Sustainability

Since 2022, Schulz Hotels has been climate-neutral by contributing towards global climate protection. With ClimatePartner, we have calculated our entire carbon footprint, reduced CO2 emissions and offset them through the climate protection project Biomass in Soacha, Colombia. This makes us a climate neutral hotel and your stay with us will be climate-neutral!

Greenhouse gas emissions such as CO2 are unavoidable in hotel operations: for example, through heating, electricity and catering. Therefore, we keep our footprint as small as possible, by using green energy from Green Planet Energy.

Soacha is a fast-growing suburb in the greater Bogotá area. Young people from the countryside seek their fortune there, others came here because they had to leave their villages during the civil war. Countless simple houses are built of adobe bricks, and brick kilns make a good living. Since coal is cheaply available in Colombia, almost all of the 40 brickworks in the region use it to fire their kilns.

All but one: the Santander brickyard. Owner Miguel Diaz has converted his plant to modern energy-efficient kilns and runs them on up to 80 percent renewable biomass. In this way, the brickyard saves 18,000 tons of CO2 every year.

This exclusive ClimatePartner carbon offset project is the first in Colombia to be certified with the Gold Standard.

Biomass projects generate energy from renewable biomass: from waste such as coconut shells, sawdust, wood waste, residues from sugar cane processing, bamboo or even wood from sustainable cultivation. No forests are cut down or fossil fuels burned for this purpose – it therefore saves CO2 emissions. In most cases, an additional greenhouse gas reduction is achieved by the fact that the biomass does not rot in the open air, i.e., does not release methane (CH4).

Furthermore, our climate offset project contributes to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), for example fighting poverty or improving living conditions in emerging and developing countries.

View entire project at Climate Partner.

Since 2018, Schulz Hotels has been using 100% clean electricity without nuclear or coal power from Green Planet Energy – the energy supplier that sets new standards for sustainability with Greenpeace criteria.

Read the Schulz Hotel article in the “energy” magazine.

With need-based room cleaning, Schulz Hotels makes a contribution to environmental protection and drastically reduces its water consumption. If necessary, our guests can actively decide to have their room cleaned during their stay and thus help to save water. If cleaning is only done when guests arrive and depart, that means up to 300,000 liters of water a year.

With the MachDeinDing event series, the Schulz Hotels set a focus for sustainability in the field of education. As a partner and initiator of MachDeinDing, Schulz contributes to the career orientation of schoolchildren. The project has already been organized twice with SOS Children’s Village Berlin as an event partner and should also be available as a hybrid event in Berlin and online from autumn 2022. Learn more …

Schulz Hotels employees have the opportunity to use up to 5% of their working time for a social project. In this way we give the incentive and the time to get involved in matters of the heart.

Marina worked as a cook at the Schulz Hotel and volunteered 5% of her working hours at the Café Refugio:

“I work in the kitchen at Café Refugio and bake cakes, prepare coffee and serve the customers. The money collected from the café supports the Refugio project. I chose the Refugio Cafe because it is a nice integration project for refugees and also because I knew that my cooking skills will be useful … and it’s good to get out of your bubble and surround yourself with people from different countries and backgrounds.”

Refugio Berlin is a pilot project of the Berlin City Mission for the integration of refugees, which is run by volunteers. The Refugio Berlin has made it its goal to create a home for the new community of new and old Berliners and to be a meeting place where people can exchange ideas and learn from each other. The café is a living room, workplace and interaction space and thus the heart of the house.

www.refugio.berlin/
www.instagram.com/refugioberlin/