Hotele Diament continuously strive to improve the quality of customer service, as demonstrated by the EkoDiament project – a development strategy based on actions aimed at climate protection. We prioritise issues associated with sustainable development and attention to the natural environment. We are not indifferent to the world we live in – we attempt to actively prevent wastage or excessive use of resources. It is our belief that rising social awareness is required to understand the necessity for the solutions and undertakings associated with environmental protection, therefore we aspire to promote them. By using special icons, we attempt to draw our guests’ attention to important issues and, by joining forces, improve the condition of our planet.
Why is this so crucial? Earth is our home and humanity has abused its hospitality. Temperature recordings on a global scale clearly indicate that global warming is progressing. Subsequent years saw record-breaking increases in temperature – 2019 was the warmest year in history – in Poland it was warmer by 0.7°C than ever before. Reversing this tendency requires decisive actions of us all.
WE SAVE ELECTRICITY
The reduction of greenhouse gas emission is one of the greatest challenges faced by economies of countries all over the world. The necessity of significantly lowering the scale of carbon dioxide emission has come to the fore, since it contributes greatly to the global warming phenomenon. Yet carbon-intensive fossil fuels – bituminous coal above all – remain the main source of electricity in Poland. Hotele Diament have implemented a number of actions aimed at reducing power consumption.
We use appliances with highest energy efficiency and, thanks to the use of LED lighting, we have achieved the energy saving level of approx. 85% – which, in practice, translates into a reduction of more than 50 tonnes of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere per year. Hotel Diament Ustroń utilizes a system which automatically turns off air-conditioning upon opening balcony doors. We also recommend drawing the curtains on hotel windows during the hours of highest temperatures and sunshine intensity, which helps reduce room overheating and, as a result, limits the use of energy-intensive air-conditioners, thus decreasing energy consumption.
We are expanding our vehicle fleet by cars with environmentally-friendly hybrid engines. Park Hotel Diament in Katowice houses our first charging station for electric vehicles. We are striving to quickly implement similar solutions in the remaining facilities of our network. We spare no effort to make sure the electricity obtained by Hotele Diament comes from certified renewable resources.
WE DON’T WASTE WATER
Access to fresh water is taken for granted by most. In reality, water resources are highly limited – only 2.5% of all water is fresh water and even less is drinkable. The belief that this problem is of no concern to Poland is wrong, since Poland is counted among the countries poor in water resources. The necessity to save water is guided by economic, pragmatic and humane reasons.
Hotele Diament achieve this goal by, for instance, installing faucet aerators or smart faucets preventing excess use of water, the use of water-saving appliances or encouraging a more rational towel replacement rate. Such actions result in real benefits to the environment, drastically reduce the risk of potential water wastage and contribute to the growing savings.
WE REDUCE THE PRODUCTION OF WASTE
The environment is polluted with human waste to an unprecedented level. Mountains of rubbish on land or floating islands of plastic on seas and oceans are common phenomena on a global scale. Their degenerating influence on fauna and flora is increasingly more visible. Waste sorting is an important, yet insufficient element of environmental protection.
Hotele Diament have adopted the policy of limited plastic use, by partially abandoning disposable products (cosmetic dispensers, mugs, straws) for ecological solutions. The results of these attempts are notable – we have exchanged the nearly 200 thousand plastic containers used earlier per each year for their environmentally-friendly substitutes.
We also intend to limit paper use, therefore our goal is to implement an electronic transfer of documents. We promote economical, double-sided printing, encourage scanning instead of copying and replace paper leaflets with electronic announcements displayed on hotel television screens and monitors in general access areas.
WE RESPECT FOOD
Food waste is a crucial problem in everyday functioning of hotels. Tonnes of wasted food are unacceptable for both ethical and economical reasons. In the world where hunger is present in many geographical zones, the issue of food waste cannot be simply dismissed.
In our hotels, we endeavour to limit food waste as early as during planning food deliveries, but also through proper storage, reasonable food servings (both in terms of number and size), and rising awareness of the problem among the staff. In this regard, we are counting on the understanding and support of our guests, since the main reasons of food waste include too large buffet portions. The scale of the phenomenon is illustrated by the numbers: in one of our restaurants we were forced to throw away 60 kg of food from breakfasts all in the span of a single month. Every year it amounts to a mountain of food, bringing us great pain.
Combining all those preventative actions makes it possible to limit wastage by even several dozen percent, however our ultimate goal is, invariably, the condition of zero waste.
