Our hostel is trying to become eco-hostel. We recycle paper, glass, plastic bottles, cans and have a compost bin for organic waste which feeds our organic garden. We offer free bikes for our guests, so they dont use their cars, we use ecological materials to renovate the house and ecological paints and cleaners. We are planning to provide lessons on herbalism and survival in the nature, we will produce our own cosmetics and medicines (in the form of tea) and we would like to teach people what are their chances to contribute to environment.
We use solar energy combined with wood energy, but we intend to pump heat from the soil. We have energy efficient light bulbs and are thinking of using solar power for electricity. We only have showers to minimise water consumption
Our hostel is a family owned business. We work together and our vision is to make it a centre for education for school children and young adults and our priority would be ecological beekeeping, ecological gardening (with herbal garden and orchard) and mushroom cultivation centre. Our main achievement is the protection of Zelenci (the source of Sava river) and making it a protected natural reserve. We are selling books and leaflets to let people know why it is preserved and how to maintain it the way it is.
Although we do not employ any local people directly, we use local services and buy approximately 50% of produce locally. We encourage guests to eat Slovenian food in businesses all owned by a local people. I arrange pickups with my neighbour (hes a taxi driver), I direct people to buy souvenirs in a shop in kranjska gora owned by locals, and sometimes I take tourists to the craft lessons that are organized by elderly women in Podkoren every week.
Usually I involve my friends from the village so they arrange skiing or snowboarding lessons, trips, trekking for the guests and the locals have an opportunity to practise their English. We give guests information about local customs, we teach them basic Slovenian words, show them how to make originally Slovenian snops (hard liquer), honey wine, honey snops, honey or how the food is made (sometimes I cook for them typical Slovenian food) and guests can meet other Slovenians in the hostel or the pub.
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