Sustainable Practices of Totoco Ecolodge, Nicaragua
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Discover on this presentation a listing of the different sustainable practices of Totoco Ecolodge on Ometepe Island in Nicaragua. I visited Totoco during my Hospitality Tour through Central America and wrote articles on Hopineo.org.
Transcript of Sustainable Practices of Totoco Ecolodge, Nicaragua
SUSTAINABLE PRACTICES
Social Responsibility
Local Development
Travelers’ awareness
Local Heritage & Biodiversity
Transport & Green Mobility
Energy
Waste
Water
Agriculture and Catering
Construction
ENERGY MANAGEMENT
• 100% renewable energy, Totoco Ecolodge is off -grid: energy production through solar panels (very occasional use of the generator), energy savings (half LED and half halogene bulbs, no air condit ioning, no TV, heat water using gas and compost system).
• Current Project: produce clean cooking gas using a biodigestor.
WASTE MANAGEMENT
Separation and responsible disposal of 100% of al l waste:• Organic : 80% goes to the pigs (and compost is done from pigs
manure), qual ity compost (from coff ee, eggs shel ls…), low qual i ty compost (used for mulching);
• Metal : a resource which is sold;• Glass : the main part is on deposit and goes then back to the company,
or donations are done to reused them. Broken glasses can be mixed with cement for example.
• Plastic: high qual ity one is recycled in Managua, a plastic shredder col lects i t on the is land, bad qual i ty one is col lected and stored cautiously wait ing for future solutions.
Current Project: develop homemade natural cleaning products.
WATER MANAGEMENT
• Cleaning and reusing 100% of grey water through biofi lters.• Exclusive use of dry (water-free) composting toi lets.• Draught tolerant tree species, drip irr igation and aquaponics.
AGRICULTURE & CATERING
• The restaurant produce come from local and organic surrounding farms (a part from the Totoco Ecofarm itself)
• Totoco Ecofarm includes 2ha with 500 fruit trees & 500m² diversifi ed small -holding using draught tolerant tree species, planting nitrogen-fi xing cover-crops, driping irr igation in the herb & vegetable garden, animal husbandry, processing crops to add value, applying natural pesticides, volunteer program.
• Current Projects : organic honey, aquaponics, processing faci l i ty, learning center.
CONSTRUCTION
• Designed the diff erent structures with passive cool ing in mind.• Worked exclusively with very local labor from Balgüe and Madronal.• Used local and renewable material when possible.• Actively planted future construction material ( for example palm trees
for natural thatch roofs, cedars trees for wood, special ly imported construction grade bamboo species).
• Totoco Foundation supports diff erent local development programs as: micro-loans (colateral-free and low-interest) for 26 smal l start-up businesses, express transports for students, ful ly equipped and staff ed cl inical laboratory for a local publ ic health center, 2 community l ibraries with over 2000 books, remedial classes programs using l icensed nicaraguan teachers, promotes and sel ls handcrafts from Ometepe Is land famil ies establ ishing relationships directly with the art isans.
• 100% local labor laws are proactively enforced (social security, paying vacations t ime, respecting working hours…).
SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
LOCAL DEVELOPMENT
• Employ 19 ful l -t ime staff and are training some of them to get managerial posit ions in the future.
• Focus on the 3 main-core activit ies of the hotel (accommodation, restaurant and bar services) and empower independent entrepreneurs to provide al l other peripheral services (activit ies, transport, etc…).
• Current Project: Aim to slowly introduce an employee-share-scheme.
TRAVELERS’ AWARENESS
• General information in the hotel leafl et, on the website, during the Totoco Tour.
• The General Manager makes a lot of eff ort to engage the guests and shares its experience.
LOCAL HERITAGE & BIODIVERSITY
• Present the guests with a wide range of activit ies and tours, such as a cultural tour where people go with Patricia (Foundation Director) visit ing the community, petroglyphs tour, local wi ldl i fe and biodiversity tours, etc…
TRANSPORT & GREEN MOBILITY
• Off er hiking tracks, horse back r iding tours, bike rental .• Current project: introducing a carbon off set program for our hotel
operations ( including guests fl ights).
