Green goal 5: Save water and produce less waste
Center Parcs is all about having fun in water. Aqua Mundo is the sparkling main attraction at all of our parks. Because water is one of our main features, we know better than most that it is a valuable commodity, which we should appreciate and use sparingly.
On the other hand, the waste mountain seems to be constantly growing. We can also make a contribution to nature in this respect, by taking a critical look at what we throw away and what we receive from suppliers.
We save up to 50% on water usage.
Green deeds:
- Everyone wants to enjoy themselves while on holiday. But comfort can go hand in hand with savings. By fitting water-saving shower heads, water-saving tap adapters and toilets with a half-flush option, we can use up to 15% less water.
We take an intelligent approach towards chlorine usage.
Green deeds:
- By being smart with chlorine, we are able to use less of it in Aqua Mundo. Much less: just 10% of what we used in 1983, when we first started this initiative. This is beneficial both to the environment and our guests. The smell of chlorine and red eyes after swimming are a thing of the past.
Wherever possible, we avoid unnecessary packaging.
Green deeds:
- All items for our parks (from furniture to cutlery and from bicycles to glass) are delivered without individual packaging or in packaging that can be re-used.
- Kitchen items (such as deep fat fryer oil, meat and French fries) are delivered in large packages. The same applies to cleaning products: our cleaning staff fill their bottles from large vats of 1,000 litres, making individual plastic containers unnecessary.
- We no longer use individual packages of milk, sugar, jam, butter or peanut butter in the Market Dome
We give used materials a second life.
Green deeds:
- In the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany, we have replaced 80-gram paper with 75-gram paper, which is 100% chlorine-free. Our French parks only use 100% recycled copier paper
- The toners from all of our printers in all of our parks are collected by Ecologik Buro. They refill the cartridges or, if this is not possible, recycle them in the most environmentally friendly way possible
- When we refurnish our villas, we donate the old furniture and curtains to humanitarian organisations (including orphanages and hospitals in Romania and Moldavia). Anything that has to be thrown away is carefully separated - even the glass and wood from picture frames go in separate containers
Frying oil
Our used frying oil is turned into biodiesel.
Green deeds:
- Our frying oil just keeps on going. When it's time to replace the oil in our restaurants and snack bars, we don't just throw the old oil away: it's collected and processed into biodiesel
We separate our waste products.
Green deeds:
- All our parks have a strict policy of separating waste paper, glass, biological waste, metal and oils. In our main buildings, we also collect used cans, clingfilm, frying oil and batteries separately
- Jean Henkens - our in-house biologist and landscape architect - is currently working on a system for separating waste in each villa. His motto is 'Separating can also be fun' and we look forward to hearing more of this
We clean in a clean way.
Green deeds:
- Clean really means clean at Center Parcs. We only use biologically degradable cleaning products and micro-fibre cloths that are washed (in an environmentally friendly way) and re-used
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