It’s no coincidence that Costa Rica is the most widely sought after destination for ecotourism around the world. In the 1970s and 1980s, the government began to tackle the plague of deforestation that was close to permanently destroying the ecosystems of Costa Rica. Since that time, Costa Rica has become an environmental jewel, with approximately 25% of the country covered by different forms of official protection. About 5% of all known flora and fauna species can be found in Costa Rica, including over double the number of bird species found in all of the United States!

While becoming carbon neutral and offsetting the emissions of our company is just one small way to assist in protecting the environment, we believe it is vital to contribute now to preserve the ecological diversity of Costa Rica, as well as combating global warming. To this end, we have purchased offsets for 70 tons of carbon emissions, which has enabled us to become a CarbonFree™ Small Business under the program initiated by Carbonfund.org.

While there are many different organizations purporting to fight against global warming, we were particularly impressed with Carbonfund.org because of its vision and its links to Central America, with such groups as Paso Pacífico that restore large areas of tropical dry forest habitat and consequently Costa Rica’s neighbors’ natural ecosystems.

Our ¡Tú También! program helps course attendees to do the same. On average, a round trip flight from the U.S. to Costa Rica produces about 1.10 tons of CO2 emissions. When you register for one of our courses, our ¡Tú También! program allows you to offset the footprint of your flight and your entire trip for just $7. We send this money to Carbonfund.org, which then pools it to support renewable energy, energy efficiency and reforestation projects, such as the Paso Pacífico program in Central America.