eco hostel, baños ecuador
Conservation
we don’t have forest on our land so we are re-planting the native trees (that were cut down many years ago) to help regenerate the area. we do have trees and vegetation everywhere on the property and this is helping reduce soil erosion and stops the earth from falling into the river. our garden is designed with nature in mind. there are no hummingbird feeders with sugared water or anything artificial in this beautiful and natural environment…you get to experience genuine nature without harming it.
in future, la casa verde would like to get more involved with the EcoMinga foundation and lou jost in helping to ‘conserve ecuador’s biodiversity’. this is a wonderful foundation which buys land to protect it and the (often rare) species found in these areas.
Community
we helping and showing local people how to build and live sustainably. working with our neighbours is a high priority for us at la casa verde. as more and more people build in the area, it’s important for them to realise the benefits of building for the long-term and reducing their environmental impact. for example, we’re showing how to use sustainable timbers (mostly pine and eucalyptus) instead of jungle hardwood; how to build septic systems, instead of piping directly into the river; the negative and toxic effects of burning plastic and the benefits of reducing rubbish and recycling.
at la casa verde we buy almost all of our produce locally. this means no transport/storage is required, again minimising the environmental impact. also, we share farm our land with a couple of families in the community (with little land) to help them produce their own veges. we also trade with other people when we can (somehow, our brocolli doesn’t grow as well as the people’s down the road and our tomatoes are great!)
Low environmental impact and sustainability
la casa verde is completely made of sustainable ecuadorean material. we also ensure we operate in a sustainable manner. our waste is minimal and we encourage our guests to act the same. please see reduce, reuse, recycle page for more info on how we deal with our waste.
we don’t use chemically based fertilisers or cleaning products. In fact, we are in the process of developing our own in-house organic toiletries for guests to use. we only use compact fluorescent light bulbs which save energy.
most of our energy is from hydroelectric dams, here in ecuador. in future, we’d like to get ‘off the grid’ by utilising the wind energy we have down here in the valley. our hot water is pre-heated by the sun to reduce the energy needed to really crank up the heat for those lovely long hot showers. we are also planning on installing solar panels to make use of the brilliant sun energy source.
as there is no local (or national) recycling program, in the future, we hope to set up community recycling as an extension of our own in-house recycling and help demonstrate the benefits of reducing, reusing and recycling.
Eco education
as well as helping our local community, we hope to make our visitor’s stay as interesting and informative as possible. at la casa verde, although we are ‘greenies’ we don’t like to make people feel guilty if they have a chocolate bar which happens to be wrapped in non-recyclable material. our aim is to inform our guests and encourage them to think green, without forcing it down their throats. we have an eco-policy which outlines what we do here, at la casa verde, to be green. in this document there are also some interesting and sometimes sad facts about environmental deterioration, mostly specific to this region in ecuador. here you can see how you can help minimise your impact and spread the green word on your travels. also, we are more than happy to chat with anyone who’d like more information or to help in any way. please see our links page for more eco operators and causes in this area of ecuador.
