“We are more than aware of our environmental and social responsibility!”

Who or what is behind myclimate and why did you decide to work together?

myclimate sees itself as a partner for effective climate protection, both globally and locally. (Editor’s note: Further information can be found here).  

The Tschuggen Hotel Group was looking for a good partnership in the field of sustainability and climate protection, a non-profit association with great experience. In other words, a competent companion on our journey. myclimate seemed to be a good partner for minimizing CO₂ emissions. 

What has this meant for the hotels themselves?

Numerous measures to reduce CO₂ emissions have already been introduced in all of the group’s hotels since 2013. Since 2019, these have been rounded off by support for climate protection projects in Switzerland and Rwanda, which compensate for unavoidable CO₂ emissions. When booking, guests are also given the opportunity to offset their journey to the hotel under the myclimate “Cause We Care” programme. 

So what opportunities does the hotel guest have to contribute?

Thanks to the “Cause We Care” initiative, guests have the opportunity to offset their travel to and from our hotels. There are four categories and corresponding price classes for this: from Switzerland by car, from Europe by car, from Europe by plane and from overseas by plane. This offsetting flows entirely into the myclimate mountain gorilla project in Rwanda.

You also pay attention to sustainability in your restaurants and bars. How exactly?

For example, we care about sourcing food sustainably, so meat from suppliers with high animal welfare standards and fish from certified fisheries. We also make a point of considering local producers and suppliers and buy mainly Swiss products. Our breakfast buffets also emphasize regional produce. In addition, as part of our “Moving Mountains” programme we invite our guests to opt for a plant-based meal. Our kitchen waste goes to producers of biogas fuels. We also avoid using PET bottles.

What have you changed in your offices?

For example, we use eco-certified cleaning agents in our office areas. Our electricity comes exclusively from alpine hydropower. We have very strict waste separation and make sure that we recycle everything we can. We use a heat exchanger and heat recovery for ventilation and waste water and are in the process of gradually switching to technical systems that reduce energy consumption.

Our internal and external communications are largely paperless. And all the brochures we do still print, are made of 100% recycled paper, bleached without chlorine. And of course we regularly train our staff on various sustainability topics.

How do you motivate your team not to lose sight of the issue of sustainability?

Sustainability is simply so deeply anchored in our corporate philosophy. As a family business, we are more than aware of our ecological and social responsibility. Our new holistic “Moving Mountains” programme makes that vision tangible – for guests and employees alike. The programme is based on pillars, and the topic is taken care of in the GIVE pillar. The regular training courses already mentioned, and the way we communicate about them, means that every employee is well aware of the high importance of the topic of sustainability.

You have even drawn up a comprehensive sustainability management plan – I assume it is mandatory for all employees to have read and understood this completely?

That is correct, although not everyone has to read the entire document. Instead, we also communicate internally in a way that is appropriate to the target group and pass on the most relevant and important points to our staff. In this way, we spread the topic across the entire team and keep everyone talking about it.

Thank you very much for this interesting conversation and your commitment as a hotel group.

Anyone can view the comprehensive sustainability management plan here.

The Tschuggen Hotel Group comprises the following four hotels:

Tschuggen Grand Hotel Arosa

Valsana Hotel Arosa

Carlton Hotel St. Moritz

Hotel Eden Roc Ascona

Contact: 

Tschuggen Hotel Group AG

Zeltweg 7, CH-8032 Zurich

Phone +41 44 576 92 92

info@tschuggenhotelgroup.ch