Ecolabelled with the Swan
The environment and safety are two priority areas at Sundbyholm Castle.
The environment
The hotel is environmentally friendly. This means active work with the environment, among other things with the aim of:
1) Reduce energy consumption. The facility has a total of 52 geothermal holes, many up to 320 meters deep. Thus, Sundbyholm Castle is one of Sweden’s largest geothermal facilities for a single conference facility. Our outdoor coolant coolers (fans that suck in hot air from the hotel’s roof) make use of the heat in the air (if above 8 degrees Celsius) and continuously recharge the geothermal holes. In combination with our efficient heat pumps, the facility’s energy consumption is reduced and fossil fuels have become history. The low energy consumption in combination with the high energy capacity also makes the hotel well equipped for future expansion plans.
2) Reduce the consumption of chemicals. All laundry in the form of linen, tablecloth, etc. is washed by a Nordic Ecolabelled laundry. Of course, we wash all the dishes on site and we constantly look over the machines to make sure that the dosage of chemicals is correct. We also have a Nordic Ecolabelled cleaning company that uses minimal chemicals and instead uses microfiber cloths. However, a small amount of chemicals must be used, especially in sanitary areas, to make it clean and tidy for our guests.
3) Reduce the amount of unsorted garbage. The staff basically sort everything, i.e. office paper, cardboard, newspapers, plastic, metal, food waste, colored and uncolored glass, electrical waste, etc. Eskilstuna is well known as an environmental municipality which enables us to sort into many different fractions. The food waste is turned into biogas inside Eskilstuna. Instead of throwing old furniture away and buying new, we usually redress old furniture with new leather and new fabrics. In cases where we instead choose to dispose of a piece of furniture, it often gets new life at ReTuna, which is Eskilstuna’s recycling mall. As a guest, you can help us achieve our environmental goals by sorting garbage in the hotel rooms and in the conference rooms.
4) Reduce water consumption. The area’s large flower beds and lawns are irrigated with lake water. We ensure that the majority of our taps in wash basins and showers in the hotel rooms follow the guidelines that our environmental organization has set up.
In addition to this, we work actively to achieve goals for ecological content in food, reduction of waste, increase in eco-labelled consumables and eco-labelled inventories. Our environmental organization has a points system and we are inspected every year.
Safety
Safety is important as soon as you are dealing with people – and with us, as a guest, you are at the center. At the same time, safety is important to us in the staff, so that we can feel safe in our workplace.
– Annual training in CPR including the use of a cardiac defibrillator. It is no longer enough to learn first aid. Statistics have shown that a person’s chances of survival increase significantly if he or she receives the help of a defibrillator after cardiac compressions have started. Therefore, we have two defibrillators at the facility, one in the hotel reception and one in the castle restaurant.
– Annual fire training. An external company helps us here to do the right things in the crisis situation that a fire would bring. We in the staff also get to actively put out small fires with different types of fire extinguishers. We also have a modern fire alarm that is addressable, that is, our fire control center notifies us exactly in which room a fire has started.
