We do good in the communities.

BLP promotes volunteer programs aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals. These initiatives include: beach and river cleanups, tree planting and plastic cap collection, educational programs, among others. We also donate pro bono work to impact organizations, demonstrating our commitment to sustainability and the community.

BLP Costa Rica initiated this year actions for the other BLP offices in the region to begin environmental damage mitigation processes in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and demonstrate this effort through regional environmental certifications. There is already a network in place in the offices designing and implementing environmental management actions.

In relation to environmental management, more than 8 volunteer programs have been carried out in coordination with different companies. These programs include the following: Cleaning of beaches, rivers and tree planting. Support with Pro Bono services to non-governmental organizations working on the issue such as: Marviva and Amigos de la Isla del Coco. Collection of plastic container lids.

These are the volunteer programs that BLP has carried out over the years:

  • La Sabana Metropolitan Park Re-arborization Project in conjunction with Scotiabank
  • Guacalillo and Playa Azul Beach Cleanup Project
  • Categorization of recyclable waste at the Center for the Recovery of Recoverable Waste in the Canton of Santa Ana.
  • Volunteering Help Us Clean Santa Ana’s Gold River!
  • Tree planting campaign in the hills of Escazú (aquifer protection zone).
  • Volunteer planting of trees for the protection of the water resource in the canton of Escazú, in conjunction with the department
    environmental control department of the Municipality of Escazú.
  • Sow Project (creation of gardens with recycled pallets for growing vegetables) Centro de Educación Especial de Santa Ana.
  • Santa Ana
  • Guacalillo Beach and Agujas Beach cleanup project.
  • Categorization of recyclable waste at the ASEDISPROSA Collection Center.
  • Tree planting in Brasil de Mora in conjunction with the Municipality of Santa Ana.
  • Tree planting campaign in the hills of Escazú, a water source area protected by MINAE.
  • Tree planting and beautification campaign in the Arthur Gough PANI Village.
  • Tree day activity: Tree planting in Piedades de Santa Ana, Hacienda Paraíso Urbanization.
  • Tárcoles Beach Cleanup Project in conjunction with the Municipality of Garabito
  • Tree planting in the Arthur Gough Village of PANI
  • Planting of trees in the Parque de la Libertad
  • Tree planting in La Sabana Park
  • Guacalillo beach cleanup
  • Tree planting in La Sabana Park
  • Re-arborization of the Aura de Sol Project
  • Tapantí Park cleanup
  • Tree planting in Matinilla intake
  • Reforestation campaign at Aura del Sol, Piedades de Santa Ana
  • Guacalillo Beach cleanup
  • Parrita Beach cleanup
  • Cleaning day at Rio Oro River
  • Reforestation day in the Pabellón community, planting of 500 trees.

  • Tree planting volunteer program, 20 years of commitment to sustainable development.

The Lloverá Foundation was established in December 2012, with the objective of feeding street dwellers in the province of San José. Currently the foundation works on the problem of homelessness throughout the country, relocating this population in shelters and treatment centers. Throughout the year, rescue activities are developed in the different provinces of the country, with the support of public institutions and private entities such as BLP, seeking to give these people a better quality of life. We coordinate both the internment and their social and labor reinsertion. In addition to BLP’s legal Pro Bono work, we participate in volunteer activities for the collection of basic food basket products.

One of the main Pro Bono beneficiaries of BLP that has an impact on the prevention of poverty and hunger in the country is the Food Bank Foundation, which, through business linkages, distributes food to vulnerable populations throughout Costa Rica. During 2019 we will participate by providing all kinds of legal support Pro Bono, but also in volunteering to support the organization of the warehouse and food for their social works.

The Milk Bank Foundation was created at BLP as a Pro Bono beneficiary of the Firm. It was born when a former BLP attorney died a few days after the birth of her son, leaving him prematurely at risk because he was intolerant to formula milk. The Foundation’s objective is to provide a sufficient supply of breast milk to the newborn child who cannot receive it from his or her mother.

