Solar Hotel

An Ecological Hotel

Wednesday 10 October 2012, by Aicha Mane, elayne, Zhang Li

5 inspired

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Solar hotel is the first ecological, economical and activist hotel in Paris, and has a genuine environmental policy as part of its day-to-day strategy and management. The services offered by the hotel are completely in line with environmental concerns. Solar Hotel is wholly committed to an activist approach of ecotourism, sustainable development, and protection of the environment and of the health of its guests.

In order to be ecological, the hotel has taken the following steps:
1. Saving energy
The hallways, public areas and rooms are lit exclusively with energy saving Led and fluorescent compact bulbs. Lights on the landings are controlled by motion detectors. Some of the outdoor lighting is provided by solar photovoltaic panels.
2. Saving water
All the showers and sinks are equipped with water-saving faucets. The toilets use fewer than six liters. Rainwater is collected and used to water the plants and the garden and to wash the sidewalk. On each floor and at the hotel bar, glass, paper, plastic and batteries are collected. Organic wastes from breakfast are recycled in a mechanical composter in the garden. The guests and employees of the hotel are provided with the information necessary for optimizing recycling.
3. Carbon Footprint
In order to analyze its impact on the environment, Solar Hotel is the first economical hotel to measure its Carbon Footprint This will be published annually at the same time as its financial balance sheet.
4. Health and comfort of guests and employees
The hotel and all of its rooms have been non-smoking for six years. All the cleaning and dining products are biodegradable. The soap and shower gel offered in each room also respect the environment: they are natural, not tested on animals, contain no palm oil, and have no useless packaging.
Products used to renovate the rooms, such as paint and glue for carpeting, contain no solvents.
5. No electromagnetic waves while you sleep
Applying maximum precaution in matters of health, Solar Hotel provides WiFi only in the lobby of the hotel. There is no WiFi in the rooms. To compensate, PCs and internet sockets are freely available throughout the hotel.
6. Bicycles
Free bicycles are provided for hotel guests. Public transportation is promoted: maps, schedules and other information are available.
7. Organic Breakfast 100%
All of the food served for breakfast comes from organic agriculture: jam, bread, pastries, fruit juice, coffee.

B. The Ethical challenges this company is addressing.

Because of the heavy task it has taken on as the first ecological hotel in Paris, the Solar Hotel must maintain its high standard. As an advocate for more ecological living, it must be the example for not only the hotel industry but also the
In addition, the Solar Hotel has to balance ecological living with the comfort of its guest. It must not compromise the pursuit of ecological living for the primary purpose of its activity; provide comfort and shelter to its customers.

C. What makes you believe this company is really ethical and why you trust it?

The owner, decided to convert his old hotel into a virtual ecological marvel in the middle of Paris. The reason we are inspired by this company and the hotel it runs, is that it remains a low cost hotel despite all of the work put in to make it ecological. Ecological hotels have often been priced out of the range of ordinary travelers. With the prices it offers anyone wanting to support this type of endeavor can do so at the lowest cost. Another great aspect of the low cost is that it exposes people who would not necessarily know about ecological matters to an alternative way of life without compromising comfort.

The Solar Hotel is also a militant hotel. It has proclaimed that if the 25 000 hotels in France all adopted the same recycling practices, tens of thousands of tons of wastes would be recycled, eliminating the need for several incinerators and reducing by hundreds of tons the emission of dangerous dioxins into the air.

Despite the great improvements they have made to make their hotel more ecological, the Solar Hotel still pushes towards more far reching changes. For instance, the goal of the Solar hotel is to sort and recycle 90% of its trash, reduce its electricity usage by 75% and finally reduce its water usage by 50%.
It never stops wanting to improve despite its success and we find that inspiring.

D.The possible challenges facing the company in the future and how you think this company may improve.

Solar Hotel wants to expand and have more hotels in Europe and eventually Africa. Replicating the model of the Solar Hotel will be difficult and require a great deal of expertise and commitment. In addition, if the philosophy of the company is to be maintained, the company will be advocating for ecological living in places they are not familiar with.

Future Ethical Challenges

Solar Hotel is confronted with the following future ethical challenges.
1. Energy saving or cost control- The benefits of branding or promoting hotels as environmentally friendly are obvious especially when you look at conservation targets like 75% of electricity, 50% of water. The trap however is to play an ecological part while at the same time doing too much cost-control at the expense of the customers.
2. Enough is enough or it is not enough- Budget hotels are an attractive concept for travelers. This means that rooms are very much limited. This could lead to overbooking and turning down more customers than expected. Service, which is all-important in the hotel industry, could also suffer as a result.
3. It is to offer simple service or it is just simple to offer the service? The Solar Hotel believes in simple service such as regular and consistent breakfast. New customers would be happy with simpler service however regular guest might want more advantages.

How to Take the Challenges

Solar Hotel is the first ethical hotel in Paris. Its courage and spirit in the past several years set an example for those who are likely to take the same path.
In order to inspire more, Solar Hotel should be ready to take the challenges ahead as long as first, it continues to benefit customers; second, it promises not to serve the money; and finally it provides good and improving services.
All the above will help them deal with dilemmas that they are sure to face.

