Sostenibilidad
At Chilcabamba we believe that both the environment and local community should benefit from our business. Isn’t sharing what tourism is all about anyway? This is why we try to preserve the natural treasures of the Ecuadorian Andean páramo and work closely together with the local community.
Sustainability means for us to reduce our carbon footprint to a minimum and create a positive impact on the social and cultural life of our community. Meaning: lots of walking, riding or biking (and laughing)!
Our aim to reach our goals towards a more sustainable lifestyle is a continuous path of learning and getting better at what we do. Here are a few examples of the steps we have already taken on this path:
We are ecofriendly
- The lodge is built from natural materials in tune with the surrounding nature and landscape.
- We offer reusable water bottles and free refills of drinking water (hot / cold).
- We reduce the use of plastic by offering beverages in glass bottles.
- We are composting our organic waste.
- The wastewater is getting cleaned by our biodigester, we only use biodegradable soap, shampoo as well as the cleaning material.
- We implemented a water and energy saving program.
- In our garden we preserve local plants of the páramo.
- The ecolodge used modern and efficient wood stoves.
- Our entire lodge uses modern double-paned glass windows to save energy.
Community
- Our team is young, with never ending energy and is from the local community. They receive social security and their wages are above the area’s average.
- Buy local policy: we buy the produce from the community, including potatoes, milk, cheese and trout (yummy).
- We work with local guides and drivers for the activities we offer. For construction and maintenance we also hire people locally.
- We offer activities that are led by the community (learn how to milk a real happy cow, fish for your own dinner, horseback like a local aka Chagra, and more!). Our guests can enjoy first-hand how the people in the mountains live and become a bit Ecuadorian.
Education
- Our room decoration tells stories about local and already extinct fauna.
- We offer tours to natural sights where you learn about the local flora and fauna.
- Our activities are offered by local guides, so you can learn about how they live in the mountains.
- We have a zero-tolerance policy towards activities related to sexual trade, sexual exploitation of minors, child labor, prostitution or drug trafficking.
- The discovery trails in our garden teach about local plants.
- Our guests will learn a ton about the importance of water conservation, its source as well as this unique and fragile ecosystem that is the high Andes and especially the Andean grassland that surrounds Chilcabamba.
Certification
Together with the Cotopaxi National Park we have been certified by the German non-profit organization TourCert, which has set itself the task of promoting ecological, social and economic corporate responsibility in tourism.
