Sustainable living in Costa Rica is the art of doing more with less, in surroundings that make it easy. There are as many types of sustainable lifestyles to be forged in Costa Rica as there are people interested in living them. This section contains information and links to resources to help these seekers realize their dream.
Fortunately, Costa Rica has been a one of the world’s most successful laboratories for sustainable development, which has created an excellent environment for persons interested in green living. This has enabledthe creation of not only many successful examples of sustainable homes, businesses and communities, but also the existence of easily accessible infrastructure – in the form of human and material resources –to create others.

A new and rapidly growing trend in Costa Rica real estate is the creation of communities dedicated to green living. In these initiatives, the ideal is to organize and build the community in order to minimize the impact on the environment, while helping provide a healthy lifestyle for residents in harmony with the natural surroundings, and often, with the local culture.
These communities are taking a wide variety of forms, from low-budget communeswith simpleinstallations to developments with expensive and elaborate homes and infrastructure. To date, most sustainable communities have been established in rural areas, although increasingly new developments in urban and suburban areas are incorporating elements of green design in buildings, landscaping, infrastructure and common areas.
An important part of what makes these communities different is a commitment to energy conservation, and often the use of renewable energy sources.
In many cases, these communities also strive to grow healthy food, utilizing permaculture techniques and organic gardening in an effort to decrease dependence on commercially grown and distributed food. They often do this for economic reasons, but also to avoid promoting the use of agrochemicals and incurring the environmental impacts inherent in transporting food.
Members of green or sustainable communities also often try to become actively involved in the social and economic life of surrounding towns or villagesby buying local products and supporting local merchants, or by helping support schools or other community projects and needs.
Finally, thesecommunities are in many cases organized by persons who share spiritual, religious, or philosophical interests. In all cases, however, a shared value is a commitment to protecting the environment and to sustainable development, and the importance of demonstrating commitment to these ideals by incorporating them into their daily lives.