Water is the healthiest and most natural thirst quencher. Also, while on holiday. Travellers want to have drinking water of the highest quality available in the hotel, which is why investing in a reliable water filter system is crucial.
This desire has already reached some absurd extremes in the hotel industry. For example, supposedly premium water from Norway is available in a 5-star hotel in Hong Kong, and in Germany, water from the Fiji Islands, some 16,000 kilometres away, is on offer.
Yet German drinking water is of excellent quality (as laboratory tests by Stiftung Warentest repeatedly prove). In this newsletter, we would like to introduce hotels that stand out for their regional and sustainable drinking water supply. Some hotels have invested in high-quality filter systems or provide their guests with “revitalized water.” However, one thing is most important to them: the water comes from the region and is not transported halfway around the world.
What Drinking Water is the Most Sustainable?
Transport routes and packaging significantly influence the life cycle assessment of water.
Environmentally-Friendly Packaging for Water
The best packaging is called unpackaged! The eco-movement has been advocating drinking tap water, especially in the DACH region, where people enjoy excellent quality tap water. This can also be made sparkling for a refreshing experience. Some Green Pearls hotels are geographically fortunate to have exceptionally pure spring water out of their taps, and many provide their guests with eco-friendly drinking bottles or glass carafes for refilling.
Eco-friendly packaging is essential for bottled mineral water. Refillable glass bottles can be refilled up to 50 times, and refillable PET bottles can be refilled up to 25 times. The disadvantage of returnable glass bottles is their high weight—a good argument for supporting regional sources.
“One-way” PET bottles can be recycled, but they go straight into the shredder after a single use, which significantly worsens the carbon footprint. No wonder disposable water bottles on the hotel buffet are considered a no-go by many sustainability standards for hotels!
Long Transport Routes for Drinking Water Drive Up CO₂ Emissions
Back in 2010, a Norwegian TV station revealed that the premium water VOSS enjoyed by Hollywood stars is nothing more than the tap water of the lake region in Iveland. The luxury of this water is limited to the fact that it is transported halfway around the world (in glass bottles designed by Calvin Klein).
Those concerned about sustainability should do the opposite and drink the water from a regional well! This not only avoids CO₂ but also prevents damage caused by improper storage. If plastic bottles are left in the sun, for example, several million micro-plastic particles can be released into the water quickly!
Regional and Packaging-Free: The Drinking Water Concepts of Various Green Pearls® Partners Hotel Klosterbräu in Tyrol is part of the “BWT Bottle Free Zone.”
At the Austrian wellness hotel Klosterbräu, guests can expect fresh mountain air and excellent drinking water. The 5-star hotel’s tap water comes from the Karwendel Mountains and is further filtered and mineralized by the company BWT Austria. To avoid any packaging, guests have glass water bottles at their disposal, which are purified in-house. Klosterbräu is, therefore, at the top of the most important sustainability criteria (regional and packaging-free).
Hotel Das Rübezahl Serves Fresh Mountain Spring Water
The Hotel Das Rübezahl in the Allgäu is located in the magnificent Alpine panorama with a view of Neuschwanstein Castle. Directly below the Säuling mountain, a spring bubbles up, from which the hotel draws its fresh spring water. The water is filtered in the hotel’s facility and carbonated for guests on request.
Für das regionale Bergquellwasser fällt keinerlei Verpackungsmüll an, da das Rübezahl das Wasser in Glas-Mehrwegflaschen serviert. Einige der Suiten verfügen sogar über einen eigenen Quellwasserbrunnen auf dem Zimmer – zusammen mit einem Effektkamin und privaten Whirlpool.
Bella Vista – Zermatt Bottled Water
The Hotel Bella Vista, with a view of the Matterhorn, is in the Swiss car-free town of Zermatt. Here, part of the sustainable concept is that refillable glass bottles are available to guests. Guests can also enjoy the excellent Zermatt drinking water during their outdoor excursions.
HUBERTUS Mountain Refugio Allgäu Provides Water Bottles
In the HUBERTUS Mountain Refugio, situated at over 1,000 meters, there are water carafes with Swiss Stone Pine spheres in all hotel rooms. The hotel lends out the Hubertus hiking rucksack for hikes, including a water bottle. Throughout the hotel, you can fill up on drinking water free of charge – for example, at the fountain in the restaurant or at the bar in the Mountain Spring Spa.
Naturhotel Outside – Fresh Mountain Spring Water for Hikers
Mountain wanderers like to climb to the alpine Naturhotel Outside in East Tyrol (with Nordic walking sticks or snowshoes, depending on the season). Packaged water is unnecessary here, as fresh mountain spring water comes from the tap. This is served to guests in beautiful carafes in the restaurant. Those who do not yet have a refillable drinking bottle for their hiking backpack can purchase one made of BPA-free materials in the hotel shop.
More Than Just a Thirst Quencher: Revitalised Water and Healing Water
Okelmann’s Revitalizes Water According to Johann Grander, water revitalization methods assume that tap water is pure but has lost its original “vitality” from the source due to the long filtering process. By revitalizing the water, it should regain its original vitality.
Hotel Okelmann provides guests with a carafe with a pine ball in the room into which this special tap water can be filled. Grander Water fits into the hotel’s overall concept in Lower Saxony, which offers its guests space for mindfulness, yoga, and meditation.
Hotel Sturm Offers Grander Water and “Sturm Water Bottles”
At the Hotel Sturm, all guests have a glass water bottle with the hotel’s logo to enjoy fresh drinking water anytime. According to Johann Grander, the water from the taps at the Biohotel is filtered and softened by the hotel’s system and revitalized, just like at Okelmann’s Hotel.
The “Sturm Water Bottles” can also be purchased by guests as a souvenir to remember their sustainable holiday in the biosphere reserve in the Rhön.
SCHWARZWALD PANORAMA Offers Access to Healing Waters
The water from Bad Herrenalb is one of the main reasons people worldwide visit the SCHWARZWALD PANORAMA Hotel. In 1963, healing water was discovered in Bad Herrenalb during drilling. Since then, it has been served free of charge in the town’s drinking pavilion and used for water therapy. Another unique feature is the town’s natural thermal water, which visitors can enjoy in the hotel’s thermal swimming pool. The drinking water from the tap comes from the Rennbrunnen spring, which is only three kilometres away.
Please note: medicinal water in Germany legally falls under the Medicinal Products Act. Bad Herrenalb advises that adults over 20 can drink 0.5 litres of it daily. For children and adolescents between 8 and 19, 0.25 litres is recommended, and children up to 7 years of age should not drink the healing water because of the high fluoride content.
Water is essential for life. The fact that fresh and clean water, in some cases in mineral water quality or revitalized, comes out of the tap in hotels is a privilege of which sustainable hoteliers are aware. Many are, therefore, looking for ways to pass some of it on. Next week, therefore, it’s all about sustainable and social projects related to drinking water supported by the Green Pearls® partners.
Edited by: Jill Walsh
