CST

The CST (Certified Sustainable Tourism) is driven by the Costa Rican Tourism Institute. Companies entering the certification process can get from one to five levels and the evaluation is done every two years.

The certificate evaluates 4 major areas:

1. Physical-biological parameters

2. Plant service

3. Customer

4. Socio-economic environment

The main purpose of this certificate is to help companies to start improving their management to a more sustainable approach, improving efficiency and practices that not only have an impact on the community, environment and employees but also in improving costs consumption and increased competitiveness.

Asuaire and CST

In Asuaire we started five years ago preparing for the certification of sustainable tourism.

Key facts:

– We knew that these practices were used to obtain certification

– We began to review what we learn and what we needed to enter into the CST

– We started making improvements learning from best practices of suppliers, other companies and even good business practices in other industries to create our path towards sustainable management

– On the first evaluation we obtained a 4 out of 5 mark

– The following two years of the evaluation we improved a lot and obtained the maximum possible score in 2013.

Obtaining the first level means the company has taken the first step to join the road or process of sustainability. The following levels correspond to increasingly advanced stages evaluated in the specific, peaking with obtaining Level 5, a situation in which a company considered as exemplary in terms of sustainability be found.