At Aspenäs Herrgård, we care for our local environment, our global environment and for our employees and guests. We want to help pave the way to a sustainable future by actively working towards a green transition. We do this by following the strict requirements set by the Nordic Ecolabel in order to ensure that the environmental impact of our business is as low as possible. We work with both long-term and direct initiatives to reduce our carbon footprint, and we strive to continuously improve and develop our environmental and sustainability work.

The Nordic Ecolabel is the official ecolabel of the Nordic countries. The label makes it easy for guests or customers to choose the most environmentally friendly products and services available. Every year, we undergo a comprehensive certification process with documentation and controls to ensure that we meet the stringent Nordic Ecolabel criteria. Learn more about the nordic Ecolabel criteria here.

For us, sustainability means that we have a holistic perspective and that we work with sustainability in several areas of our business. Here we explain the initiatives we have taken and the measures that have been taken. 

ENERGY CONSUMPTION 

We work actively and with several measures to reduce our energy consumption by optimising electricity, lighting, heating, cooling, water and ventilation. Examples of energy-saving measures we have implemented are: Installation of fans in our largest rooms that rotate and reuse heat. 

• Replacement of old equipment with new energy-saving equipment. For example, water-saving taps and toilets.      
• Installation of systems that automatically reduce energy consumption in empty premises. 
• We are replacing old bulbs with LED low-energy bulbs designed to consume less power.
• Installation of presence controlled lighting in several areas.
• Reduced water consumption by reducing the amount of washing up. For example, guests don't need to change drinking glasses several times a day.
• We have made an energy diagnosis of all the technical installations in the property and assessed, among other things, lighting installations, heating installations, ventilation systems and cooling systems. 

RESTAURANT AND KITCHEN 

• When we cook and lay the tables in the restaurant, we focus on sustainability by ensuring:
• A large proportion of the ingredients and drinks served are organic.
• We work to reduce our food waste through a number of initiatives. For example, measurement of organic waste.
• We only serve fish and shellfish that are MSC-labelled.
• Guests wishing to eat vegetarian food can always be offered a green alternative with us.
• We always choose raw ingredients according to the season, and when choosing raw ingredient suppliers we prioritise locally grown and Swedish-produced products.
• Our goal is to use as much of the raw ingredient as possible to reduce food and energy waste.
• We have opted out of table linen to reduce the amount of laundry.
• We bake and cook much of our food from scratch. 

Housekeeping

• As part of our housekeeping, we take responsibility for people and the environment by ensuring.
• We strive to use fragrance-free products to wash bedding, duvets, pillows and towels, as well as offer room products that are environmentally friendly, without allergens and without parabens.
• One of the Nordic Ecolabel's requirements is that we keep track of the ecolabelled cleaning agents we use. We also make sure that we don't use more products than necessary. This reduces both our impact on the environment and on the people who use the chemicals.
• Our laundry is ISO certified and Nordic Swan Ecolabelled.
• When it comes to energy, we like to save! Not in terms of comfort – but in terms of things that waste unnecessary energy. For example, we encourage our guests to use their towel more than once. 

WASTE MANAGEMENT 

• We are working to reduce our amount of waste and to recycle as much as possible.       
• We sort our waste at source.
• Paper containers are available in all rooms and offices.
• We prioritise the use of biodegradable disposable items and are phasing out plastic items. We do not use disposable plastic cups. Plastic straws and cocktail sticks must be replaced with paper or wood.
• We don't sell or serve water in a bottle. Our guests can enjoy still or carbonated water of very good quality directly from our drinking water taps.
• We are replacing all our tealights with LED candles. The candles we buy are stearin instead of paraffin or wax. 

PURCHASING    

• We always set requirements and investigate environmentally friendly alternatives when contacting suppliers.
• We purchase environmentally friendly office supplies as much as possible - such as flipcharts and whiteboard pens.
• All our printed matter comes from ecolabelled printers and Nordic Ecolabelled paper. We are also reducing the amount of printed material and utilising digital solutions to a greater extent. 

TRAVEL AND TRANSPORT 

• We promote sustainable travel to our hotel by offering charging points for electric cars and letting our guests know of the available public transport routes to us.   
• We prioritise local suppliers and locally produced raw ingredients in order to reduce transport.