It was a rainy afternoon in Costa Rica. Despite the weather we visited the Tobias International Airport which is headquarters for Nature Air and its sister company Aerotico. Nature Air is the first carbon Neutral Airline in the World and Aerotico is a biodiesel company that supports Nature Air, buys used consumer vegetable oils from local restaurants (also collects it from its employees), and then sells biodiesel to the airport and at stations in the city for other non-aeronautical purposes.

 Catherine and Cindy check out the plane. Catherine is a Biology teacher from Mancos High School in Mancos, CO and Cindy is a Math teacher from Milan High School in Milan, MI . In addition to being accomplished teachers Catherine is also a talented comic book artist and Cindy is a licensed pilot--WOW, what a talent pool we have in our group!  

(I would also mention that Cindy is 6 feet tall!)

Tatiana C. a director for Nature Air’s corporate marketing gave us a tour of the offices and training facility and lead the group in a lively discussion of CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) as a marketing strategy of the 21st century and in Costa Rica specifically. Then Havier P. the head of operations for Aerotico took us on a tour of the hanger.

In one hanger a variety of small engine planes were being rebuilt. We learned that currently the Nature air planes do not run on biodiesel—no planes run on diesel. These planes are experimental efforts which are still in the works. The planes that Nature Air is flying now run on kerosene. The bio diesel is used by airfield support vehicles. THEN HOW IS NATURE AIR THE FIRST CARBON NEUTRAL AIRLINE? Well they plant trees and participate in other efforts to pay back, or offset, the carbon they use in flying passengers around Costa Rica. As you can see they have drastically downsized the support vehicles they used. 

They recycle, and they also invest in the local education of children in the remote adventure travel destination that they fly to, in addition they are the first proponents of bio diesel in the area. Nature Airs carbon footprint is substantially smaller than other comparablly sized airlines and substantially smaller than larger commercial airlines which use an enormous amount of carbon. To give you an idea of the magnitude of the problem I will share the analogy of one of the science teachers from our trip who said, “… if you lived in a cardboard box for one year with no electricity or running water your carbon use would be incredible small. Yet that substantial offset would not be enough to compensate for one air trip from Atlanta to New York on a commercial airliner.”