Sustainability

Always our philosophy

Love for the region can show itself in many ways. But most beautifully through the will to preserve nature, to strengthen local producers and to keep the world livable for future generations.

Regionality, seasonality and sustainability. These three words therefore shape the conscious consumer behaviour of our days more than anything else. Yes, today they are all fashionable terms with some advertising potential. Only 30 years ago, however, it was very, very unusual to base a corporate philosophy on them.

Philosophy

From the beginning, we have relied on local producers and friendly suppliers, on a rigorous quality standard that is both a role model and a pioneer of conscious, gentle consumption.

Fresh trout from the trout pond have been available here since the early days. Game came from hunters close to the restaurant, even a badger landed on the menu once in a while. The oxen were raised and slaughtered especially for us in nearby Sommenhardt. Cow's milk also came to Zavelstein from the village.

Even today, this philosophy is still elemental to the work of our family. It certainly shows a certain pride in the products and an unshakeable loyalty in their producers; above all, however, it shows a deep attachment to this unique region.

Regionality is still the foundation of our culinary specialities and it is impossible to imagine our menus without it.

EMAS

The hotel is thoroughly oriented towards sustainable and environmentally friendly action and has already been certified according to EMAS (The European Eco-Management and Audit Scheme) since 2012. EMAS is a European seal of quality and the world's most demanding system for sustainable environmental management.

"If you want to get to know your business better, you do EMAS". For our hotelier Rolf Berlin, who is also chairman of the Nature Park Innkeepers, it was only logical to introduce an environmental management system in his hotel.

KLIMAfit

With the successful participation in the KLIMAfit programme of the state of Baden-Württemberg, we were able to enter the topics of climate protection and energy saving in a structured way. In the course of this, we drew up a greenhouse gas balance. On the basis of this, we were able to present individual possibilities for the reduction of greenhouse gases and for cost reduction.

We act according to the principle "avoid before reduce before compensate".

Successful measures
  • 4 combined heat and power units in operation
  • Ownership of 4 hectares of forest
  • Housing of 7 bee colonies
  • Consistent avoidance of plastic
  • Maccheroni as straws
  • Change from packaged biscuits to coffee to Original Beans chocolate in biodegradable paper packaging
  • Refillable dispensers in the showers
  • No disposable containers in the guest rooms
  • Reduction of paper
  • Digitisation of the guest folder
  • Introduction of digital voucher system
  • Reduction of water and electricity e.g. due to sensor-operated taps, use of LED lights and motion detectors
  • Cleaning with micro steam devices, without detergents

Cleaning

Without chemical detergents

In order to save resources and do good for the environment we use a cleaning system with modern steam cleaners. Since then, we clean all surfaces without the use of chemical cleaning agents. Without any chemicals or microplastics but with dry steam that not only cleans perfectly but also disinfects it.

This is not only good for die environment, but also for you and our employees!