How long have you been dealing with the topic of sustainability? For a few years? Your whole life? Maybe even your parents have been committed to it. While the importance of the topic has increased in recent years — among others due to Greta Thunberg and the “Fridays for Future” movement — there are people who have been committed to sustainability for decades. This also includes some of our Green Pearls® partner hotels.

A dream come true

The story of Eco Park Hotel Azalea begins way back in the forties. With the great aunts Gisella and Fortunata. At that time, they converted their grandparents’ farm in Italy into a small guesthouse. And Bruno, the father of the current owner, had a vision for the hotel: “Where no alarm clock rings in the morning” was his motto for the quiet oasis. Bruno was 15 years old at the time — an age at which several young people probably still wish for peace and quiet from annoying alarm clocks.

But the Italian stuck to his dream.

However, the Delmattio family did not reach their goal without difficulties: they could hardly afford the urgently needed renovation. Daughter Manuela gave up her job as an architect and started building an ecological house in 2008. Bruno died just four years later, but Manuela still runs the hotel according to her family’s tradition as a sustainable hotel — in the third generation by now.

Over a century of family history

From nutcase to pioneer

Klaus Förtsch had to accept being called a “green nut” when he took over the Creativhotel Luise from his parents in the 1980s. The hotel has been in Erlangen since 1956. A focus on sustainability for just as long. This is paying off — in 2010 it was certified as the first climate-neutral hotel in Franconia, and in 2015 as the first climate-positive hotel in Germany. The Creativhotel Luise is thus one of the most environmentally friendly city hotels in Germany. And today it is run by Ben Förtsch, the third generation of the family to do so. What a great family tradition. 

Regionally sourced by tradition

Organic cuisine, a sweet tooth garden and Slow Food representatives: Biohotel Sturm has only been around for a little over 40 years. But a lot has happened around the hotel in the Rhön in that time. The food in the hotel and the adjoining restaurant is certified organic . The hotel itself is considered climate-neutral. Back then, the hotel was founded by building contractor Otto Sturm. Since 1987, his daughter Christa Sturm and her husband Matthias Schulze Dieckhoff worked in the business until they finally took over the management in 1996 and bought the hotel in 2004.

So, whether you’re first-generation or fifth-generation, sustainability starts with each and every one of us – even if you’re first labeled a “green nut”.

Read more: GREEN PEARLS IN WOOD

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