SDG 12 – Responsible consumption and production
Let’s buy less and be more selective to be happier in the long run! For a healthy tomorrow, it’s important to ensure responsible consumption and efficient use of our natural resources. SDG 12 aims to significantly reduce global food waste per capita at the retail and consumer levels. Furthermore, it seeks to reduce waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling and reuse. The goal also is meant to ensure people everywhere have access to relevant information about sustainable development and lifestyles in harmony with nature.
What we’re doing
There is a great deal of potential in conscious consumer behaviour for our world and our value systems. Unfortunately, our society is in its infancy in this regard. Many continue to make price-based decisions and not based on product quality and longevity. This is a priority topic for us. In the past years, we have analysed our purchasing decisions critically. With our delicious organic breakfast, we began placing importance not only on 100% organic products, but also started focusing on regional and seasonal products wherever possible. Furthermore, we decided to start supporting the local economy by promoting local value creation. In practice, that means ideally we buy make in-person purchases, if that’s not possible then we buy online. As an absolute last-resort, we permit ourselves to make no more than five purchases from Amazon or Ikea per year. We are very selective when it comes to making new purchases and adhere to the concept of the international Zero Waste movement. After Bea Johnson, one of the founders, gave a presentation here in Vienna in the fall of 2017 and we invited her to stay with us, we just had to evaluate our consumption habits based on the 5 “Rs.” The order of the 5 “Rs” plays a very important role. Before every purchase, we need to decide if we really need it or if there are suitable alternatives that we already have. This process is a very captivating and informative one. The issue of waste is of massive importance in the hotel industry. Together with ÖHV, BOKU, Zero Waste Austria and other hotels and suppliers, we launched a project in 2017 dedicated to reducing waste in the hotel industry. Showing hotel operators that sustainability does not necessarily mean more expenditure, but can in fact be connected to savings is the goal of this project. In the summer of 2020, we gathered our findings and published them as a guideline. We are excited to see where the project goes from here.
Implementation
SDG 12 comes to life in room 405. In this room, we hope to show how important it is to use our money responsibly. The bed lighting is made with an original fermentation basket that were used as for baking and hang above really old wood. This pays homage to the long-standing tradition of bread baking in Vienna. The pair of standing lamps are old wisteria trunks that we simply repurposed. The TV console was once staircase railing and the rocking chair we saved from the incinerator. That is another contribution we made to sustainable consumption—but did we mention how comfortable it is? The wardrobe is made from an old Moroccan door and hanging atop the old hay rakes are cloth bags to remind us that whenever we go shopping, we need to remember to bring our own bags. The suitcase cover and the cushion lining were once shirts. The solid wood closet used to be in another room—we just couldn’t bear to part with it, so we remodelled it. The bathroom has a few items to draw our attention to sustainable consumption habits and to old cookware. The toilet paper holder, extra roll holder and the two vanity mirrors were once used to prepare delicious food—before the times of ubiquitous food delivery services. Every hanger in the room, both on the wall and in the closet, were gifted to us by friends. Wooden hangers are much more sustainable than their counterparts made of plastic or aluminium. The hotel industry in Austria is an important revenue stream in our country. Thank you for supporting this up-and-coming industry with your visit!
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If you’d like to see what we’ve done for SDG 13 – Climate action, click here!
