Under this title, Ms Gaby Weiß of the Eßlinger Zeitung wrote about our hotel on 3 February 2016.
The Charter of the Sustainability Business Initiative also appeals to small businesses – Ecoinn Hotel has had good experiences
For committed companies whose philosophy includes sustainability, the Baden-Württemberg state government has launched the WIN Charter, which recognises sustainable business and makes it visible to the public. From one-woman businesses and small craft firms to large corporations, around 80 companies have now signed this charter. Among the first signatories is Esslingen’s Ecoinn Hotel am Campus. There, Peter Wüstner from the Ministry of the Environment, who is regarded as the “father” of the charter, has now seen first-hand how the guidelines are being implemented on site.
Free of charge and achievable
The hotel on Kanalstraße is committed to sustainable business: it is the guesthouse with the lowest CO2 emissions per overnight stay in Germany, and it generates the heat and electricity it needs from Neckar hydropower in its own power plant, also supplies the Econvent events venue on Ritterstraße and feeds surplus energy into the public grid. Hotel manager Thomas Puchan is convinced by the Charter of the Sustainability Business Initiative (WIN): “It is a great system that costs the business nothing, that takes everyone along at their own level of sustainability, and that is feasible and practicable, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises.”
It was very important to Peter Wüstner, who developed the charter with his team as a senior government official at the Ministry of the Environment, Climate Protection and the Energy Sector, “that the term sustainability, which is often used inflationarily, is sharpened and made tangible for everyone”. The charter’s goals were set out in twelve guiding principles (see appendix). The businesses incur no accreditation or certification costs. The bureaucratic effort is also kept within narrow limits: in a target concept of no more than seven pages, what is to be achieved is formulated along the guiding aspects. After one year, a report of no more than 15 pages sets out whether, when and how these measures have been implemented internally. Short, clear and comprehensibly written texts are used deliberately so that the public can check them: consumers, customers and guests, employees and suppliers, but also political decision-makers and environmental associations. The charter relies on a continuous improvement process: the procedure is repeated year after year. The concept achieves credibility by also addressing goals that could not be achieved: “We are not interested – as in many sustainability reports – in ‘rosy prose’,” stresses Peter Wüstner.
The vacuum cleaner has had its day
In workshops, the Ministry of the Environment explains the concept to interested companies, enables the exchange of experience and the building of networks that often pay off afterwards. A dossier is currently being compiled that lists individual approaches showing how businesses have implemented the twelve guiding principles. Ecoinn manager Thomas Puchan has contributed a very pragmatic idea: “In our hotel there is not a single vacuum cleaner. All our floors can be wiped damp. That is much healthier for allergy sufferers. It saves electricity and is therefore environmentally friendly. And it saves on purchasing costs, so it is extremely cost-effective.”
“All these companies pursue sustainability with passion,” says Peter Wüstner happily. “Their common language is acting sustainably.” He was surprised that global players such as Daimler and Bosch and large companies such as Stuttgart Airport and the State Trade Fair have also signed the charter, which was primarily intended for small and medium-sized enterprises: “For these large companies it is a commitment to Baden-Württemberg as a business location and a signal to employees that they are serious about the ecological, economic and social aspects of sustainability.”
Information is available at www.win-bw.com
THE TWELVE PRINCIPLES OF THE WIN CHARTER
Provide jobs in the region and secure the company’s success in the long term.
Respect and protect human and employee rights, secure and promote equal opportunities and prevent any form of discrimination and exploitation in all business processes.
Promote innovations in products and services that increase sustainability and demonstrate the innovative potential of Baden-Württemberg’s economy.
Act in the spirit of sustainability – above all in the context of financial decisions.
Prevent, uncover and sanction corruption.
Increase resource efficiency, raise raw material productivity and reduce the use of natural resources.
Use renewable energies, increase energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in line with targets or offset them in a climate-neutral way.
Take responsibility for services and products by examining the value creation process and product cycle for sustainability and creating transparency in this respect.
Generate added value for the region in which the company operates.
Take stakeholders and their interests into account in all processes.
Create incentives for action and rethinking at all levels of the company and involve both our own employees and all other stakeholders in a continuous process of increasing corporate sustainability.
Respect, protect and promote the wellbeing and interests of employees.