San Ramón en Acción

A delegation of four representatives from San Ramón recently visited Austin, Texas, to collaborate on environmental initiatives with the goal of establishing a Sister City relationship between the two cities.

During their visit, the group met with the City of Austin, the UT Institute of Latin American Studies, the UT Energy Institute, the Austin Technology Incubator, the Texas Climate & Carbon Exchange and other environmental institutions and organizations. Projects discussed included: carbon neutrality in San Ramón, university exchange programs, renewable energy generation; infrastructure improvements, and green building supply exports.

The San Ramón delegation targeted Austin as a Sister City based on shared values and vision: Austin is a leader in sustainability, carbon neutrality, renewable energy, technology incubation, project commercialization, alliance formation and cultural exchange/technology transfer. The San Ramón group is also interested in trying to replicate the development model used in Austin, which relies on collaboration between government, education and business.

The San Ramón Sister City Committee is composed of local leaders representing business, government, education and community interests. The committee is pursuing a Sister City relationship with Austin as a strategy to acquire the expertise and resources required to execute green initiatives and help establish San Ramón as the environmental capital of Costa Rica. The market visit was the result of months of meetings, research and networking.

–Mike Styles
mike@styles.com