Assessments at local hotels with high schools Intervention 2016

Visual inspection at Hotel "La Roulotte"

In the mornings we implemented a total of six in depth assessments about energy, water and waste at four local hotels and the two high schools and Mindo. The goal of these assessments was to evaluate the prevailing practices of water, energy and waste management in the community. After conducting detailed interviews with the owners or other people in charge and visual inspections of the facilities, we started analyzing the results from a sustainability point of view.

While we noticed a lot of effort by the hotels and high schools to manage their institutions in a sustainable way, we also identified a number of problems and spaces for further improvement. Based on our observations, we are currently working on a detailed document, including a list of best practices and individual recommendations for each of the hotels and high schools, as well as tools for calculating medium and long term benefits of green interventions. This document is meant to help the institutions to not only reduce their negative impact on the environment (and thus conserve Mindos unique ecosystem and attract more environmentally conscious international tourists), it should also help them save money in the long run.

One of our main recommendations for the local hotel owners is the creation of an “Association for Green Tourism in Mindo”, in order to strengthen cooperation between ecologically conscious businesses. This association should function as a common room for exchanging ideas and facilitating the implementation of environmentally friendly projects and practices.

Greater cooperation between the local businesses could therefore constitute an important step towards making Mindo a Smart Destination for global tourism. In the future, the implementation of the EcoHelix platform will intensify this approach by constantly offering committed local businesses access to the international market of eco-tourism, advanced online training and possibilities of crowdfunding (more on that soon).