Sustainable Campus | INCAE

Welcome to INCAE

Through different projects and environmental initiatives implemented on the campuses, INCAE aims to transfer the knowledge acquired by students in the classrooms to their daily lives, through the experience of living on a sustainable campus.

Get to know our Campuses

  • Executive Residences Building on Walter Kissling Gam campus

    The building was designed as a space for participants to be in a cool place with a bioclimatic design that incorporates criteria to make it more efficient in the use of resources. Some of the actions carried out were:

    • Design of a ventilated cover, where the heat captured by the cover is dissipated, allowing the wind to pass between the cover and the enclosures
    • Water heating by solar thermal equipment.

  • Stephan Schmidheiny Building

    On October 25, 1995, the Swiss businessman Stephan Schmidheiny participated as an observer in a summit of the presidents of the Central American countries held at the Business School of Harvard University. After this event, INCAE proposed the creation of a new organization in the Central American region: a center for research, dissemination of knowledge and promotion of key ideas on competitiveness and sustainability. The initiative evolved into the Latin American Center for Competitiveness and Sustainable Development (CLACDS).

  • Rooms- Executive Residences Building

    The building uses materials with recycled content such as the carpet in the corridors and the plastic wood in the decks, low-consumption lighting fixtures, and low-consumption bathroom fittings and taps.

    Most of the materials and construction systems were acquired locally and each room has natural lighting and operable windows to allow natural ventilation and low consumption air conditioners, in addition, they have a “smart” closure that turns off all energy consumption when leaving.

  • Executive Houses in Campus Francisco de Sola

    When taking a walk through the Bellavista and La Cañada areas of INCAE's Nicaragua campus, it is easy to imagine that one is in a Mediterranean town. The simple elegance of the white houses contrasting with the green of the plants and the shadows of the palm trees makes you almost expect to see the sea between the white silhouettes of the buildings.

    The houses have solar panels for water heating.

  • Executive Houses in Campus Francisco de Sola

    Each room has its own bathroom and study space. Each house has a small kitchen and a shared living room, to encourage networking among the participants in the executive programs.

    All the houses were designed incorporating sustainability criteria such as low consumption lighting fixtures and taps.

  • Fauna in INCAE

    A fauna inventory was carried out in order to identify some of the species present in INCAE. The objective was to determine the areas of natural interest and to achieve through educational campaigns to broaden the level of environmental awareness and awareness of INCAE students and officials, as well as to improve the management of campus trails.

    If you visit any of our campuses, you may have the opportunity to observe some of the 71 or 87 species of wildlife present on the Francisco de Sola and Walter Kissling Gam campus, respectively.

  • Forest Wealth

    On the Costa Rica and Nicaragua campuses you will be able to find 80 and 53 species of trees respectively, when visiting INCAE's facilities and trails.

  • Executive Residences Building on Walter Kissling Gam campus
  • Stephan Schmidheiny Building
  • Rooms- Executive Residences Building
  • Executive Houses in Campus Francisco de Sola
  • Executive Houses in Campus Francisco de Sola
  • Fauna in INCAE
  • Forest Wealth

Internal Initiatives

Institutional Recycling Program

This program exists since 2010 and since then it has been possible to recycle around 111 tons of ordinary waste.

In addition, on campus special waste collections such as: electronics, batteries and fluorescent lamps are carried out.

Both on the Francisco de Sola and Walter Kissling Gam campuses, recycling stations are located at different points of the buildings, houses and exteriors.

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Reduction of paper consumption

In 2012, actions began such as reducing the delivery of printed material to students and redesigning internal procedures. With this, a significant reduction in the consumption of institutional paper was achieved. In addition, policies such as paper reuse and double-sided printing were implemented.

Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction

Since 2011, a project to reduce greenhouse gas emissions began, which involved carrying out various actions:

  • Installation of solar panels for heating shower water in all the houses on both campuses.
  • Change in the internal and external lighting technology of the buildings on both campuses.
  • Installation of skylights in offices of the finance department and cafeteria, on the Walter Kissling Gam campus.
  • In 2015, an agreement was signed with the Costa Rican Electricity Institute to participate in the Pilot project launched by the Costa Rican government for the installation of photovoltaic panels. The project was implemented in a house on the Walter Kissling Gam campus.
  • Installation of hydrometers in houses and buildings on campus, as well as low-consumption taps.
  • Electric carts for internal use on the Walter Kissling Gam campus

Student contest: Sustainable house

The Contest is geared towards INCAE master's students, who live on campus throughout the year. It is divided into three categories according to their residence: single (houses of 8 students), married with children, married without children.

Its objective is to promote responsible consumption habits, through the development and incentive of activities that promote the rational use of water, electricity and the correct separation of waste in the student houses.

Did you know .....?

Origins of the Walter Kissling Gam Campus

Originally, the Costa Rica campus facilities were built to house a country club called the Racquet Country Club. In 1982, an agreement was signed with the government of Costa Rica, with which, through the National Bank of Costa Rica, the facilities of the old Alajuela Racquet Club, located in La Garita de Alajuela, are donated. The operation had the support of Presidents Rodrigo Carazo and Luis Alberto Monge of Costa Rica and with USAID, which made a USD $ 4 million donation to refurbish the new campus that, being a country club, was to become the headquarters of an academic institution .

Indian Cave

Some years ago INCAE owned a coffee farm located near the singles residences, located in the south-east of the CFDS. From this farm the coffee that was consumed throughout the year in the INCAE cafeteria was extracted.

One day, the farm workers who carried out their daily work, discovered a cave full of bats; When they entered, they saw that there were some drawings on the walls ... Later, I could see with my own eyes that they were drawings carved in the rocks, authentic petroglyphs. The workers began to call that place: "La Cueva del Indio"

Source: This story is part of INCAE's oral tradition and is based on an interview with Mr. Antonio Acevedo, Director of the Library System, and one of the institute's senior collaborators.