Hostels: the new green:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2008/nov/22/eco-friendly-hostels-barcelona-sicily
Hostels are the budget accommodation equivalent of Pippa Middleton. For years they've gone quietly about their business while their big sister boutique hotels grabbed the attention. Now, suddenly they're everywhere, hogging the headlines; all shiny low-cost chic.
And it's not enough to be hip, they also want to be green. Several have been loudly proclaiming their eco cred including Barcelona's Urbany Hostel, recently opened in the city centre with an epic roof terrace overlooking the Torre Agbar skyscraper, slick rooms and minimalist kitchen/diner. Its reduce, reuse, recycle philosophy includes using "less aggressive" building materials - pacifist bricks perhaps - low absorption lamps and rainwater harvesting.
Hostel mentioned:
Unfortunately, the other property mentioned in the article isn't a hostel (Rigel Hotel, Catania).
16 years
Also there are green ways to produce electricity:
The two most popular forms are the solar and wind energy.
Also there are ways for eco-heating: proper insulation saves up to 90% of energy waste, and geothermal energy could produce the required temperature all year around.
For such energy costs what hostels consume, green is not only posh but a cost efficient way to go...
16 years
Thanks... I added those links to the new eco hostels Wiki page.
No problems! :)
I recently found a Hungarian site where this guy has built a passive house, which is a 100% eco house. I just ordered the DVD from them, which explains every single details about the construction. Who knows, I might gonna build one! ;)
The funny part is, it costs less (or nearly the same price) as a regular building, only the technology research took longer to build it. The yearly energy consumption of this house is around 15kWh/m2... Which is 10-15 times less than a regular building!
The greener, the cheaper! :D
16 years
Sounds interesting -- I just added that link to the Wiki also. :)
I wouldn't mind getting some farmland out here in Massachusetts and starting a hostel in a building like that...
I went to visit a few of the sustainable houses here in New England in the '90s -- one of them was a nice 60-foot (18m) long community house that only cost something like $12,000 to build. Very cheap...
16 years
and geothermal energy could produce the required temperature all year around.
We looked into this for our new hostel in Vienna. Unfortunately, they told us there is no geothermal energy on that particular spot.
It is a very cost-efficient and 100% green solution, but only feasible for brand-new buildings - you need to drill, baby, drill before you start construction.
16 years
this guy has built a passive house, which is a 100% eco house.
A girl I know from University was the architect of this:
Pictures of the rooms here: http://www.schiestlhaus.at/inside.html
It is basically a hostel, but they don´t call it a hostel. It is a mountain refuge for hikers. It is a passive house as well, with zero CO2 emissions (apart from the breathe of the guests:)).
It wasn´t exactly cheap, but the intention was to build it as a showcase house: demonstrate that the technology is even good enough for a very rough climate (it´s on a windy ridge on 2000 meters altitude).
There may be one problem though making it a bad solution for hostels: the windows don´t open. Unless it has a very good ventilation system, it will develop a serious mold problem IMHO.
16 years
It is a passive house as well, with zero CO2 emissions (apart from the breathe of the guests:)).
Well, maybe it could be compensated with a green house with loads of plants then! ;)
Unless it has a very good ventilation system, it will develop a serious mold problem IMHO.
The one I've read about has a system which leads 2m under the building into a 50m long pipe ventilation system with pollen and humidity filters (therefore no molds ;) ) and works as an air-con, cools the air during summer and heats it up during winter...
We looked into this for our new hostel in Vienna. Unfortunately, they told us there is no geothermal energy on that particular spot.
Well, we are lucky enough then! :)
Other important countries considered high in potential for development are the People's Republic of China, Hungary, Mexico, Iceland, and New Zealand. A number of potential sites are being developed or evaluated in South Australia that are several kilometres in depth.
And also as stated in Wikipedia's Tourism in Hungary:
Hungary has an estimated 1,300 thermal springs, a third of which are used at spas across the country.
As Budapest is sitting on 118 thermal springs (therefore we are so called the capital of thermal baths) you might able to use that energy when you open your shop here! ;)
16 years
As Budapest is sitting on 118 thermal springs (therefore we are so called the capital of thermal baths) you might able to use that energy when you open your shop here! ;)
All right, good point. We´ll drill! Maybe we even find some oil? :D
16 years
All right, good point. We´ll drill! Maybe we even find some oil? :D
Well... to find some oil here, you may have to go back in time, gather a loads of mammoths, blow them up in a pit, travel back, drill a bit and there you go!
The original idea is from this movie...
The loads of oil caused a crisis in the film and resulted an ambush when GWB nuked down the capital of the aggressor Hungary, Bucharest! :D
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