Planes accommodation in the French Pyrenees

“We don’t inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.” American Indian saying.

Our contemporary consumer society is based on the myth that sustained economic growth is good for everyone. Everywhere we look, we are bombarded with the message that happiness is found in material objects and are constantly encouraged to buy. This cycle produces an insatiable appetite that leads us to exploit more natural resources and to produce more pollution than ever before, inflicting irreparable damage on the environment. As a direct result of our activity, global warming has now become a palpable reality, and many experts believe that we are heading for an irreversible crisis. Common sense tells us that we need to “do something”, but we stubbornly continue with our consumer habits, ignoring the consequences of our actions.

It’s time to begin to turn things around. If we hope to guarantee a better life for the next generation, we need to recognize that we are all part of the delicate eco-system we call the Earth and that we all share the responsibility for its preservation. Instead of pursuing the myth that more is always better, we need to recover an appreciation for the real value of things, learning to consume less and looking elsewhere for the satisfaction that we know consumer society will never bring us. In today’s world, Ecology is more than just an idealistic philosophy for nature lovers; working together to reduce our collective impact on the planet is our best option for a sustainable future, and it concerns us all.

Before creating the eco lodge, we lived in Barcelona’s Gothic district. For many years, we dreamed of escaping from the city and of living in a more natural setting. In 1998, we bought an old half-ruined farmhouse in Planès and shortly afterwards, we left the city with the idea of transforming the farmhouse into a trailside lodge.

As our project took shape, we decided that our inn would be ecological: as mountaineers, we wanted it to reflect our environmental values, and as teachers, we wanted it to be a platform for promoting awareness of ecological issues facing our society. The eco lodge is the result of this process. It is our personal statement in a world that we believe must change.

In the everyday management of our lodge, we try our best to reduce our environmental impact at all levels. We strive to reduce our energy needs (energy saving lamps, low consumption appliances, high performance insulations). We try to cover these needs principally with energy from renewable sources (solar, wood). We work to reduce our water consumption (flow reducers installed on all showers and sinks). We serve meals based on a combination of local and organic products.

We use environmentally friendly cleaning products (housecleaning, dishwashing, laundry). We select products with minimal packaging whenever possible. We try to reduce the volume of trash we produce: we favour the use of products with minimal packaging, compost all organic material, and recycle as much as possible. We strive to reduce driving to a minimum: each time we take the car, we try to combine several errands and whenever possible, we buy in large quantities. We treat our pool water exclusively with salt. Purification is achieved through electrolysis (an electric current momentarily transforms the salt into chlorine as the water passes through the filter system).