We here in Hotel Mesikämmen are proud to take part in the Suistainable Travel Finland program coordinated by Visit Finland. The program was created to help Finnish tourism companies to explain their sustainability actions to international travellers. 

Our neighbor is Ähtäri Zoo, which is Finland's first zoo in a natural environment, so they as well have always inspired us to look at both nature's and endangered species' conservation needs with fresh eyes.

Below we explain from three different aspects how we keep sustainability in mind in all our actions. 

Hotel Mesikämmen is located literally in the middle of Finnish nature, surrounded by forests and natural lakes. Due to our surroundings, nature and all the amazing biodiversity around us have always been an important issue for us. 

We think small steps matter in sustainability as well, and so we started to approach this issue over a decade ago from something so simple as providing in our restaurant water from a refillable glass bottle instead of traditional plastic bottles, and using refillable shampoo and soap containers in our hotel rooms.

Ecological Sustainability

We prefer ecologically responsible choices in all our actions.
We use environmentally friendly cleaning products.
We keep the whole area and its surroundings clean and cherish the nature around us.
Water flow and water consumption are regulated.
Our meals are carefully planned to minimize food waste and to take advantage of any leftover products for example from the buffet.
We recycle and continue to improve our recycling opportunities.
We encourage our customers to act responsibly.

Sosiocultural Sustainability
It is important to us to be a part of the community in the region and to cooperate with local businesses.
We cherish the cultural history of our area and we will continue to brief our staff with better understanding
of the area’s history, nature and our values.
We cooperate with local service providers by ordering programme services for our customers from responsible local service providers.
We hire local staff when possible and also offer jobs for those who are hard to employ.
We welcome all the customers regardless of age, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, religion,
disability or any other reason.

Financial Sustainability
We aim to have customers year-round, though summer is our high season. We are developing our operations also for low seasons for providing our staff long-term contracts.
We use local products and services when possible and continue to develope the possibilities to use local products more in the future.
We follow the trends affecting to the industry and use this information to develope our business.
We operate on long-term basis by setting long-term goals and we aim to grow in international markets.

Our cleaning service provider SOL aims to conserve natural resources and reduce environmental impacts. They are committed to continuously improving their operations and purchasing the most eco-friendly technology available at reasonable costs. The company aims to reduce the amount of waste and guide their staff in recycling.

Lindström handles our textiles and they as well are working for a greener planet. Sustainability is tightly woven into the DNA of their business, as they put it. Their circular business model is designed to reduce the overproduction of textiles and conserve natural resources, and they've been working on sustainable services for decades.