Sustainability

The visit to Life Monteverde was one of the highlights of the trip for me.  This was because they lived their ideals of sustainability in a realistic way.  I think the statement that "their composting practices can only fertilize about two hundred trees, which is not a lot  compared to the thousands for tree they have but that is two hundred trees they do not have to use chemical fertilizer on" sums up their approach of every little bit helps very nicely.  They also are not satisfied with the fact that they are making an effort.  They are continuously looking for ways to be a little bit more sustainable every day.

Perhaps my biggest take away was the fact that they do not just think about sustainability in terms of the land but also their social and economical practices.  I am glad we went to reception and spoke to one of the employees to obtain a different view from the other two group.  If we had not we would not have learned how they choose to treat their employees.  It really takes making a point of thinking outside yourself to understand what it is like for the Nicaraguans who come to live on their farm.  Life Monteverde is dedicated to cultivating a happy and sustainable work force.  This is evident in their practice of paying well above the paltry national minimum to it coffee pickers.  Add this to the sliding scale that keeps the pickers being paid roughly the same amount in the times of the year with smaller yields and providing adequate living conditions for their pickers and it is not surprising that there is very low turnover.

Life Monteverde understands that taking better care of your employees not only benefits the employee but the company as well.  When a company has the same employees year after year they are not constantly spending time and resources to train new employees.  When employees can grow within a company they become multifaceted knowledge bases that work more efficiently and are able to provide the company with new ideas that may not have been seen otherwise.  It takes a special company to understand that cultivating your workforce is one of the most economically sound things it can do for itself.

It was nice to see multiple methods of composting and waste collection.  Not only did they use what we think of as the tradition composting method but they used vermiculture as well.  by using more than one method they are able to provide their plants with a greater range of nutrients and reuse more of their waste products.  The cultivation of methane for their cooking fuel was another great layer to this process.  We saw a bit of this in our visit to Trapiche.  There they used the sugar cain husks as fuel to cook down the sugar cane juice.

Putting this all together left me with the reinforced lesson of every little bit counts.  I am considering starting some form of composting for my own garden and need to make more of an effort to an some recycling back into my routine.  I do not need to make big changes over night.  If i just work at it little by little change will happen.  If I can make these things a habit at home then maybe I can work some of them into my classroom.  For example I know a high school student who recently started a recycling program in her school.  She started by putting a paper bin in just one classroom.  From there she is gradually spreading to the other classrooms.  she also has a plan to work in aluminum  bins into each classroom and the cafeteria.  She is a great example of looking for the little ways one person can make an impact.