Eco-friendly furniture for sustainable hotels
The eco-friendly trend is one that has been around for several years now, but that has been associated in many occasions with relatively rustic or vintage items when talking about furniture and clothes for example. Right now though, the tendency is that of integrating the techniques of recycling and reutilizing of products that has been implemented up until now to the creation of modern-looking, contemporary pieces that can match any type of decoration setting.
Therefore, the application of recycled material does not mean alternative or low cost anymore, but is also conceived as the basis for luxurious furniture articles that no one would think are made of used materials. Large distribution companies, designers and retailers are increasing their stock of eco-friendly furniture in order to respond to the raise in the demand of this type of durable goods.
Even hotels are choosing to acquire from their hotel furniture supplier, custom pieces built with environmentally sustainable techniques or materials, since not only the raw base of construction is considered eco-friendly but also the production process required to fabricate the items.
These touristic establishments with a soft spot on the environment are called -eco-hotels-. To receive such a label, hotels have to have made improvements on its structure, building, cleaning processes and disposal system to minimize its impact on the environment. This, together with energy-saving routines and water saving behaviours are the basis for being considered an ecologically sustainable hotel.
Some of them make one step further by using almost exclusively recycled items and furniture made out of reutilized materials in order to offer to their clients an experience of true eco-friendliness and in order to differentiate themselves from their competitors. Aside from the good these routines have for the natural setting in which the hotels are located, defining one’s hotel as 100% green is sure to attract visitors concerned by this issue and curious guests looking to experience a different kind of touristic establishment.
Apart from having green hotel room designs and furniture, and from adopting energy-saving measures in the daily activities of running the hotel, many of these establishments have also chosen to adopt the technology of photovoltaic panels to supply power to the hotel. Such installations may be placed on roofs, on the windows and also close to the pool, to whom the solar panels represent in many occasions the source for water heating the pool water.
Several certification programmes have been implemented for the labelling of hotels as eco-friendly, although few of them have been actually certified, especially in Italy. The important thing is, however, that hotels, bars and restaurants make an effort to become greener through the purchase of sustainable hotel contract furniture, the adoption of ecological routines and the divulgation work among staff and clients.