Sustainability Summary2014

Table of Contents

A Message from our President ..................................................................................

About Swiss Travel ....................................................................................................

The Certificate of Sustainable Tourism ......................................................................

The Social Axis: becoming a good neighbor .............................................................

Philanthropy: the love for mankind .............................................................

The Santa Ana Alliance (SAA) .....................................................................

Working for our children’s education .........................................................

The members of Swiss Travel: developing our staff ......................................

The Green Axis: working with nature in mind ..........................................................

The Economical Axis: ensuring the continuity ..........................................................

Agents of Development ..............................................................................

The responsible consumer ..........................................................................

The responsible employer ...........................................................................

The Customer Axis: the Accent on Service ...............................................................

Future plans .............................................................................................................

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A Message from our President

For over a decade, Swiss Travel has rigorously enforced sustainable

practices in its daily operations, believing that working with this

purpose helps our organization become a much more active and

responsible part of our planet and the contribution we are willing to

leave for future generations. The Sustainable Tourism Certification

(CST) Swiss Travel has achieved is one of the most important

recognitions any organization can hold in Costa Rica when

sustainability and environmental protection are pursued.

Modifying our mindset towards more sustainable practices has allowed Swiss Travel to present a

more complete vision to our clients and expanding these efforts even into the operation of our

business partners, our customers, staff and the communities we serve; and, while doing so,

reducing the impact on the natural, cultural, social and economic resources we interact with.

Promoting this philosophy with all our staff members and suppliers, makes them an important part

of a process that reaches all corners of Costa Rica, with measures that help achieve higher levels of

efficiency, develop new business operational standards and enforce long-term environmental

programs, providing sustainable economic development within the communities we operate in.

We firmly believe that the tourism industry is reaching new heights in Costa Rica and that the

development and application of new sustainable practices and will safeguard the wellbeing of

future generations.

Emilia Gamboa

President, Swiss Travel

About Swiss Travel

Over the span of more than four decades, Swiss Travel has led the tourism industry in Costa Rica as

a proud tour operator, offering the most complete variety of services for individual travelers, groups,

incentives and cruise ship travelers from all over the world.

Our trusted and recognized services include touristic advisors, high quality controls, the use of the

latest technology, world class tour guides and 24/7 customer service and support. These elements,

combined with creative and tailor made programs, allow us to guarantee the satisfaction of our

customers as well as the best traveling experience in the country, complemented with fine-tuned

and well-orchestrated services that exceed all expectations.

Being able to offer the most complete variety of touristic products and to protect the environment

while doing so has been one of the key objectives Swiss Travel has pursued over these years,

respecting the amazing beauty and culture of a country that has been blessed by nature with some

of the most diverse biological environments in the planet.

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The Certificate of Sustainable Tourism

We believe that great experiences can only happen in places that are also great to live, not just to

visit.

Becoming a sustainable company and a productive member of a new age of doing business, is an

enormous challenge in a path of multiple rewards. In 2006, Swiss Travel reached a turning point

and since then, has pursued a way to fully integrate this concept into the very heart of the company.

From this moment on, the corporation has brought together both its strategic and operational

visions to become a transversal element in everything it does.

The Certificate for Sustainable Tourism (CST) is a free and governmental certificate that evaluates

touristic companies in accordance to how much they adhere to a sustainable model of doing

business.

The CST evaluates four main elements through an audit consisting of relevant criteria, which the

volunteering company must fulfill and support with field and documentary evidence.

• Relation with the natural environment and good environmental practices.

• Internal organization and overall economic stability.

• Relation with social groups, communities, workers, suppliers, business partners and

stakeholders.

• Customer satisfaction and mechanisms to ensure safety, communication, ethical commercial

practices, as well as environmental and cultural education thought the services offered.

The Social AxisBecoming a good neighbor

The main objective behind the efforts conducted by Swiss Travel in the social axis pursue to

become a good neighbor, a good boss, a good business partner and a good leader in the tourism

industry. Costa Rica is immersed into a new era of doing business and companies are conscious

that they cannot operate in an isolated bubble, they must adopt the new social and economic

realities of different social groups that can be affected in both positive and negative ways.

