Looking around my room on the 5th floor, the design seemed to celebrate the talents of traditional artisans and natural materials. Repurposed furniture and one-of-a-kind Swiss antiques (which I found out were painstakingly sourced over years) adorned my room. The fireplace was crafted from Turbach stone and framed by wool-upholstered armchairs and for ultimate Alpine chic and cosiness, cashmere blankets, goat hair rugs and pure wool carpets completed the soft furnishings. On either side of my bed sat two beautiful lampshades, their bases masterfully sculpted from Quartz mined from Alpine crevasses.
The hotel runs on renewable energy from hydro, solar and wood chips and uses reclaimed energy from freezers and refrigerators to heat its pools. The air conditioning is sensor-driven and they’ve replaced plastic water bottles with glass bottles from Whole World Water while donating 10% of proceeds from each bottle sold to the initiative, which helps to provide clean and safe drinking water to rural communities across the world from Kenya to Madagascar. They’re striving towards fully eliminating single-use plastic in hotel rooms, as they currently still offer Acqua di Parma bathroom miniatures. You’ll find zero waste dishes on the menu as well as seasonal and locally-sourced ingredients and during the summer, the onsite beehives provide honey for the hotel too. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the floral arrangements used for events are even given to a local retirement home in Saanen. It’s these little actions which, combined with the larger operations, have a positive local impact and ripple effect on the attitudes of the community. The hotel keeps track of their environmental impact with EarthCheck, a scientifically-backed benchmarking tool designed specifically for the hospitality industry. With this, they analyse their performance and identify any room for improvement.