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Our Playa del Carmen Resort Is Eco-Verified for 2017!

Posted on 4 m read

Congrats to Sandos Caracol on its Rainforest Alliance Verification!

For several years in a row now, Sandos Caracol Eco Resort has passed its Rainforest Alliance verification with flying colors. After an extensive review of the resort’s services, eco programs and facilities for 2017, the prestigious Rainforest Alliance organization honored Sandos Caracol yet again with an annual verification to recognize the hotel as a true eco-friendly resort.

What Is The Rainforest Alliance?

With a history dating back over 30 years, the Rainforest Alliance is a thriving organization that strives to prevent deforestation and environmental destruction across the globe by helping farmers, foresters, travel-related businesses and other industries to channel their eco practices toward greater sustainable development. Through their verification programs, the Rainforest Alliance helps conscious consumers (like our guests!) to easily identify sustainable businesses and hotels.

Sandos Caracol Playa del Carmen nature resort

What Makes Sandos Caracol a True Eco Resort?

In order to achieve our Rainforest Alliance verification, at Sandos Caracol we were able to comply with their strict standards for environmental sustainability as well as social sustainability, helping our natural surroundings and our own local community. To give you an idea of what makes Sandos Caracol an eco resort, here’s a quick list of our favorite eco-friendly programs we have at our Playa del Carmen property:

The Xcalacoco Experience: the resort’s sustainable activity program focusing on the environment and Mayan culture, with eco tours, cultural workshops, nighttime Mayan shows, Mayan cooking, eco activities and so much more for our guests every day of the week

Animal rescue and repopulation programs , for example: the white-tailed deer repopulation program and the Mini Farm of rescue animals (click here to read more about the Mini Farm!)

Recycling, Reducing and Reusing: Last year alone, with the help of our guests and employees, we were able to recycle well over 200 tons of materials, like glass, cardboard, plastics and much more, among our 4 Mexico resorts

Vegetarian and vegan options available, especially at Salvia, our beachfront health food restaurant

Programs to eliminate plastic contamination caused by beverages: use of our famous reusable “Sandos” cups, our “Say No to Straws” policy (the equivalent of saving 1,825 plastic cups worth of contamination per year), and the use of water jugs in some of our guestrooms

Our on-site organic garden

Making sure organic leftovers from our restaurants and kitchens have a sustainable final destination as compost, sending them to our on-site compost system as well as a local ranch

The “Plant a Tree” program where guests can plant a regional tree at the resort to commemorate their stay and help reforest the area; last year, our guests planted an average of 140 trees a month!

Plant a Tree Sandos Caracol

On on-site water treatment plants at each of our hotels that take our used water and make it clean again; this new, clean water is used to water our lovely garden areas and plant nurseries

Our very own plant nursery so we can grow and reforest endemic local plant and tree species into the jungles of the Riviera Maya

The “Help Us Help Others” program, where guests can bring donations of school supplies, clothing and more so we can give them to local communities

Programs to provide food, shelter, spaying/neutering and veterinary care to the resort’s rescue cats

The Sandos Turtle Camp, protecting sea turtle nests on the beach in the summertime and releasing the newly hatched baby sea turtles into the ocean with our guests in the fall. Among our four Mexico hotels, we release thousands of baby sea turtles each year. This protection helps eggs and hatchlings to survive potential predators and storms so that even more of them can reach the ocean.

Cabo San Lucas baby sea turtle release

Sandos Caracol works closely with the local Maya community; you can often find them selling their crafts at our artisan markets, preparing Maya food for our guests at our Solstice and Equinox events, and performing traditional ceremonies and dances. This exchange allows us to help the local community economically while also keeping their beautiful traditions alive.

Mayan handicrafts

Each of our Sandos Mexico resorts also implements a number of small but effective energy-saving programs, which has allowed us to save over 12.6 million KWH annually, and Sandos Caracol emits about 17,000 tons less of CO2 each year.

Discover the Eco Experience

Come to Playa del Carmen, Mexico and become part of our Eco Experience at Sandos Caracol! Here, you’ll be able to enjoy beach days, Caribbean sunshine and a lush, natural jungle setting in the heart of the Riviera Maya. To find the latest deals for booking your next eco-friendly vacation, click here to see our Sandos discount page online.

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1 Comment
  • sandra taylor
    May 28, 2017

    awesome

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