The EU Ecolabel awarded to the 4* hotel at the Avène Hydrotherapy Center, which is reopening to the public as of Monday, July 6
3 July 2020
This is the only official label for environmental excellence awarded by an independent body (AFNOR Certification) and recognized across Europe
Avène, July 3, 2020 – After almost four months of enforced closure, the Eau Thermale Avène 4* Hotel is finally reopening, to offer Avène patients of the Hydrotherapy Center, along with their loved ones, and tourists, an outstanding setting that fully meets all the highest environmental standards, illustrated by its commitment to using renewable energies and promoting responsible water consumption, waste reduction and staff training in eco-friendly behavior.
In 2019, the Pierre Fabre Group launched Green Mission, an entity tasked with asserting the Group’s commitment to naturalness, environmental protection and sustainable development. The Eau Thermale Avène Hotel was built to these eco-friendly standards, and has stayed true to this approach since its opening in 2016.
We are specially proud to have been awarded the EU Ecolabel, which is issued by AFNOR Certification in France. It demonstrates - once again - the unwavering determination of Eau Thermale Avène to progress and surpass its objectives in terms of energy performance. To cite one example, the hotel produces some of its domestic hot water via the solar panels fitted onto its roof.
Florence Guillaume
Green Mission Pierre Fabre Vice President
Over the past few years, concern about environmental issues has been growing steadily within the hotel industry. Probably more so than any other economic activity, tourism requires an unspoilt environment. Tourist accommodation services often put pressure on local resources. The EU Ecolabel has emerged as a way of validating those businesses that have adapted to these new issues by offering eco-friendly tourist accommodation.
The location, the unspoilt environment, the breathtaking landscape: all of this contributes to the sense of wellbeing Avène is able to offer, so it is absolutely essential to preserve this unique site in which nature, through its abundance and omnipresence, soothes and adds a vital dimension to the thermal treatments. Our hotel was already certified according to the High Environmental Quality standard with an “Exceptional” rating, and the EU Ecolabel constitutes further recognition of the combined efforts of the hotel’s 40 employees
Pascal Bailly
Hotel Director
Created in 2003 by the European Commission, the EU Ecolabel for tourist accommodation services is an environmental and societal label awarded to tourist accommodation that meets stringent criteria and offers a high-quality service to guests. The Label assesses four major groups of criteria: management of energies, water and waste and overall management of the accommodation. One of its defining features is its quest to promote an ongoing commitment through the setting up of an action plan that can be measured over time. In line with this approach, the Eau Thermale Avène Hotel will be audited over the next two years, to confirm the progress made in certain areas, based on a very precise set of criteria:
Energies:
- 100% of electricity from renewable energy sources
- Building certified HQE & BREEAM.
- Centralized computer-based energy monitoring system to measure consumption per sector
- Domestic hot water preheated using solar panels fitted onto the hotel roof.
Waste:
- Sorting of biowaste, which is placed in the composter.
- 82% of waste is recycled.
Water:
- Flow regulators on all faucets and showers.
- A “water footprint” program that includes minimizing the amount of water used to water the grounds of the estate.
Running of the Hotel:
- Proactive management approach that involves staff from an early stage.
- Enthusiasm for promoting the eco-friendly benefits of the HQE-certified building among guests and staff, through “guided” tours of the various on-site installations.
- A genuine determination to progress and identify new measures that underscore the commitment to ecolabelling (innovative ideas recorded in the hotel’s environmental action plan).
- Provision of the book entitled “L’Hôtel en 88 mots” (The Hotel in 88 words), a way of recounting the story of the Hotel, from its design to its day-to-day life, including its “philosophy”. The book offers guests a chance to truly get to know the place and its environment, and is a powerful way of encouraging them to take care of it.
About the Eau Thermale Avène Hotel
Backing onto the Avène Hydrotherapy Center, this hotel with a modern architectural design boasts 60 guest rooms, all with a terrace overlooking the grounds, a bar, meeting spaces bathed in sunlight, two swimming pools and a fitness room, as well as a restaurant offering local, seasonal produce. Comfort, harmony, peacefulness... As soon as you wake up, the landscape welcomes you like a sweet omen. To find out more: https://www.eauthermaleavene-lhotel.com/en
About AFNOR Certification
AFNOR Certification is the body selected by the European Commission to award the EU Ecolabel in France, for both products and services. As the commercial subsidiary of the AFNOR association, it offers businesses and professionals the chance to obtain recognition through signs of quality, by providing services and engineering in the certification and assessment of products, systems, services, processes and skills. Procedural documentation based on standards, creation of procedural documentation and specifications (labels), regulatory certificates, scoring, diagnosis, inspection, assessment: AFNOR Certification assumes responsibility for supporting private and public enterprises as they work to define the process which best suits their strategies, in multi-site mode at national and international level. AFNOR Certification awards highly prestigious labels such as the NF brand, AFAQ and the EU Ecolabel.
*NF HQE ™ Tertiary Building – Hotel
The Eau Thermale Avène Hotel has obtained NF HQE™ (High Environmental Quality) certification in the Tertiary Building category (Certificate no. NF439/18/033 of 04/12/2018) Certified by Certivéa, a COFRAC-accredited body (*) (*) Certivéa has accreditation (no. 5-0054) from the COFRAC, for the Certification of Products and Services, Available for consultation at www.cofrac.fr/en/ ** BREEAM “Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method”, which assesses the environmental performance of buildings.
Contact
Isabelle LENORMAND - Communications Manager, Eau Thermale Avène
Tel. : +33 1 49 10 83 92