Hotel President
Certified As Carbon
Neutral
The Hotel Presidente,
located on Avenida
Central, in downtown San
José, is the first San
José hotel to be awarded
the Carbon Neutral
certification, meeting
the standards set out by
the government for the
Costa Rica to be a
carbon neutral country
by 2021.
The certification is
given by the Instituto
Costarricense de Turismo
(ICT) - tourism board -
which began promoting
the initiative a month
after the government
announcement.
The hotel hired ONG, a
US company, to collecte
CO2 emission date and to
develop a program
costing more than
us$150.000 to become
environmentally
friendly, which includes
motivating guests to
reduce the consumption
of water and energy,
like air conditioners
that have set maximum
cooling levels and
instructions in the
rooms asking guests to
keep the lights turned
off as much as possible.
Being carbon neutral
refers to neutral
(meaning zero) total
carbon release, brought
about by balancing the
amount of carbon
released with the amount
sequestered or offset.
According to a
definition by Wikipedia,
when an individual or an
organization sets out to
become carbon neutral it
is usually achieved by
combining the following
three steps:
- Limiting energy
usage and emissions
- Obtaining electricity
and other energy from a
renewable energy source,
either directly by
generating it
(installing solar panels
on the roof for example)
or by selecting an
approved green energy
provider, and by using
low-carbon alternative
fuels such as
sustainable biofuels
- Offsetting the
remaining emissions that
cannot for the moment be
avoided or generated
from renewables in a
responsible carbon
project, or by buying
carbon credits
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