's environmental commitment is worthwhile economically
ECO-HOTEL ZEULENRODA of
Gande @ 2008-09-24 - 21:13:43
ECO-HOTEL ZEULENRODAReines conscience by MausklickVon Chris Raatz
Bio-Cola instead of hissing, CO2-indulgences on the computer: A former East German holiday home has been transformed into a showcase for eco-tourism. In the beginning, they were showered with scorn - but now some people are so thrilled that they changed their habits in private.
comes on good conscience of the House barely passed a guest. The great white computer screen is next to the reception - the new Air Terminal of the Bio-Seehotel in the East Thuringian Zeulenroda. Images flicker across the screen from bright yellow water lilies and green tree frogs, splashes softly in the background pool of water. Here, guests can immediately offset when checking their Ökosünden caused by hotel stay and travel.
BIO-SEEHOTEL ZEULENRODA: Start CLIMATE NEUTRAL sleeping Photo Gallery: Click on a picture (6 pictures)
is calculated every little detail: From the Approach by small or medium-sized car on the operation of the in-house laundry, the production of fabric slippers for the sauna to the cow, the milk for breakfast supplies.
Within minutes, the visitors click through the specially developed program that relentlessly counted together all climate sins. According to the computer each night and Directions about 30 kilograms of carbon dioxide are released. The good conscience costs just one euro. The green "I Do" button, the hotel guest the operation of a wind farm in India or the Reforestation in Uganda support. The calculation is simple, the dimension enormous: for a 50-percent utilization of the large house 307 beds would be compensated for all the nights, so about 1.2 million tonnes of CO2 could be neutralized.
"Everyone can decide whether to make a contribution," said CEO Stephan Bode. He had the idea for the air terminal, after experts illuminates the entire hotel and have created a CO2 footprint. "The result was shocking, we have popped out millions of tons.
Cola and Fanta are taboo
has changed a lot since then. But despite all efforts there is still a lot of CO2 emissions left: "We have just the sale of indulgences for Ökosünden, the air terminal, developed," said Bohde. The response was positive, more and more companies want to make their meetings carbon neutral book and the hotel just because of the terminal. "Green has become fashionable," explains the 43-year-old's success.
In terms of environmental protection and bio is the long Zeulenrodaer Hotel is a model pupil in the industry. Two years ago, was the head of the whole house to shake up Europe's first organic conference hotel: cook in the restaurant since then only with organic products, mainly from the region. Fanta, Sprite and Coca-Cola is looking at the drink list in vain, instead it is "bio-hiss" or natural apple juice, natural organic products.
MORE ABOUT ... Zeulenroda Thuringia Bio-Hotel Geomantiezu SPIEGEL KNOW cleans the cleaning company only with biological cleaning agents, bed linen and towels are made from unbleached eco-Tex fabrics. Meeting rooms and guest rooms are equipped with pollution-free natural materials. Initially responded to 130 people skeptical Zeulenrodaer with rejection. Bode remembers the reservations: "No one comes to a hotel where everything is eco and there is to eat only grains," people would have said then.
But now the idea has prevailed. The staff are proud of their bio-hotel. "Before, I was not so aware, but since I work here, I buy more organic," said student Julie Beyer. Some farmers in the area have changed even its production to supply the hotel. In the lobby, hanging numerous certificates and awards: Best conference hotel in Germany, winner of the "International Spirit at Work Award for ethical business practices, the 1st Place at the Grand Prix of the "conference hotel to feel good."
to meetings such as the International Biokongress and the Arena for sustainability "experts from all over Europe travel to Zeulenroda - a hitherto well for most of an unknown Thuringian town on the border with Saxony. Some 17,000 people live in the twin cities Zeulenroda-drive, in the Thuringian Vogtland. The landscape features rolling hills, golden wheat fields, small towns. A region that has been fighting for the reunification with the migration of young people and unemployment.
organic conferences in the previous panel
At first glance, not necessarily an ideal location for a conference hotel: the past as an East German prefab can be denied, despite fashionable glazed façade is, infrastructure is virtually non-existent: there is a railway station no longer there, only buses still hold in Zeulenroda. Also, the approach is difficult. The airport in the capital of Thuringia, Erfurt is located about 100 kilometers, the next highway 15 kilometers.
Yet Stephan Bode was thrilled when he saw the house for the first time: "It was love at first sight," says the native of Hanover. The functional areas, the situation on "Zeulenrodaer sea", the nearly 230-acre reservoir. "An ingenious hardware," Bode calls it, the end of 2005, the idea of turning his house the first organic conference hotel in Europe.
As spinners, visionary and a practicing esoteric - that describes Bode. He is sitting in the reception room of the Bio-Hotels, the glazed panoramic windows of the sparkling lake. The raspelkurz hair, brown eyes, three-day beard. "It is a gift that I can let off steam here so me and realize," said Bohde. At 14 he dropped out of school shortly after he began studying the restaurant expert. The MS Europa, he sailed around the world, lived for years in Asia and then South Africa where he managed hotels.
ecological concepts for the entire region
as unconventional as his career is its corporate culture: A medical practitioner at any time for the staff available, a Geomancer examined the house of negative energy currents and measures, in which regions of Germany, the customer loyalty is particularly strong.
The environmental commitment is also worthwhile economic: In the first half of 2008 recorded the Bio-Hotel an increase of 16 percent over the same period, the utilization is around 45 percent. As Bode took over in 2002 the post of managing director, only 20 percent of beds were occupied. For Bode, it is crucial in both areas to succeed. "It makes no sense to me to propel forward economically, but for me to take the foundations of life," he says.
are more plans for the future of it all: The Bio-Seehotel to be energy independent. Hydroelectric power from Zeulenrodaer dam is to cover the entire electricity needs in the future. A feasibility study has already given the hotel at the Fraunhofer Institute in order. If it works, then, the whole of Zeulenroda, later the entire region of the Thuringian Vogtland with locally generated renewable Energy supplies. moved