Swiss Travel is committed to end with children exploitation, especially in the sexual and

commercial aspects. Reinforcing this objective we have signed the ‘Code of Conduct against

Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents on Travel and Tourism’, a national

program led by the Tourism Board and the Children’s Protection Agency, and also ‘The Code’

(International ECPAT network), ratifying our commitment to stop this criminal activity, both

nationally and internationally. Through workshops, internal practices, external signs and contract

clauses we can also identify and denounce this misconduct, while at the same time operating with

a zero tolerance policy towards them.

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Philanthropy: The Love for Mankind

Swiss Travel was part of a series of activities that helped bring communities together and to improve

the lives of many people through them.

• A donation of 50 schools desks and a Christmas gift for the children was made in favor of the

elementary school at the indigenous community of Quitirrisí. This donation will allow children

to receive their education properly equipped. Through this donation we have also helped the

‘Maná Foundation’, a Christian center that builds and sells these desks to fund a rehabilitation

center for former drug addicts.

• The Christian organization ‘Obras del Espíritu Santo’, an organization that provide services,

shelter and food completely free of charge to nearly 60.000 people living in conditions of

extreme poverty all over Costa Rica also received an important donation on behalf of Swiss

Travel.

• The community of La Promesa also benefited through Swiss Travel’s collaboration during 2014.

This is one of the poorest communities of Santa Ana and its elementary school at La Promesa is

attended by children that live in extremely difficult conditions. We have worked with this

community through the development of workshops on important subjects.

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The Santa Ana Alliance (SAA)

The Santa Ana Alliance (SAA) is a private-public alliance conformed by a little over 80 companies

that work together with Santa Ana’s local government and whose mission is to coordinate, promote

and execute actions that seek the sustainable development of the community, integrating the

private-sector with the support from local authorities into different activities that work towards the

development of its social and environmental surroundings.

Swiss Travel and the SAA work continuously with local schools. The Costa Rican Education and

Environmental Ministries have signed an agreement to pursue the Blue Flag Program Certification,

a social and environmental program that spans nationwide and pretends to incorporate all of Costa

Rica’s public schools. To this date, more than 10.000 young men and women were impacted

positively by this program, already active across 27 education centers. Swiss Travel has played a

very important role in this process, as coordinator for the development and deployment of a series

of different seminars and workshops, as well as following up on the proper evolution of most of the

programs developed by the SAA.

The SAA, executed a reforestation program for the community of Santa Ana with the help of

University of Costa Rica (UCR), in which the staff members of participating companies planted

their own seeds, helping restore certain public spaces and reduce the carbon footprint of the

companies in the community.

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Working for Our Children’s Wellbeing

We believe that the development of education is one of the most important elements that will

positively produce change in our society. This is the reason why Swiss Travel has been working

closely with Brasil de Santa Ana’s elementary school, a center that provides education to over 200

children, giving them more personalized attention and support. Important health aspects from the

community were covered through workshops and the development of administrative tools and

operational procedures for a waste management center.

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The Members of Swiss Travel: Developing our Staff

Motivated staff members are always more productive, more creative and more engaged with the

vision of the organization they work with. At Swiss Travel, we strive to keep a highly motivated

team of professionals as part of our staff. Appreciating what each one of these individuals brings to

the team, developing both their strengths and overcoming their areas of opportunity will help Swiss

Travel achieve a new level of excellence in our services.

Different team building activities brought our staff closer together and helped improve aspects such

as team work, communication and problem solving abilities, energizing our whole staff.

We have also discussed in great depth the social and environmental aspects of waste, water, energy,

biodiversity and our company’s commitment toward the protection of children and adolescents

from sexual exploitation in the travel and tourism industry.

