HOW IS HARMONY SUSTAINABLE?
Responsible Social Practices
Natural Environment
Local Community Financial Support
We are grateful to the people of Nosara for welcoming us here. As all of our lives and futures are intrinsically connected, and thus we want to be positive members of the local community.
Donations to the community’s schools and library are constantly made. We also support local farmers by buying and designing our menu around the locally available products. And rather than bringing in already skilled hotel workers from elsewhere, we hire and train 90% of our staff from the surrounding area. The Harmony Hotel’s Community and Sustainability Projects promote the development of the community without compromising the environment. These projects are:
Education
The Harmony Hotel’s project Turning Hope into Reality is an effort to improve the school’s infrastructure, equipment, and learning aids while addressing the issues of sustainable practice and environmental awareness. Integrating topics such as natural resources, biodiversity, global warming and others into the curriculum can serve both, as a means of teaching science, and also as an introduction to the world of sustainable tourism. The Harmony and its staff would complement the education by creating the opportunity for mentorship, experiential learning, and career exploration. Staff skill sets include language, computer and maintenance skills, which they would share with students as volunteers.
Sea Turtles
The Harmony Hotel’s Project Arribadas of the Olive Ridley Sea Turtle is a nonprofit initiative to help the MINAE (Costa Rica’s Ministry of Environment and Energy) promote environmental conservation and keep the Ostional Natural Wildlife Reserve clean. Building on the government’s recent efforts to improve the sea turtles’ habitat (which includes a successful policy to curtail the widespread poaching of turtle eggs, which are prized in the region for their aphrodisiac qualities,) the project is guided by the belief that education is a requisite for change.
Among the initiative’s activities are: promoting plastic recycling by placing bins in the surrounding area; transferring the waste to the plastic recycling center (the income this generates is allocated to the local school); fostering the creation of more recycling centers; sending staff volunteers to participate in beach cleaning days; and disseminating information on Ostional Reserve policies to Ositional residents.
Reforestation
By participating in our Plant a Tree project, you and our gardening staff will plant a tree of a species endemic to the region, in a specific MINAE- (the Costa Rican Ministry of Environment and Energy) designated location in the vicinity of the Harmony Hotel. In this small way, you’ll not only directly contribute to slowing this deadly trend, but will help maintain the delicate biological balance of the area. The Harmony, in turn, is committed to caring for these trees and ongoing reforestation efforts.
There is a serious problem with the positioning of electrical lines in Nosara. As a result of lines being close together, Howler monkeys are electrocuted when they try to use these power lines to access habitat that has been isolated by roads or cleared land. The result is not only dying howlers but also orphaned monkey young. The Harmony is working with The Refugio de Animales, other local businesses and the electric company to raise funds for re-wiring Nosara and to rehabilitate the orphans.
Waste Management
The labelled cans for separating plastic, paper, glass, and aluminium are a part of our recycling program. Recycling is relatively new in Nosara. The Harmony has been working with other hotels and businesses to develop a system to reduce the load on the local dump and to reuse these resources. We hope our guests will choose to support this new initiative by participating in this system and in our constant beach clean ups organized by our own staff.
Other Socially Beneficial Practices are:
- Community education on sustainability.
- Guest education on how to support recycling and the community during stay.
- Support of the local guard system to ensure safety in the area
Natural Environment
At the Harmony, comfort meets effortless sustainability. Here guests can enjoy the rare luxury of knowing that the beauty they see goes further than grass deep.
The hotel’s many natural treats are sure to enhance our guests’ experience of green living. An awareness of our interconnectedness within nature is shown in our practices which include permaculture, worm farming, a recycling program, use of biodegradable products, biodegradable guest room amenities and gray water purification irrigation system.
In our constant striving to be in tune with the local ecology, the Harmony applies the practice of permaculture to almost everything we do. We hope that by cultivating an awareness of our role in the local ecology that we can work with nature, rather than against it, and as a result foster a deeply satisfying sense of life in harmony for our guests.
We have tried to design our landscape with both our human guests and our animal neighbors in mind. As a result, we have made basic decisions, such as what species of plants to cultivate, based not only on aesthetics but also on their adaptation to the local climate and their contribution to biodiversity.
