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In December 2010 La Cusinga submitted its yearly report on the advances made by our Blue Flag Committee during 2009-2010. The year's work plan included activities for covering all eight categories required by the Mitigation program, from diminishing dependence on fossil fuels and the consumption of electricity, substituting aerosols for natural alternatives to reducing the use of paper in our administrative processes and increasing the area's carbon-consumption capacity through reforestation efforts.
Our efforts also included awareness campaigns directed at all who form part of La Cusinga's business model: employees, administrators, suppliers, residents, and guests. For each one of these elements we developed strategies to involve them in our efforts, including new policies (such as our no-idle parking lot) as well as educational staff meetings. In this way, both infrastructural improvements and new behavioral guidelines aligned to alleviate the stresses placed on the land and its natural carrying capacity, and thus ensure the continuous symbiotic relationship between local human development and the natural capital off of which this growth occurs.
While receiving an evaluation of 95% gives us great joy, we know that this is just the beginning. This year will require new strategies based on the observations of the Blue Flag Commission. By improving little details here and there, we hope next year to receive a TWO STAR rating (improving from 95 to 100%), not for any petty marketing purposes, but rather to receive institutional confirmation of the legitimacy of our efforts. Subsequently, we will attempt to obtain the maximum rating of FIVE STARS, and in so doing add our small grain of sand to all the other local, regional, and national efforts that hope to preserve the human and natural richness of our beautiful country.
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