Corporate Social Responsability

Hotel El Pantano applies a policy of Corporate Social Responsibility which includes the following elements:

  • Sustainable Management
  • Personnel Management
  • Care for the Environment
  • Reduced Energy and Water consumption
  • Local Development

Below you can read more about one of these elements:


Sustainable Management                          

Hotel el Pantano and Rainforest Alliance have established an alliance to implement Best Practices for Sustainable Tourism since July 2008. Our aim is to obtain the official certificate which identifies us as a sustainable enterprise.


Personnel Management:

El Pantano complies with the national regulation which defines the rights of its employees such as: minimum salaries, humane working hours and schedules, social security, holidays, payment of extra working hours, payment of 13th month, payment of bonus for each year of labor contract.

In addition we promote the training of our staff and encourage them to assume specific responsibilities according to their duties.


Care for the environment:

In our area we have planted a wide variety of trees to contribute to the creation of a environmentally sound micro-climate, creating a green area just at the edge of the Jalapa town center.

We separate our waste in organic and inorganic waste. The inorganic waste in its majority is fed to our animals we keep on the site such as dogs, cows and sheep, while the inorganic waste is collected by the town council.

To reduce to a minimum the amount of inorganic waste we try to avoid the sale of products in non-reusable packaging.


Saving Energy and Water consumption

 

To reduce our energy consumption we have installed 2 solar panels which powers the lamps in the kitchen, restaurant and terraces as well as our portable computers, printers, WIFI modem and our Point Of Sale terminals (credit cards). In addition we have installed low energy consuming lamps throughout our infrastructure.

We have limited the areas with ornamental plants who require irrigation in the dry season and only use native plants and trees to reduce the consumption of water.

We invite our clients to cooperate with these policies to accept voluntarily that their bed linen and towels are changed every other day and that they take care not to leave lamps and electrical appliances working while they are not in their rooms.


Local development:

We try as much as possible to select our staff from the neighboring area.

When possible,  we try buy local products produced in the direct neighborhood of our hotel with local families. For example: tortillas, the staple thin, round  bread made from maize which we buy every day.

We  buy our products at the Jalapa local market although in some cases this might incur in higher costs. Only a limited number of products we buy outside Jalapa because they are not available within Jalapa or are not available with the quality and standards we require (example: beef, pork and fish products).

We operate our special program called PAFC, “Programa de Apoyo a Familias Campesinas” (Assistance Program to Local Farm Families). With this program we assist farmers in the sale and promotion of their products.

So far we have within this program for sale in El Pantano Pine handy crafts, wood based handy crafts, local special coffees and Jamaica Roses (to prepare tea and fruit juices).

We have inverted a lot of time and financial resources during the last 10 years to develop tourism in Jalapa to promote the local economic, social and cultural development. We have created several tourism circuits in the rural areas by encouraging and assisting local farmer families to participate.

Our hotel is a proud founding member of the Cooperative For Tourism Development in the North of Nicaragua,  COODETUR Las Segovias R.L.