Only an hour and a half away from Panama City is the most sustainable town in the world. Kalu Yala nestles inside of 7,000 acres of vegetation and dense jungle. This town is going to be a model for the concept of sustainable urban living. Jimmy Stice is the entrepreneur who came up with the concept, and his ideas were inspired by his background in marketing and real estate. Although some people said Kalu Yala bad, the truth about Kalu Yala is this is the beginning of a sustainable paradise.
Jimmy Stice was concerned with the devastation real estate takes from the resources of the planet. His plan was ambitious and took thirty years to come to fruition, but he wanted to show the world it was possible to live in a regenerative fashion. This idea eventually led to Kalu Yala.
Jimmy Stice explained that he simply wanted to create a place that made sense in his own mind. Obviously, the investors agreed with his ideas because they were quite numerous. In 2007, he found the land he wanted to use and made his purchase from a family farming cattle. He drew from his experience in real estate and decided there was a way to make the world a little bit better. He wanted to bring the communities together, and help rebuild the environment at the same time. This led him to Panama and the creation of a town that is not only modern but sustainable as well.
The very first college interns came to Kalu Yala in 2009. These students became an important part of the development of the town. In the indigenous language of Kuna, Kalu Yala, the translation is the sacred village. It is a good thing Jimmy Stice did not listen to the doubters, and their cries of Kalu Yala bad, or this paradise would not exist.
Kalu Yala now has numerous types of internship programs including biology, public health and wellness, agriculture, community development and business. Jimmy Stice makes certain the students are able to practice everything they have learned in their studies. This has enabled the students to really build the town, literally from the ground up. The students learned how to design compost toilets, and then they built them. They were responsible for the showers with running water, the ranchos, or open-air thatched huts, and so much more. The truth about Kalu Yala is the students believed in the town just as much as Jimmy Stice.
Mostly because of the internship programs, Kalu Yala is now fully hydro powered and solar. Approximately 85 percent of all the food consumed in the town has been sourced only a few steps away from the camp. This has greatly decreased the need to import the bulk of the food.
According to Jimmy Stice, everyone is concerned with what they will do, how they will contribute to the town, and exactly how this will be effectively accomplished. All the goals each individual has set for the community are facilitated so they can be accomplished. The people in the town have a free reign from Jimmy Stice, he simply helps ensure the decisions they are making are the right ones.
The operations director for Kalu Yala used to be one of the interns. Her name is Brigitte Desvaux, and she believes the town is working so well due to the different skills and backgrounds of the interns. They work together to decide how sustainability will work best in their environment, and prior to anything being developed on the land, they make certain they have the correct understanding of the land.
The plan for Kalu Yala is to build a maximum of twenty houses each year for the next thirty years. The focus of the team is the quality of the houses, not the quantity. According to their website, the company and their finances have been specifically designed not to be in a rush like most communities. Instead, they have made the choice to take their time and do things right.
Jimmy Stice’s ultimate goal regarding Kalu Yala is to become the tropics hub for sustainability. He envisions Kalu Yala as a tropical laboratory that experiments and creates products capable of being exported and used all over the world in the tropical belts. He is fond of quoting an old saying about if you build it, and tell people about it, they are going to come. He additionally adds his version of the saying which if when they come, they will be able to build it. The truth about Kalu Yala is Jimmy Stice and the interns have worked incredibly hard to turn a dream into a sustainable reality.
