Princess Hotels & Resorts say goodbye to 2022 with a gift: all its hotels in the Canary Islands received the Ecostars certificate. This is excellent news, since only 10% of hotels in Spain have this recognition, which underscores the chain’s efforts to promote sustainable tourism.

What is Ecostars?

Ecostars is a startup that aims to identify eco-friendly hotels to help increasingly responsible and committed tourists take care of the planet when they travel. It does so by issuing lodging establishments a specific sustainability certificate based on eco-stars.

The founder of Ecostars, José Luis Santos, explains in an interview for National Geographic the unique potential of his certificate.

“Ecostars is not the first sustainability certificate for hotels; in fact, some have been around for decades. However, we probably are – and this is the innovative part – the first with a specific and scalable plan to be the globally accepted rating and to be present in a significant percentage of the world’s hotels”, Santos notes.

In fact, Ecostars is recognised by the International Tourism Organization, the Global Sustainable Tourism Council and the Tourism Bureau of Spain.

This is how Ecostars are awarded

The globally recognised Ecostars distinction is determined by the environmental impact a lodging establishment has per stay. The certification process measures several key areas.

On the one hand is energy consumption, which analyses spending on electricity and fuel per stay in relation to other hotels. The same is true for water. Ecostars determines the water consumption per stay and compares a hotel’s performance with that of other similar establishments.

The hotel’s carbon footprint is also measured using Climate Neutral Now criteria of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Social aspects also play a key role in the Ecostars process, in an effort to ensure the use of ethical practices in human and labour relations, both with guests and employees.

Princess’s Ecostars

In accordance with the above criteria, Princess hotels in the Canary Islands were categorised as follows:

• Guayarmina Princess (***)

• Maspalomas Princess (***)

• Tabaiba Princess (***)

• Princess Inspire Tenerife (***)

• Gran Canaria Princess (**)

• Fuerteventura Princess (**)

• Club Jandía Princess (**)

• Mogán Princess (*)

• Taurito Princess (*)

• La Palma & Teneguía Princess (*)

Actions to promote sustainable tourism

In an effort to look after processes and promote sustainable actions, Princess Hotels & Resorts minds all the environmental aspects related to its facilities and services, as well as its processes.

These actions range from our commitment to sustainable and green infrastructure, to corporate social responsibility policies and the development of local communities.

About this last point, it is worth noting that, for example, the La Palma & Teneguía Princess hotel is promoting an initiative that works closely with local farmers. The organic waste that is produced at the resort yields natural fertiliser that can be used in the island’s plantations.

Another action aimed at caring for the environment is as simple as giving guests a card to indicate when they want their sheets changed, which translates into more efficient and sustainable water and electricity use. In hotels, boilers have also been replaced by sustainable units that produce heat from electricity.

Categories: Canaries, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, La Palma, Tenerife