Organic lamb and composting
Sustainability and the environment
Eco Garden projects
Organic lamb and composting, two Eco Garden projects
At Garden Hotels we’re firmly committed to the environment and our surroundings. That’s why every day we work towards implementing greener practices at our properties and revitalising our natural heritage. One of the chain’s most important milestones in recent years was to roll out one of the island’s highest quality local products. This is the organic lamb which, thanks to our partnership with the Association of Organic Farmers of Mallorca, can be found in the daily buffet of all Garden Hotels properties in Mallorca.
As a result, in 2015 Garden Hotels became the first hotel firm to offer its guests a locally sourced product of excellent quality, while also being socially responsible and supporting the work of Mallorcan farmers. This type of free-range and pasture-raised lamb feeds mainly on breast milk and organic grass. Therefore, the meat offered to our guests is 100% natural, locally and without any pesticides, chemical fertilisers or genetic modification.
In 2017, Garden Hotels went one step further by launching the composting project at the Playa Garden Selection Hotel & Spa. This is a pilot scheme based on compost made from the organic matter generated by the hotel, which according to a study totals 91,304 kg. This means that each guest who stays at the hotel creates 0.67 kg of organic matter per day.
Once again a pioneer in the field of revitalising local agriculture, Garden Hotels is the first chain that takes advantage of the hotel’s organic waste to produce compost. At present, more than 80% of land in Spain is at risk of desertification, which means that Mallorca loses on average twelve tons of soil per hectare per year, according to figures from the Balearic Government. So, the main goal of this project is to achieve the necessary tons of organic matter and in the right conditions to recover and preserve the fertility of Mallorca’s soils.
The pilot scheme is carried out thanks to partnerships with the Mallorcan arm of Friends of the Earth, Aubo, the Association of Organic Farmers of Mallorca, Estel de Llevant and Ramon Plana, a composting expert. For Garden Hotels, this initiative is not just “a way of protecting the improvement restricted to nature, but a way of improving our own environment and our society”.