SIGN UP FOR OUR 
SAN JOSE – With a brief ceremony, President Laura Chinchilla launched a nationwide campaign for residents of Costa Rica to get involved in achieving Costa Rica’s goal of achieving carbon neutrality by the year 2021. “Limpia tu huella” (clean up your carbon footprint) is the name of the initiative, which officially started on Monday, March 26th, 2012.
The official press release explained that the Executive Branch, government agencies and private institutions must come together in this effort at once.
The Ministry of the Environment, Energy and Communications (MINAET) will oversee the national campaign, which aims to develop internal policies in different institutions that will effectively reduce their respective carbon footprint.
At the same time, the campaign will aspire to develop a culture of awareness among Ticos about the best practices that can be followed in our daily lives in order to conserve Costa Rica’s environment.
The Laura Chinchilla administration will develop a blueprint of sustainable development that works in tandem with ecological conservation and protection. In this regard, our President mentioned the need to continue working in protecting our forests, rivers and oceans; something that will turn our nation into an “Ecological Power.”
Our President added that protecting the environment generates profits: “the international community is willing to pay for quality goods, but only if they are also socially and environmentally responsible, and one of our best examples is our tourism industry -green and without artificial ingredients.”
“Costa Rica wants to tell the world that we want to develop, but only by protecting our environment. The world is moving towards a need for generating profits that aren’t based on the destruction of our natural resources, but rather based on their protection”, underscored our President.
Every Action Counts
The nationwide initiative will run under the motto “Cada accion cuenta” as a calling to reflect that every activity undertaken by a human being has a certain impact on the environment.
Vice President Alfio Piva Mesen recognized that mankind has had a hand in climate change, and to that extent he has called on his people to amend any actions that could harm the environment.
“Costa Rica chose a sustainable path years ago, and today she has the obligation to lead by example, showing the great nations how a country can develop while respecting the environment.”
During the ceremony, public and private institutions signed an agreement by which they will assume the obligation to reduce the carbon footprint left by each of their activities. For this purpose, a set of rules was established to take part in this initiative, including: careful management of energy consumption, the use of renewable sources of energy, eco-friendly transportation, and careful selection of “green” vendors.