Asociación Amigos del Aprendizaje (ADA) is a BLP Pro Bono beneficiary organization that promotes spaces for literacy promotion and training for school children. Vivian Liberman, a member of BLP, is part of its board of directors and the association seeks to improve educational opportunities for children in public schools in Costa Rica, in order to enhance their participation as active and creative individuals in the knowledge society. ADA promotes a paradigm shift in the teaching of language, reading, and writing as the basis for school success. With ADA we carry out an annual volunteer activity called Tutor for a Day. Through this activity our legal staff attends a low-income public school to share with the children stories that have been written by children of their age and that have won the My Favorite Story Contest that is also carried out annually by ADA. Among the activities we carry out with them is the reading of stories to help them in the analysis of the texts and reading comprehension exercises.

Lifting Hands is a foundation located in Bajo de Los Anonos since 2012, which seeks to improve the quality of life of people living in a context of high social vulnerability. Through corporate and individual volunteering, it has provided educational, psychological, health and community development support to children, adolescents and adults through classes and tutorials taught in classrooms located inside a house with ample vegetation and a healthy environment.

Environment

We have focused our environmental efforts on education programs, which include awareness campaigns, participation in compensation initiatives and external talks to share the recycling culture, so that our actions are not limited only to the Firm’s work, but have an extensive effect on the personal lives of our employees, their homes and communities.

Additionally, our company is part of the Environmental Alliance of the Municipality of Santa Ana, with which we have carried out volunteer activities such as: cleaning of rivers, beaches, painting of schools, work at the Municipality’s collection center, tree planting campaigns in the Parque de La Libertad, etc. We also participated in the tree planting project of the Metropolitan Park with Scotiabank, as well as volunteering with PANI and awareness talks about the Ecological Blue Flag Project.

BLP is part of this initiative where environmental issues are developed and serves as a collection center for plastic caps that can be reused and converted into access ramps to beaches and recreation centers for people with disabilities. In 2019 BLP managed to deliver a total of 53 kilos of plastic lids for this initiative that promotes access for people with disabilities and their enjoyment of the right to recreation and culture.

BLP stands out for its interest in and execution of corporate social and environmental responsibility initiatives, which is why for 7 years it has been awarded the Ecological Blue Flag Program, Climate Change Category, carrying out different actions that have generated positive environmental effects such as remodeling based on the use of natural light, changes and preventive maintenance of all vehicles that are part of the company’s fleet, and an increase in the variety of environmentally friendly cleaning products in order to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

Collaborated with more than 15 companies in the implementation of the Ecological Blue Flag Program.

Additionally, BLP, as a member of the Environmental Alliance of Public and Private Companies of the Municipality of Santa Ana, has collaborated with more than 15 companies in the implementation of the Ecological Blue Flag Program, accompanying them in the process through meetings and a cycle of monthly talks on topics such as: rational use of water, wastewater treatment, energy saving in homes and businesses, integrated waste management, sustainable purchasing, preventive maintenance of air conditioners.

Since the beginning of our participation in the Ecological Blue Flag Program, we have received the commitment of our collaborators to obtain the expected results. In this sense, the projects have had localized lines of action in BLP’s offices, but with cross-cutting effects that have reached households. Water purifiers directly connected to the drinking water pipes and low water consumption sanitary ware were installed in the office. To protect water resources, we purchased ECOCLEAN brand environmentally friendly or biodegradable cleaning products.

BLP in its volunteer work has given awareness talks on the Ecological Blue Flag Project at the New Horizon Christian School in Ciudad Colón, to the Association of Friends of Learning (ADA) and to the community in the development of this important environmental project.

This is one of the most successful projects in reducing the use of paper, through a campaign that promotes its reuse, with this program we have managed to reduce by 70% the annual consumption of paper. We have the support of our colleague Geovanny Morales, who is part of our inclusion program and who has been with the Firm for 8 years, collecting paper from each of the offices on a daily basis, sorting it and distributing it again to the printers.

During 2019 BLP contributed with Pro Bono legal research with its team in Honduras and Costa Rica on the human right to a healthy environment. This research was based on the regulations and jurisprudence on this topic at the request of the firm Cliord Chance and contributed to the report presented by the United Nations Rapporteur for the Environment, David Boyd.

