Environmental Policy
Water Resource
Costa Rica Sun Tours is committed to:
- Ensuring that water consumption both in the office and in the field is rational
- Encouraging our customers to support rational water consumption programs proposed by suppliers
- Maintaining a monthly monitoring and control plan for water consumption in our offices, as well as goals and corrective actions
- Developing a preventive maintenance program
- Improving our fleet washing and grounds maintenance routines
- Carrying out awareness programs among our employees regarding the rational and efficient use of water
- Obtaining and installing, in all possible cases, devices to reduce water consumption
- Encouraging our wholesalers to provide reusable water bottles for their clients
- Denouncing the sources of water contamination in the places we visit
Energy Resource
Costa Rica Sun Tours is committed to:
- Reducing and keeping energy consumption constant, at our offices
- Encouraging customers to support rational electricity consumption programs proposed by suppliers
- Using energy reduction devices as well as energy efficient equipment
- Maintaining a monthly consumption monitoring and control plan in our offices, as well as goals and corrective actions
- Making the most of natural lighting in our facilities
- Developing a preventive maintenance program for the facilities and ventilation devices installed in the office
- Ensuring that our employees make rational use of energy
- Carrying out awareness programs among our employees regarding the rational and efficient use of energy
Waste Management
Costa Rica Sun Tours is committed to:
- Strengthening, among employees and clients, the efficient management of waste generated both in the office and in the execution of the tours
- Using gallons of water to refill bottles, as well as the use of reusable tableware for included picnics
- Using products whose packaging is biodegradable or easily degraded
- Having a solid waste recycling program: paper, plastic, cardboard, glass, computer equipment and its components
- Providing our collaborators with containers for the separation of waste and a clean and orderly area for collection before final disposal
- Handling a higher volume of emails instead of memos or notes; paper reuse will be strengthened (double-sided printing), use of smaller fonts and margins, and print only the pages needed
- Providing guides and driver/guides with double-sided itineraries
- Using only legal and environmentally safe collection services
Pollution
Costa Rica Sun Tours is committed to:
- Ensuring that all means of transportation used to carry out tours comply with the required environmental regulations
- Ensuring that the supplies used in the office are biodegradable
- Including activities that involve hiking, use of bicycles, kayaks, boats within itineraries
- Using environmentally friendly local airlines
- Ensuring that the office facilities, transport units, and public spaces comply with the Anti-Tobacco Law # 7501
Natural, Protected and Conservation Areas
Costa Rica Sun Tours is committed to:
- Supporting the conservation of protected areas
- Getting involved in protected area conservation programs
- Encouraging our clients to visit protected areas
- Abiding by national legislation on protected areas
- Making responsible and sustained use of the attractions of protected areas
- Adjusting to the carrying capacities of protected areas
- Educating our clients on the rules and regulations that must be followed when visiting natural areas
- Denying any activity that puts native, threatened, or endangered species at risk
- Preventing and denouncing the illegal extraction and captivity of wild animals and plants by suppliers and tourists in general
- Ensuring that our operations do not affect the habitats or behavior of wildlife species
- Discouraging and avoiding direct or indirect artificial feeding of wild animals
- Using native or endemic plants in the garden of our facilities
- Avoiding all commercialization of species or products of flora and fauna prohibited by law
Environmental Education
Costa Rica Sun Tours is committed to:
- Reinforcing the responsible and sustainable behavior, in environmental matters, of our clients on tours
- Visiting the protected areas of our country
- Informing tourists about the regulations that exist in the different protected areas
- Addressing the issue of global warming and the importance of reducing greenhouse gases during our tours
- Organizing annual seminars for our field staff that include topics related to conservation, natural history, culture, history, geography, and rural tourism
Environmental Legislation
Costa Rica Sun Tours is committed to:
- Maintaining the compendium of environmental legislation related to tourism in our library, namely:
- Decree No. 22989: Regulation of Public Use of Caño Island Biological Reserve.
- Decree No. 29019: Regulation Participatory Management of Natural Resources in the Gandoca Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge, Gandoca sector.
- Carrying capacity of the sectors of the Guanacaste Conservation Area.
- Decree No. 32505: Public Use Regulation for the Carara National Park.
- Decree No. 24702: Public Use Regulations for the Barva Parque Braulio Carrillo Sector.
