Alaya Tulum Hotel in Mexico shows a strong commitment to the surrounding communities by creating employment opportunities and by promoting sustainable development among the local region.

Alaya Tulum participated in the Green Key Best Practice Competition 2017 organized earlier this year with the theme “partnership and local engagement for sustainable development”. In January 2017, the hotel established a partnership with a family business of one of the employees at the hotel. The business is a 3 hectare organic farm called ‘Lemons’ 150 km from Tulum and it provides produce exclusively for Alaya Tulum Hotel. Through its operation, the farm provides work for a family of 4 people.

The sustainable production entails a better way of using existing resources at the farm, it promotes recycling of nutrients and helps improve the soil. Organic production is based on the integration of practices of tilling the field, which includes a great amount of labour. This generates employment in the same area or region and prevents leakage of foreign exchange in the procurement of external inputs.

There are several benefits of organic farming, which include:

No use of chemicals, pesticides or fertilizers
The produce has a flavor, color and aroma of the highest quality
The produce contains more vitamins, minerals and antioxidants

The locally produced products also help in preventing global warming, as the transportation lengths are minimized and by purchasing produce from the farm, Alaya Tulum supports the local economy.

Through their established partnership, the farm delivers produce to the hotel 3 times a week. The produce and amounts (per month) include:

2000 pieces of coconut
200 parts of pineapple
160 kg lemons
640 kg oranges
20 kg dragon fruit
12 kg habanero chili

The goal of Alaya Tulum is to maintain the relationship with the family business and to start working with new suppliers in order to increase the variety of products and the number of deliveries to the hotel. The hotel also want to offer more new and healthy dishes on their menu. In addition to their existing partnership, the hotel also encourages the use of organic, fair trade- labelled, ecolabelled and locally produced products when purchasing.

The Green Key awarded Comwell hotels are moving in the direction of more sustainable operation. Running a hotel is resource demanding and puts strain on the environment and Comwell decided to address the issue by changing their way of operation. Today, all the hotels have gained The Organic Cuisine Label in bronze in addition to their Green Key certification.

The Organic Cuisine Label in bronze indicates that 30-60 % of the food served is organic, which means that the Danish hotel chain with its 15 establishments now serve around 600 000 guests with organic food. The change towards using more sustainable produce has taken under a year and during this time, the Comwell hotels went from serving 5 % organic to an average of 50 % organic produce in their establishments. In addition, over 200 staff members have received training in sustainability.

According to Peter Schelde, CEO of the Comwell hotels, the change is rooted in a vision to contribute to a greener future. Comwell wants to be a forerunner when it comes to sustainable practices and according to Schelde, an organization the size of Comwell can have a real difference on people’s lives and on the environment. The responsible and sustainable use of resources is not only restricted to the restaurants; it is also an essential part of the whole business operation at Comwell and its hotels. “The focus on sustainability is there to increase the overall experience of both guests, staff and cooperation partners”, Schelde says.

Source: Comwell press release

Commitment to the surrounding communities at Alaya Tulum

Comwell hotels in Denmark gain The Organic Cuisine Label