Tres Rios Sustainable Tourism | Hacienda Tres Rios, Riviera Maya, Mexico

The Hotel Hacienda is the first one to be built within Tres Ríos and, just like the rest of the project’s components, inherits the park’s philosophy of achieving an environmentally sustainable development through the intelligent and responsible use of our ecosystems and natural resources.

The Tres Ríos’ model of Sustainable Tourism Development clearly distinguishes us from other hotels and resorts. Establishing a clear set of environmental criteria to guide the design of the hotel allowed us to clearly identify the proper technologies and actions required to both develop the resort and protect the environment. Thus, Tres Ríos has invested in infrastructure, equipment and environmental management tools that have positioned us as model for sustainable tourism development.

Environmental Mission Guided Planning and Development

Two years of environmental study
Several years were used to study the ecosystems in Tres Ríos. During that stage of Environmental Characterization and Analysis, a team of scientists and experts was assembled to undergo research in topics as diverse as digital aerial photography, geographic analysis, mangrove and jungle ecosystems, wildlife, coral reefs, geo-hydrology, etcetera. This stage was fundamental, as it provided the basic information required to orient the sustainable development of the Tres Ríos Master Plan

Environmentally Friendly Construction
The information obtained from several studies allowed us to establish “preferred use” areas, which were used as the basis to appropriately place the Hotel Hacienda on an area with a lower environmental value within the ecosystem. The placement of buildings on lower environmental quality areas is fundamental to lessen environmental impacts and to avoid disturbing higher environmental quality areas.

Some other low impact construction practices included:


	Buildings constructed on over 400 pilings, 2.8 meters above ground which allows natural water flow to continue Use of pre-fabricated construction, assembled onsite, reducing dust contamination	Refuse carefully sorted and recycled when possible Use of regional materials and finishes 4,000 plants of 11 endangered and protected species rescued

Proper environmental management requires executing daily actions that are guided by the Tres Ríos Environmental Management System (EMS). This system is comprised of 7 programs and 20 sub-programs that are constantly implemented by the Tres Ríos’ “Green Team” (also known as the Environmental Supervision Team), and includes plant and wildlife management, environmental monitoring, waste management, environmental education and environmental contingency actions.


	Cold water from deep well used to cool air conditioning systems Heat generated from air conditioning is captured and used to heat hot water	In-room motion sensors shut down unnecessary energy use when rooms are unoccupied A titanium-clad water desalination plant treats and filters the water, avoiding use of the freshwater aquifer


	326 acres of land 150 acres of nature preserve 90 animal species	120 plant species 10 cenotes Over 50,000 plants reforested in 6 acres of forests previously impacted by hurricanes

In 2006, Tres Ríos was recognized by the Mexican government as a “regional and national model for sustainable tourism development”