- Decree No. 28243: Regulations for Public Use of Playa Hermosa National Wildlife Refuge.
- Decree No. 32627: Regulation for Public Use of the Ostional National Wildlife Refuge.
- Decree No. 24700: Regulation for Public Use of the Irazú Volcano National Park.
- Decree No. 27389: Public Use Regulation of the Arenal Volcano National Park.
- Decree No. 35848: Regulation for Public Use of the Tortuguero National Park.
- Decree No. 22482: Public Use Regulation for the Manuel Antonio National Park.
- Decree No. 22477: Corcovado National Park Public Use Regulation.
- Decree No. 20660: Chirripó National Park Public Use Regulation.
- Decree No. 26929: Regulations for the Management of Resources and Services in the Cahuita National Park.
- Decree No. 22478: Regulations for Public Use of the Barra Honda National Park.
- Decree No. 24701: Regulation for the Public Use of the Guayabo National Monument.
- Decree No. 29537: Regulation for the Public Use of Cocos Island National Park.
- Law No. 6172: Indigenous Law.
- Law No. 7554: Organic Law of the Environment
- Law No. 6703: Archaeological National Heritage.
- Law No. 7317: Wildlife Conservation Law.
- Regulation N°32495-MINAE-MOPT-MSP-MAG: Regulation for the operation of activities related to cetaceans in Costa Rica.
- Convention No. 7906: Inter-American Convention for the protection and conservation of sea turtles signed on January 31, 1997.
- Law No. 7575: Forest Law.
- Law No. 6084: National Parks Service Law.
- Law No. 7788: Biodiversity Law.
- Law No. 7555: Costa Rican Historical Architectural Heritage Law.
- Law No. 6703: National Archaeological Heritage Law.
- Law No. 7331: Law of Traffic on Public Land Roads
- Birdwatching Ethics Principles of the American Association of Birders.
Service Policy
Costa Rica Sun Tours is committed to:
- Satisfying the needs and expectations of our clients in an efficient, effective, and sustainable manner
- Recording and evaluating the opinions of clients regarding the services received by the agency
- Designing new itineraries for our clients
- CRST undertakes to deliver itineraries in which the activities and aspects to be rescued in each locality are specified to all tour guides
- Ensuring that our transport suppliers comply with the commitment of “quality service”
- Evaluating our service suppliers through questionnaires and applying any corrective measures
- Procuring the attention and design of itineraries made “to measure” for the clients that require it
- Informing our suppliers of any complaint or problem that arises during the execution of outsourced services
- Ensuring that each supplier that intervenes in the service chain has the basic and essential safety standards for each activity, be it transportation, tours, food
- Ensuring that our facilities are hygienic and safe in terms of infrastructure and evacuation
Socio-Cultural
Costa Rica Sun Tours is committed to:
- Supporting local projects in the communities we visit
- Ensuring the respect and protection of popular Costa Rican traditions
- Ensuring that all itineraries contain high cultural value for tourists
- Using rural or local suppliers within the itineraries that we develop
- Reporting any action or act that violates the good customs of the places we visit
- Strengthening, through promotion abroad, the Costa Rican culture and idiosyncrasy
- Prohibiting any activity or practice that threatens the cultural and social integrity of the communities we visit
- Instructing our clients on the attractions, history, culture, and traditions of the places we visit
- Prohibiting the trafficking, illicit exhibition, or illegal exploitation of cultural assets of our country
Human Resources/Labor
Costa Rica Sun Tours is committed to:
- Promising not to fire personnel, for being pregnant or breastfeeding, due to differences in creed, religion, sexual, philosophical, or political orientation
- Respecting differences in religion, sex, ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation, philosophical, and political beliefs among our personnel
- Guaranteeing ethnic and creed equity among its staff, as well as equal employment opportunities for people with disabilities
- Giving each new employee the respective induction
- Ensuring that each department keeps the functions and procedures manual updated
- Ensuring that our staff is kept informed of any changes that occur in labor matters
- Reviewing, updating, and disseminating the company’s internal policies among our employees
- Reviewing, updating, and disseminating our code of ethics among employees
- Reviewing, updating, and disseminating our code of conduct in the office and in the field
- Carrying out a performance evaluation of all our employees every six months
- Keeping an updated office and field emergency plan
- Annually updating the manual for guides, driver/guides, and drivers
- Annually training our office and field staff in matters of sustainability, respect for the environment, culture, idiosyncrasy, and corporate social responsibility
- Disseminating the regulations regarding the care of people with disabilities, protection of children and adolescents against commercial sexual exploitation, and protection of the architectural heritage of our country among our employees and tourists
