Look forward to:
Step by step and above all: TOGETHER.
Welcome to our second sustainability blog this year!
We did not rest after our Sustainability Day on 9 January and immediately started to evaluate the numerous ideas, impressions and suggestions of our colleagues and to include them in our project plan in order to look for solutions together.
Sustainability is an important and ongoing process that affects us all and in which all employees should be involved. As a hotel and commercial enterprise with demanding guests and customers, we strive for a high standard. Although it is not possible for us to be fully sustainable immediately, we are on a promising path and are continuously engaging in new initiatives to reduce our environmental impact and create a sustainable future.
We walk the path together.
Our trainee Antonia Harder received a voucher for the restaurant waterkant for her great ideas on sustainability in our hotels.
Among other things, she suggested that we exchange our minibar snacks for a more sustainable range after our supplies have been used up. This would, for example, avoid plastic waste and maybe even support a regional business.
Thank you for any suggestions from our colleagues. The mailbox nachhaltigkeit@hotel-hamburg.de is of course always open to guests and customers for new ideas, impressions and suggestions.
Progress on the project plan
Water saving
We are currently assessing the efficiency of our rinsing line and using the results to determine whether investing in a new, more modern system would have a positive impact on water consumption and profitability.
Reduce paper consumption
For some time now, we have abolished sentences such as "May we print out your invoice for you?" in the check-out process and changed it to "We will be happy to send you your invoice by e-mail". Through such seemingly small changes in everyday processes, we have already been able to save a lot of paper. We are currently checking which other processes can be digitalised.
Sustainability Team
We have decided to include a trainee in our sustainability team in the future to get fresh input from the younger generation. And who gets around the hotel more than our apprentices? We look forward to the fresh wind and the new ideas that come out of it.
...and and.
Our bees celebrate their first anniversary
One year ago, on 10 May 2022, our two bee colonies moved in on our roof and have since been enjoying the view and diligently discovering our surroundings.
Read moreIt is always a highlight when the beekeepers from Place4Bees visit us and lovingly look after our two colonies. They take care of our two colonies, be it their health, the observation of the generation change or the perfect alignment of the hives.
In the meantime, the almost 120,000 workers, collectors and their two queens live on the roof of our 3rd floor, have produced 40 kg of honey for us and ensure that our biodiversity is kept going.
This year we had to deal with a very changeable beginning of spring. While it was already very warm around New Year's Eve, the temperatures in March and especially in April were very changeable and sometimes very cool. The bees and their queens have done their homework and have been busy creating brood over the last few weeks. Numerous summer bees are now hatching from this brood to collect nectar and pollen in spring/summer.
One colony has come through the winter well, the other colony is still a little weak and we hope that it will follow suit after initial teething problems, otherwise we will be supported here by Place4Bees.
In the next few weeks, the number of bees in the colonies will double and maybe even triple. We are already looking forward to the summer.
Apple sponsorship
On 8 May 2023, seven trainees visited the Henning Fick fruit farm on the Elbe island of Finkenwerder together with our deputy director Jens Bartholomäus.
Together they chose our two favourite varieties from the 13 different apple varieties, deciding on the "Sweetie" and "Topaz" varieties.
Then we went to the 11-hectare cultivation area and chose two apple trees of our selected varieties, for which we now have apple sponsorship.
A visit to the Fick family's orchard for the apple harvest in the Alte Land is of course already firmly planned.
At this point, we would like to thank Marker oHG - Unternehmen Frische and the team of the fruit farm for this interesting and informative afternoon at a fantastic 20 degrees Celsius.
"DARE TO DO SOMETHING! FAIL AND START AGAIN."
In the podcast of the GreenSign Institute, by whom we were certified with the Level 4 sustainability seal last year, our colleague Sascha Brandt tells us all about it. Why is sustainability so important to him personally? What's next after our first Sustainability Day? Find out this and more in the podcast GreenSign Talks - Personalities in Sustainable Hospitality.
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