"Hotel Transylvania" is a fairy tale in which a hotel for monsters is created by a vampire, designed to be far away from humans. It presents children with the notion that humans can be worse than monsters, much like the recent topic concerning us all—that humans pose the greatest threat to nature and the planet.
Deforestation, animal species extinction, toxic food, and the broadly understood industry are just drops in the human actions that lead to degradation. Scientists agree that individual efforts to reduce water consumption or plastic use are no longer enough. Systemic solutions are needed. Could the new trend of creating eco-friendly hotels be one of them?
It's an interesting phenomenon that while we exploit the planet without limits, at the same time we are drawn to nature, isolating ourselves from urban noise, especially during vacations. The same applies to food; we want to eat healthily and feed our children the same way, yet we produce more and more processed food and fast food. Since vacation is a time when we especially want to connect with nature, let's look at what eco-friendly solutions hotels apply.
Using recycled paper, organic paints, solar panels, or solar water heaters are increasingly common solutions in hotels worldwide. Minimizing water and electricity use and encouraging guests to do the same is already an important initiative. This may involve abandoning the habit of changing bed linens daily in favor of doing so on guest request. How else do hotels approach ecology?
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In reality, everything is a matter of creativity. Some hotels even approach art, aesthetics, and decor guided by eco-friendly solutions. In Chile, there is the Magic Mountain hotel, which is entirely made of stone and wood, and externally covered by vegetation, making the building completely blend with its surroundings—a rare phenomenon, especially since the hotel is built within a nature reserve.
Meanwhile, the H2hotel in California embraced zero waste design indoors. Here, you can admire sculptures made from glass bottles or a decorative wall made entirely from espresso spoons. In Poland, there are also places with their own gardens where products for the daily menu are grown, using coffee grounds as fertilizer. Where can we find eco-friendly hotels in our country?
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Hotel St.Bruno is located in Giżycko, the heart of Masuria. This region is frequently visited by whole families who want not only to swim or use cycling trails but also to stay close to nature. Aware of the importance of ecology, the hotel follows trends to reduce environmental pollution. How? The hotel has eliminated the use of plastics. Cups, straws, bottles, packaging, and laundry bags are replaced with eco-friendly alternatives. The tap water in Giżycko is clean and healthy, so the hotel encourages guests to drink it instead of bottled water.
The hotel uses heat pumps for heating, which produce no smoke, ash, or other harmful substances and are environmentally safe. The hotel also has charging stations for electric cars, encouraging the reduction of exhaust emissions. To minimize waste pollution, the hotel adheres to waste segregation rules including battery and plastic cap collection. The hotel uses eco-friendly cosmetics from Fito Spa, based solely on natural, vegan ingredients rich in vitamins, and in the Spa area, massages are performed with a natural candle made of wax. The hotel reduces water use and employs LED lighting as an energy-saving light source.
The closer to nature, the healthier the food, which eco-friendly places emphasize. When going on vacation to an eco-friendly hotel, we can thus enjoy healthy, local products that every region in the country has in abundance, which we don't always appreciate daily. Remember that caring for health must go hand in hand with caring for the environment. Ignoring one limits the benefits for the other, which is why it is worth starting with ourselves.