Security Policy
Costa Rica Sun Tours is committed to:
- Hiring only those suppliers that prove to be up to date with their insurance policies and their corresponding emergency plans
- Keeping both the field and office emergency manuals up to date
- Keeping the evacuation routes marked in our facilities
- Keeping the safety and prevention equipment at our facilities up to date
- Reviewing its plan of risk factors to which it is exposed in its security management operation, and which is contained in the security management plan, annually
- Preparing and reviewing our prevention, reaction, and contingency plans every six months
- Reviewing the questionnaires for lodging suppliers, adventure suppliers: horseback riding, bicycles, rapids, sea and flat water, ropes, and cables; vehicle renters annually
- Updating the folder of accommodation, adventure and vehicle rental suppliers, the questionnaires duly filled out and documented
- Carrying out and documenting the drills carried out at our facilities every six months
- Keeping our civil liability and umbrella policy up to date to cover tourists in the event of an accident
- Reviewing the environmental risk measures protocol every six months
- Reviewing the protocol to monitor routes before and during the tours every six months
- Annually reviewing the internal protocol to deal with emergencies with tourists
- Providing our employees with safe facilities to carry out their work
Purchasing, Supply, and Supplier Policy
Costa Rica Sun Tours is committed to:
- Prioritizing those suppliers that demonstrate their integrity and degree of compliance in all aspects, especially in the price-quality relationship, labor matters, human rights, environmental protection, and protection of children and adolescents against exploitation and commercial sex
- Hiring tour guides duly registered with the Costa Rican Tourism Institute
- Prioritizing those suppliers that have some environmental certification or verification or that apply good practices in their operations
- Contracting lodging services with those lodging establishments duly registered with the Costa Rican Institute of Tourism
- Seeking and encouraging the purchase and consumption of local or nationally produced products during our trips
- Purchasing biodegradable cleaning products for office and vehicle cleaning
- Purchasing office supplies from “green” suppliers
- Prioritizing the purchase of products in returnable, recycled, or reusable containers
- Using products made from recycled materials or other non-polluting cellulose in our promotional and information material
- Promoting, among our suppliers of lodging, food, and tours, that the facilities have facilities for people with disabilities
- Ensuring that food service suppliers have a formal food handling program and proper solid waste management
Operational Policies
Costa Rica Sun Tours is committed to:
- Reducing and offsetting the carbon footprint of your travel
- Ensuring, whenever possible, to consolidate tour services
- Assigning the transport units according to their maximum capacity
- Ensuring compliance with environmental regulations
- Promoting the artisanal products of companies or organizations of the localities that we visit
- Disseminating our “green guide”, environmental regulations, and good practices among our visitors
- Encouraging our collaborators and clients to make contributions in kind or in cash to community projects in the places we visit
- Hiring the services of suppliers from the areas we visit, such as local guides and tour operators
- Operating small groups on the tours we run
Business Ethics Policies
Costa Rica Sun Tours is committed to:
- Exercising a vigilant role during the execution of our tours and denouncing any alteration to the archaeological heritage of our country
- Exercising a vigilant role during the execution of our tours and denouncing any commercial sexual exploitation against girls, boys and/or adolescents
- Encouraging our employees to participate in community activities
- Providing the same services, in price and quality, to people with disabilities
- Providing travel options to Costa Rican tourism with differentiated rates
- Ensuring that our contact personnel provide fair, honest, and respectful treatment
- Maintaining the compendium of the legislation on social matters in our library, namely:
- Law 7600: Law Equal opportunities for people with disabilities
- Law No. 7899: Law against commercial sexual exploitation of minors
- Law 5339: Law regulating travel agencies
- Law No. 7476: Law against sexual harassment in employment and teaching
- Law No. 8204: Law on narcotics, psychotropic substances, drugs for unauthorized use, money laundering, and related activities
Quality Policy
The quality policy of Costa Rica Sun Tours is manifested through our firm commitment to clients to fully satisfy their requirements and expectations, for this we guarantee to promote a culture of quality based on the principles of honesty, leadership, and development of human resources, solidarity, commitment improvement and safety in our operations
