High community involvement, low environmental impact. The new kids on the block are bringing a new developmental paradigm to town that is encouraging to see. Hotel Desierto Azul in Todos Santos and Hotel So Far So Good in El Pescadero are demonstrating how the new hotels and restaurants arriving on our shores can have the lightest impact on the bounteous nature and limited infrastructure of our towns, while having a tremendously positive impact on community life.

Desierto Azul is the passion project of Nilu Feregrino and Fabrizio Cavallo, a Mexican-Italian couple who opened their hotel and accompanying cooking school about a year ago. Their vibe is distinctly new age (“Discover a more conscious approach to a vacation. Disconnect and regenerate in harmony with nature.”) but behind the plant-based cooking, aromatic suites, and detox energy designed to have an enlightening impact on guest consciousness, is the extremely hard work of limiting their impact on the earth and local resources. “The solar panels that provide the electricity, the biodigestor that converts our black water into gray water for the garden, the Water Ways Baja central water filtration system that provides drinking water throughout the hotel – all of these are expensive choices” notes Nilu, the Mexican half of the couple. Fabrizio, the Italian part of the partnership, picks up her theme. “Because we chose to implement these zero waste choices from the beginning, we had to limit our investment elsewhere. We currently have only 4 suites, and we have only implemented stage one for our garden and pool area. Our goal is to help guests see an alternative to the chemicals that we’re bombarded with every day and to help influence the choices they make to achieve a healthier state. We lead by example in the choices that we make for the hotel and cooking school.” Residents are encouraged to participate in their plant-based cooking classes.

Alejandro Guerra Uribe and Enrique Velasco, owners of the new Hotel So Far So Good and the adjacent Mucho Bueno Restaurant likewise have invested in their facilities with the health of their guests and the local environment in mind. They use only solar energy for power and heating water. They have their own treatment systems for black and gray waters. They compost the organics from their all plant-based restaurant, and they collect all recyclables and deliver them to a facility in La Paz. But their efforts don’t stop at their own front door. They encourage people from the community to drop off recycling in their bins, and they organize a beach and road cleanup every Saturday morning in Los Cerritos. If you’d like to join, they meet at Mucho Bueno Restaurant at 7 AM!

Like Desierto Azul, Hotel So Far So Good has several practices that reflect its zero waste approach to business. Among these efforts are:

• A central water filtration system so that there are no plastic bottles on the property

• Bulk / refill purchases of as many items as possible – including coffee, tea, and bath products – to reduce plastic and packaging

Resources used by one or both businesses to help with their zero waste efforts:

• Sirena Vegetal. Cabo-based company that provides biodegradable bath products in refillable containers

• Gratitude Coffee. Organic coffee maker in La Paz that adheres to zero waste principles and sells coffee in large, refillable containers

• Water Ways Baja. Todos Santos-based water filtration company.

• BATP Biologically Active Tissue Paper. This can be used in conjunction with a biodigestor.

Desierto Azul and Hotel So Far So Good Hotel / Mucho Bueno Restaurant are true leaders in sustainable development and provide a great model for other businesses in the area.