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Wastemanagement

71%

Rec

ycle

d

land

fill29%

for

1 yea

r

348.000of the most energy efficient

available in the countryLED lights

ElectricityBetween 2012-2014Monthly Reduction

516 kWh

-12.15%

WaterConsumption Between

20122014

OWNplanttreatment

Was

teW

ater&

degrades the organic components

or 14823 gallons/month

Wastemanagement

71%

Rec

ycle

d

land

fill29%

for

1 yea

r

348.000of the most energy efficient

available in the countryLED lights

ElectricityBetween 2012-2014Monthly Reduction

516 kWh

-12.15%

WaterConsumption Between

20122014

OWNplanttreatment

Was

teW

ater&

degrades the organic components

or 14823 gallons/month

The Green AxisWorking with Nature in Mind

384year pe

r

Paper

saving

dramatic 73%reduction in

paperconsumption

Sustainability Report 2014

-13%

2013

2014

Carbonfootprint

51.2 tons/year

45.1tons/year

The Green AxisWorking with Nature in Mind

384year pe

r

Paper

saving

dramatic 73%reduction in

paperconsumption

Working with Nature in MindSustainability Report 2014

-13%

2013

2014

Carbonfootprint

51.2 tons/year

45.1tons/year

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The Economical AxisEnsuring the Continuity

The economic factor is always present in any company, but rarely do companies realize the

important role this element plays between the social and environmental aspects, and even rarer to

find it managed in an adequate manner.

All companies strive to endure, to grow and to develop the necessary mechanisms to ensure their

own survival on the market, and Swiss Travel is no exception to this rule. However, we are aware

that ensuring our continuity depends also on the well-being of our stakeholders, collaborators,

clients, partners, suppliers, community members and organizations, among others. We have

become active members of our community in order to work together to better our surrounding

conditions.

Agents of Development

We believe that tourism can be an important agent of development for local communities as long

as it is well administered. Swiss Travel has worked closely with the communities at the Osa

Peninsula, in the Southern Pacific; one of the most biological diverse regions of Costa Rica, and it

is in desperate need of responsible development that can increase the quality of life for its

inhabitants, without harming the environment and ensuring a better quality of life for its

inhabitants.

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The Responsible Consumer

Most of the environmental impacts of a service company, like ourselves, is allocated in the goods

we purchase. Working hand in hand with our supply chain and establishing policies and

mechanisms that evaluate goods and suppliers has been part of the efforts made in order to reduce

and monitor our environmental footprint.

The Responsible Employer

Workers spend a great deal of their time in their companies, and it is only fair that their companies

make efforts to make this time more enjoyable. Through efforts like the ‘Asociación Solidarista’

(Solidarity Association), Swiss Travel staff members are able to get additional social benefits,

discounts when purchasing certain goods and health services such as lab tests and nutritional

advice.

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The Customer AxisThe Accent on Service

Swiss Travel puts the accent on service on everything it does. All efforts previously described,

reflect motivated, educated and sensitive collaborators willing to exceed customer expectations.

Our clients and by extension their clients (our tourists), will experience our philosophy first hand.

Every product that we offer in our extensive portfolio has been inspected on site, approved all

insurance information requests, as well as financial obligations and taxation. Our contract clauses

and inspection check lists guarantee a socially, economically and environmentally responsible trip

for the tourists visiting our country. The quality of service, proper management of reserves, work

with local communities, their relationship with local economies and development of good

practices are also evaluated. We prioritize CST (Sustainable Tourism Certification) certified

companies because they have been already assessed rigorously by the government. Our Customer

Service Department keeps the company up to date with any suggestion or complaints, and pop up

inspections can result from our customer’s comments.

Customers will receive important information about our country from world class tour guides, all

certified and trained in the cultural, environmental and safety issues aspects the activities they

perform. We offer 24/7 customers service phone line, and we communicate periodically with our

visitors, making sure their itinerary is going according to plan. Each client has an open log where

everything regarding their stay in the country is recorded.

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Future plans

This 2015 brings new challenges for us. A project that we started in 2014, The Bandera Azul

Ecológica (Ecological Blue Flag Program), will be awarded, and we intend to pass it with 5 of the

maximum 6 stars possible. In order to achieve this, we are working even harder in aspects related

with water, energy, fossil fuels and other environmental impacts that the company is always

pushing to reduce.

During the year, we will be evaluated again for the CST (Sustainable Tourism Certification), aiming

to obtain the final grade of 5 levels or leaves after many years of work. We will continue to

challenge ourselves and our staff to be even more efficient and resourceful, bringing the accent on

service to its maximum potential, and of course, exceed your expectations and ours.

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