Native plants, which make up 50% of the plant life in our landscape, are an obvious choice because they not only preserve local character, but also have been fine-tuned by nature to survive both the long dry season and the deluge of rain in the wet season. They also provide food and shelter for the local animal population. The non-native portion of the plants in our landscape are also climate-appropriate and attractive to birds, butterflies, bats, iguanas, humans and other fauna in the local ecosystem.
The desire to create an animal-friendly environment has likewise influenced our overall landscape plan.
Our concern for animal habits and needs is also prominent in the re-design of the once leaky, old pool next to the spa. We transformed it into a living aquatic system by choosing to include shallow areas for herons, egrets and other wading birds plus deeper areas amongst vegetation for protecting fish and turtles from predation.
Using organic pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers - such as compost from the restaurant waste - is another method we employ for collaborating with the local ecosystem. This practice increases the soil’s fecundity. It also keeps harmful chemicals from destroying the healthy bacterial necessary for soil balance and from leaching inorganic chemicals, which won’t ever break down, into the plants that feed the local animal kingdom. Plus, composting food waste for fertilizer utilizes waste in an efficient, productive way that gives back to the earth, from which the food originally came.
Our amenities not only vitalize your skin and hair but also serve as a bio-compatible, ph-balanced nutrient for the specific wetland plant life that your shower feeds as a part of our greywater wetland system. Moreover, in keeping with our goal of generating as little waste as possible, we offer you them in a luxury within post-consumer recycled glass containers that the Harmony housekeeping staff keeps clean and refills regularly.
In an effort to promote environmental sustainability
and community development we strive to purchase as much organically grown and locally produced food. Harmony Hotel uses a technique called worm farming which transforms all of our organic waste into a fertilizer that is then used to maintain our landscaped gardens and to support the growth of legumes and herbs (which we use in both our restaurant and our spa).
Local Community Financial Support
The Harmony donates to the community’s schools and library, and contributes in the organization of the different activities that take place in the community. Moreover, the following are programs and tours which financially benefit the local community:
The cost for this tour is of $40 per person and includes transportation, nature guide and park fee. 50% of all profits on this tour rre donated by Harmony to the Ostional Reserve.
Sustainable Coffee Tour in Hojancha
Here you will also have the opportunity to make a trip through history enjoying the incomparable flavor of Costa Rican Coffee and culture by being part of authentic farmer’s tradition and customs in this tour. This tour is offered by the Planta Beneficiadora Matambu in Hojancha to encourage economic and environmental development to benefit both the associates and members of the community.
Plant a Tree Program
It would be an honor for our community that you participate in our Plant a Tree Program, thus contributing to the conservation of the environment through our reforestation project.
We encourage guests to join our reforestation project and, along with our gardening staff, plant their own tree. This tree will be endemic to the area so that it will contribute to the conservation of the environment and the biological balance of the area.
The payment of a $15 USD fee for our Plant a Tree Program will be donated to the MINAE. We, the Harmony, commit in turn to take care of these trees with the objective of contributing to the conservation of our forests.
La Esperanza School: Turning Hope Into Reality
The Harmony Hotel’s project Turning Hope Into Reality sole purpose is to stimulate and promote education in the area through constant contribution, with the philosophy that our children are the future of our society. With this mindset, it is easy to understand the whole team’s reaction to this project, immediately becoming involved and cooperating to make it happen. This participation, plus the support of our guests at the hotel and visitors of our website, is the driving force behind this project.
While staying at The Harmony Hotel guests may contribute with a donation to the local school system. We understand that donations are voluntary and it is hotel policy to operate with absolute transparency. 100 % of the guests donation will be dedicated to Turning Hope Into Reality.
Sustainability Tour at Harmony
We invite all our guests to learn about all of our green practices in our Sustainability Tour were we explain the focus of our operation. This tour has a cost of $10 that will be donated to the program of the guest’s choice.
Use of Laptop, Stereo and Bicycles
The use of these is a complimentary and exclusive service offered to our guests at no cost, however, voluntary donations of $5 a day are accepted and will be donated to the program of the guest’s choice.
Rescue Monkey Program
While staying at Harmony guests may contribute with a donation to the Monkey Rescue Center or just deposit the amount they want to designate to the program at the box we have at the Front Desk.