info@cayugaonline.com
Cayuga Sustainable Hospitality
CONTACT: Hans Pfister, President
E-MAIL: hans@cayugaonline.com
WEBSITE: www.cayugaonline.com
Eco-Hotels in Costa Rica Work to Green Their Restaurants
San Jose, Costa Rica - In an effort to push its sustainability program to the next level, Cayuga Sustainable Hospitality (which currently manages upscale restaurants in three of Costa Rica´s top eco hotels in Costa Rica) has decided to focus on “greening” its restaurants. Using guidelines set forth by the Green Restaurant Organization (www.dinegreen.com), which certifies restaurants for their efforts to incorporate sustainability into their operations, hotels operated by Cayuga Sustainable Hospitality are working to:
-
Implement new technologies, best practices and renewable energy sources to improve energy efficiency.
-
Reduce water consumption.
-
Participate actively in recycling programs and work diligently to reduce solid waste production.
-
Reuse organic waste in onsite composting programs. In Lapa Rios Ecolodge, for example, organic waste is even fed to a group of pigs on property that produce methane gas which is than used to fuel a stove in the employee kitchen.
-
Eliminate all toxic and environmentally hazardous chemicals from restaurant operations.
-
Purchase organic and/or sustainably produced fruits, vegetables and meats.
-
Incorporate “green” materials and design into its architecture and building.
Leading the sustainable restaurant push is the Harmony Hotel in Nosara (www.harmonynosara.com), which recently constructed an onsite huerta (garden) in order to produce a number of fruits, vegetables an herbs to be incorporated into its menu. Some of these local produce items include: yuca (a starchy white tuber grown in the tropics betterknown as cassava and is an integral part of the Costa Rican diet), culantro coyote (cilantro), papaya, zacate de limón (lemon grass), tilo and hierba buena (herbs used to make teas). According to executive chef at Harmony Hotel, Marco Leiva, “these products not only help us lower our environmental impact by reducing the carbon emissions caused by transportation, but are also of superior quality and taste”. Future plans include training local farmers on organic agriculture techniques in order to source more local products, incorporating more traditional Costa Rican dishes on the menu and more.
For more information on sustainable dining developments, contact Millay Kogan, Sustainability Coordinator, at millay@cayugaonline.com or Hans Pfister at hans@cayugaonline.com.