Bibliography

http://www.solarhotel.fr/en/

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1 Discussion / 5 Messages

# Solar Hotel 28 February 2013 at 12:18 , by Monika Krzyzanowska

I think Solar Hotel is an example to follow. It inspired me with its ecological strategy about saving resources. They don’t just think about minimazing short-term costs like other companies, but they concetrate more about the future of our planet and a sustainable strategy. Many of us buy normal bulbs, because they think is much cheaper. Well, the price is obviously much lower, but people don’t realize that buying Led and fluorescent compact bulbs not only helps the planet, but also themselves. Led bulbs not only lasts much longer but also uses less energy, so you pay lower bills. So I think people should think more about consequences and other companies (not only hotels) should take example of Solar Hotel and implement an ecological strategy which also will help them saving costs.

I think the main problem besides of ignorance would be the unawareness. Reading an article like this you realize how many things you can do to save the resources and that it’s not so difficult. I like that all the guests and employees of this hotel are very well informed about its ecological use. Another thing that I was attracted in is that the hotel provides a free use of bicycles. I think it is the best way to see a city that you are visiting and if it also helps the environment, it’s even better. It is amazing that they achieved to remain a low cost hotel despite all the effort that they did to make it ecological.
I hope there will be more companies like Solar Hotel!

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- # Solar Hotel 28 February 2013 at 15:15 , by Guillem Catena
  
  I’m absolutly agree with you, Monika. In my opinion, this world need more companies like this. I find this company inspiring because I think that they are doing a very good labor with the world, at the same time that they want to take care to guests also do that with the earth. A company of this type consumes many goods and resources, and consequently has an effect on the environment very important. The main things this company has done to become more sustainable, and I think are important, are for example, collect the rainwater and use it for differents uses, in the energy camp they only use Led bulbs and also use solar photovoltaic panels. But they don’t only take care about the earth, also when the customers are sleeping, in the hotel is not electromagnetic waves, and also the Hotel offers lower prices than others sustainable hotels that put expensive prices to cover the cost to be more ecological.
  
  Finally, I share your opinion, Monika, in the fact that is not so difficult to be more sustainable. A curious fact to note is that Solar Hotel measure its Carbon Footprint and publish it annually at the same time as its financial balance sheet, I think more companies should do this action to know as they are responsible. All this is not only for companies, we, the people in this world of consumerism we should start being more careful about the world we live, like Solar Hotel, if we want our children have the opportunity to live in a healthy Earth. And I hope this company expands internationally too and many more companies will follow the same actions .
  
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  - # Solar Hotel 28 February 2013 at 17:21 , by Mario Jaime Jara
    
    I’m absolutly agree with you, Guillem. Solar Hotel follows the values of respect for the environment and sustainable development. In addition, the Services Offered by the hotel are completely in line with environmental concerns and I like the challenge that Solar Hotel has to balance green living with the comfort of its guests. Moreover, the hotel prices are low cost and everyone can visit the hotel, in the middle of a wonderful city as Paris.
    
    I love everything about saving water, electricity, etc ... and responsible recycling. For this reason, the Solar Hotel is an inspiration energy savings. I personally hope that many companies will be inspired and follow the example of this hotel.
    
    Right now I am in love with my girlfriend, so I also really like the city and I would like to go with my girlfriend one day to this city in the Solar Hotel!!!!!!!!!.
    
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  - # Solar Hotel 28 February 2013 at 23:01 , by Alex Moros
    
    First of all, tell that I’m absolutely agree with yours opinions. This company really respects the environment and all their problems, but do you think that could offer a good service to the guests, attending the high competence in this market? I mean, the competence in the Hotel sector is so high and there are so many types of hotels and resorts, but in conclusion they offer the same basic service, a place to sleep and have a good time. I know that nowadays, more people are concerned with the environment, but the most part of them not, and this kind of people only want the best place to rest and a good price. Some people are not interested in pay a extra price to have and ecological services and products, because some of them don’t take care of the environment. I want to make a question for all, could this type of hotel be succesfull in the actual market? And in the future?
    
    I’m going to answer this questions. Nowadays more people are concerned about the environment and we need more companies like this, because if we want to make the world a better place to live, we need more ecological companies. For this reason, I believe that this business could be the future where the guests value the ecological services and products and take care of the world. In the other hand, nowadays is very difficult the success of this type of business because the people are not concerned and the competence make difficult the new creation of hotels like this.
    
    In conclusion, I’m very happy to know that this type of hotels exist, because make me believe that a sustainable world it’s possible and all this is in our hands, we need to act !!
    
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- # Solar Hotel 7 March 2013 at 01:14 , by SergiMartin
  
  Unfortunately is unusual that people first thinks about the ecological and the sustainability of the planet before their own profit. As others said before, this entails a high short-term costs for the issue of the purchase of solar panels and such, but ultimately, when recovering these investments, these costs will be lower. In this case, Solar Hotel choose this option. This case the hotel has taken this decision, go for the ecological, for human values, before profit. Furthermore, they want to implement an ecologic culture in the way to perform, let know to their workers and their customers that in this company everything is related to save resources. Obviously, if you surround yourself with people who think just like you is difficult to make it real.
  
  Finally, I think we should change this culture that has been implemented "somebody else will do it", when everyone with little to do, we can help improve the planet’s resources.
  
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