Agua Tica is part of the Latin American Alliance of Water Funds and is the first public-private and civil society water fund in Costa Rica to carry out, foster and promote activities aimed at protecting and increasing the sustainable management capacity of water sources, in order to ensure the quantity and quality of water for human consumption and production in the Greater Metropolitan Area of San José, Costa Rica.

This water fund is an innovative model of actions scientifically focused on regulating the water regime by controlling erosion on slopes, safeguarding the quality of surface water in recharge zones and water sources, taking into account water vulnerability to climate change. BLP is a founding partner of this initiative along with AyA, Coca-Cola FEMSA, FEMSA Foundation, CRUSA Foundation, Water Directorate, ESPH, FIFCO, FUNDECOR, UNAGUAS, The Nature Conservancy, Banco Nacional, UNA and UNA-SIL.
 
In 2019, Agua Tica received recognition as one of the five projects designated in the Water, Food and Energy Security category, during the session “Expo 2020 Dubai-Spoting SDG Action Solutions”, held at the United Nations in New York. The selectors highlighted Agua Tica’s potential to be adapted, replicated and scaled for greater global impact.

This is a public-private partnership created to comply with solid waste management, through the creation of a new currency that rewards commitment to recycling, aiming to raise awareness and encourage people to recycle through a virtual economic incentive that can be cashed. BLP is part of this initiative and carries out exchanges with a value that generates savings for the company in application of shared corporate responsibility.

BLP contributed in the legal structuring of Biota’s innovative project: the first NFT that digitally represents the environmental services provided by a Costa Rican forest for one year. For BLP it is a great honor to have received the first private environmental conservation NFT in history, in appreciation for its Pro Bono services in this matter. Our firm is proud to support FUNDECOR and BIOTA in the valorization of the environmental services of our forests.

BLP was part of the launch of BN Débito Agua, the first and only card in the world designed to protect aquifers and ensure water conservation in Costa Rica. This innovative financial product of Banco Nacional, together with Agua Tica, represents the first public-private and civil society water fund in Central America. BLP is a strategic partner in the creation and sustainability of this initiative. In addition, BLP provided pro bono services in its legal structuring through Sostenibiliad by BLP.

Recognition of BLP’s efforts to achieve these objectives

Blue Flag, Carbon Neutral, and Carbon Neutral Country 2.0 Program certifications.
 
For the eighth consecutive year, BLP has been certified Carbon Neutral by the Costa Rican Technical Standards Institute (INTECO). BLP also received recognition from the Climate Change Directorate (DCC) of the Ministry of the Environment and Energy (MINAE) for complying with the Carbon Neutral Country 2.0 Program in the Carbon Neutral category, with which BLP was recognized for the second time during PreCOP 25, for its efforts and ambitious goal of decarbonizing Costa Rica.
PRECOP Recognition and Corporate Commitment to Raising Climate Ambition. 
 
BLP is a pioneer in all kinds of actions to mitigate ecological damage. As an example of this effort to contribute to the environment, the Costa Rican government granted BLP recognition in the PRECOP and signed a commitment with a group of companies to work to mitigate climate change.  
 
The Business Commitment to Increase Climate Ambition was also assumed jointly with the Ministry of Environment and Energy, the Business Alliance for Development, with which a commitment was made to contribute with leaders and policy makers to strengthen and improve the ambition of the Costa Rican contribution to this global goal. 

By supporting our sister foundation Yo Puedo y Vos, we promote the labor and educational insertion of people with disabilities. This foundation has managed to incorporate more than 553 people with disabilities in more than 40 hiring companies.

+40

empresas contratantes
de personas con alguna discapacidad

+250,000

personas capacitadas

+500

puestos adaptados
para personas con discapacidad con intervención de la fundación

En BLP apoyamos en las acciones que realiza la fundación para recolectar fondos, como lo ha sido la venta y producción de calendarios.

In 2018 BLP considered it important to contribute to gender equality and equity in our communities and founded the international organization Inspiring Girls in Costa Rica and Honduras. Through Inspiring Girls and its allies, girls and adolescents of scarce resources are brought an inspiring message from women who have achieved their professional dreams and personal development, encouraging them to persist in their studies and choose professional careers in all areas, particularly in those that are not usually chosen by women given the cultural barriers that exist in the world.

