¡Hola! My name is Amelia Dubendorf and I’ll be traveling to Costa Rica with Pitt Plus3! At Pitt, I’m a mechanical engineering major with a minor in Spanish. In Costa Rica, the Plus3 program will be focusing on supply chains in industries such as coffee and bananas. To prepare for my trip, I did some research on the sustainability efforts taken in Costa Rica.
Although Costa Rica is about 20,000 square miles, it accounts for five percent of Earth’s biodiversity and plans to be the first carbon neutral country in addition to banning single-use plastics by 2021. Currently, Costa Rica produces 93 percent of its energy through renewable resources and in 2017, the country ran for 300 days solely on renewable energy.
Some examples of Costa Rica’s sustainability efforts are ecolodges, their focus on renewable energy, and their plastic free pledge. When in Costa Rica, tourists are able to stay in lodges that are constructed and operated in ways that minimize the impact on the natural environment. Many of these “ecolodges” promote sustainability by encouraging composting, providing all-natural bath products in guest rooms, using solar panels, and including native plants in the landscape. Additionally, Costa Rica is almost exclusively powered by renewable resources such as rivers, volcanoes, solar, and wind power. From 2014-2018, 1.47 percent of the country’s electricity was generated from fossil fuels and 1,197 of those days were powered exclusively on renewable energy. Recently, Costa Rica has installed seven wind turbines, six hydroelectric plants, and a solar plant. Not only is Costa Rica focused on renewable energy, they are also striving to go plastic free. Currently, Costa Rica produces about 4,000 tons of waste every day, 11 percent of which is single-use plastics. If Costa Rica is successful in their single-use plastic ban, they will be the first country in the world to go plastic free.
As someone who lives in a country 200 times the size of Costa Rica, it concerns me that the United States isn’t taking more action in making us more sustainable as a whole. And although I have minimal experience with Costa Rica, their sustainability efforts makes them seem impressive and respectable and also gives me hope that the U.S. can do more against climate change.
¡Hasta Luego!