Sunday, March 1, 2009

Hotel Commits to Carbon-Neutral Meetings

According to the Steigenberger Hotel Group, the Steigenberger Hotel Berlin is the first corporate hotel in Germany to offer certified carbon neutral meetings. All the conference rooms in the new convention center of the five-star Berlin hotel have been rebuilt with ecological factors in mind. Modern design ideas combine with ergonomic comfort and environmentally friendly high-grade materials. For example, all carpets are made of wool with no artificial fibers while the conference chairs were manufactured without using synthetic materials and then finished with a water-based lacquer. Care was also taken to ensure that low-emission materials were used in the paint, wallpaper and veneers. The hotel's electricity supply comes from 100 percent renewable resources. The entire rebuild cost more than $12 million.

The conference catering policy deliberately embraces a wide variety of organic and ecological produce. Priority is given to the purchase of organic products, sourced, where possible, from local suppliers. Not only does this satisfy demands for healthy eating but it also places an emphasis on low food miles and low-emission, environmentally friendly production methods in order to keep the carbon footprint as low as possible. The Steigenberger Hotel Berlin offsets all those emissions that are unavoidable in the course of a conference or an overnight stay. The climate partner in this enterprise is the company "greenmiles," which supports recognized climate protection projects. For each event the hotel issues conference clients with an official TÜV-approved certificate.

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