If you wish to offset your carbon footprint for your travel to/from Costa Rica, or for a home’s construction, there are a number of resources available – here are two we like, one in Costa Rica, one in the U.S.:

Reforest the Tropics, Inc. is a Costa Rican applied research program demonstrating climate change mitigation through sustainable farm forestry. They create forest areas in Costa Rica as long term carbon sinks.  You can participate by sponsoring a 1 hectare (2 1/2 acres) personal forest designed to offset an estimated 25 tonnes of CO2 annually, the amount that RTT estimates a typical family or couple generates each year.

The Carbon Fund is a U.S. provider of offsets. Using their calculators two flights from Washington D.C. to San Jose and a rental of a Hyundai Tucson 4x4 would generate 1.6 tons of CO2 and cost $16 to offset in their system.  You can use their calculators to check your own CO2 generation and their offset methods.

Trees For The Future: Since 1989, Trees for the Future has been helping communities around the world plant trees - successfully planting over 50 million trees.  Click here to make an online donation, or click here to find out more about donating stocks, cars, in-kind donations, and sending in a donation through the mail. The average cost per tree planted is under ten cents, and they also offer tree planting certificates that make a great gift.