It is an institution that seeks to position entrepreneurship as a pillar of economic and social development, through a business competition where entrepreneurs from all over Central America compete to demonstrate their ideas and talents.

This is an initiative of CEMEX that helps microentrepreneurs in Costa Rica to distribute their products in supermarkets. With its Pro Bono support for this organization, BLP collaborates with its objective of encouraging economic development by empowering and supporting innovative and small entrepreneurs.

BLP provides Pro Bono services to the Asociación Centro de Rehabilitación para el Adicto (ACERPA), an organization that receives Pro Bono services and was born in San José in 1993. It contributes to solving a pressing need on the issue of addiction in Costa Rica.

BLP, through Pro Bono hours, supports the Pro Neonatal Association of the Hospital de la Mujer Adolfo Carit Eva, in the neonatology actions and programs of that center.

The Firm also provides Pro Bono services to the Foundation for the Development of the National Children’s Hospital, an institution that promotes and protects the right to health of the youngest population and promotes the full development of the National Children’s Hospital for its more efficient operation and clinical excellence.

It is one of the world’s leading NGOs in the field of children and adolescents. BLP provides Pro Bono advisory services to this foundation and thus strengthens its work for the care, protection and promotion of children’s human rights.

Costa Rica is one of the sites of this important educational institution that offers the International Baccalaureate to young people from different parts of the world, with a participatory methodology focused on solidarity, social justice and peace. UWC is a Pro Bono beneficiary of our legal services. In addition, UWC students visit BLP and intern in our offices as sustainability actions. Uri Weinstok, a partner of BLP, is part of the Board of Directors of this educational institution.

The Association’s overall goal is to promote electric mobility so that society becomes less dependent on fossil fuels and has the appropriate charging infrastructure and incentives. BLP collaborates with its Pro Bono work to achieve the goals of this association.

The Labor & Employment practice at BLP, directs its sustainability actions in two ways. On the one hand, it periodically develops a blog with information on essential issues of labor law and also provides training to companies on the scope of the regulations of the Labor Procedure Code.

The Fundación Desarrollo Humano Vital (DEHVI) is dedicated to promoting the integral development of early childhood, the family and the community through various opportunities that impact the quality of life of its participants. BLP has contributed in different aspects with its Pro Bono services for this institution.

As part of the efforts launched by the firm to promote the use of environmentally sustainable means of transportation, BLP provided Pro Bono legal services to the organization CORCLIMA in the implementation of the “Monteverde Electric Route”, an initiative whose purpose is to establish a circuit of chargers for electric cars in the community of Monteverde, Puntarenas.

We have collaborated with this non-governmental organization whose mission is to address the root causes and consequences of violence and poverty through education and health programs that empower young people and their communities.

Other organizations we have worked with are RALRA and Bean Voyage. The former is an organization in charge of supporting people in the refugee process and the latter promotes the economic development of women who work in the coffee harvesting and drying process.

Vital Voices is a Pro Bono organization that benefits from BLP’s legal services to contribute to the promotion of women’s leadership and enhance the development of women’s human rights. It should be noted that this organization is a local chapter of the worldwide organization Vital Voices Global Partnership with representation in more than 146 countries and its motto is a reflection of its mission: “Investing in women transforms the world”.

As part of BLP’s efforts to achieve a more just and inclusive society, the firm’s Global Migration & Relocation Department has assumed the legal direction of multiple immigration processes completely free of charge, mainly helping people with irregular immigration status of limited resources. This legal advice is aimed at helping people regularize their legal status so that they can become part of the state apparatus.

The alliance between BLP and HIAS consists of participating and providing training to HIAS staff and users of its services in order to provide basic tools on national and international legislation that protects refugees.

In support of HIAS, BLP’s Global Migration & Relocation Department assists in a Pro Bono manner with certain refugee processes. The objective is to help people who for reasons of race, sex, religion, nationality, social group or political opinion have had to flee their country of origin and finding themselves in a situation of vulnerability have requested protection from the Costa Rican State.