Author: Pilar Salazar

The Blue Flag (Bandera Azul) is an award given annually. It rewards the effort and voluntary work of the different local committees that seek to improve environmental conditions to mitigate and adapt to Climate Change.

Why will we apply for the Blue Flag Certificate for Climate Change this year? This question is one for our business friends and colleagues in the area who are interested in the subject and who want to know if it's rewarding. During our years as a company, we have given great importance to the issues of sustainability, environment, and social responsibility. 

It has been a significant challenge in our race to achieve carbon neutrality. Those of us who manage businesses know how hard it is to compare all operational tasks with projects of this nature. You have to have a lot of drive, conviction, and patience to move forward. As time and resources are not abundant, the question arises if it is more worthwhile to apply for specific certifications, which can cause tedious bureaucratic procedures. Or would it be better to invest energy to carry out concrete individual or collective actions that impact? Since it is my conclusion, the national system does not have a good Carbon Neutral certification for small and medium businesses.

And during this exploration, I realized that it is best to explore options thoroughly to guide the energy and efforts to generate the most significant positive impact. If you have lived in this beautiful community for more than a decade, you know that this area is growing by leaps and bounds. Within this growth, we mustn't lose sight of what is important, taking care of what brought us to live here and what we consider valuable. For this reason, last year, I invested time studying and consulting about the Blue Flag Program. At first, it seemed overwhelming, but after reading everything carefully and consulting experiences, we started the engine in January.

When we started, I honestly thought that it would be easy for us and probably be about documenting all the efforts we made. But as I progressed in understanding this, I realized that it involves taking responsibility for areas or actions in which we use to turn a blind eye. Being committed to looking at our scope more holistically encourages us to implement pending initiatives of great importance.

It also allows us to create alliances to increase the impact of our efforts. That's why we embarked on this process. I'm learning and just in the inscription process (which ends on March 31). I take the opportunity to invite those who want to put in the work and effort that this implies.

If this interests you, you can send me a private message, and from there, we walk together.