.S.T. is all about? It is a program that seeks to categorize and certify each tourism company according to the degree to which its operations comply to a model of sustainability. The program of Certification for Sustainable Tourism of the Costa Rican Tourist Board is an excellent tool to assist in the sustainable development of the country.

To this effect, four fundamental aspects are evaluated:

	Physical-biological parameters Evaluates the interaction between the company and its surrounding natural habitat.
	Infrastructure and services Evaluates the management policies and the operational systems within the company and its infrastructure.
	External clients Evaluates the interaction of the company with its clients in terms of how much it allows and invites the client to be an active contributor to the company's policies of sustainability.
	Socio-economic environment Evaluates the interaction of the company with the local communities and the population in general.