ENVIRONMENTAL, SOCIAL AND OPERATING POLICY.
We, at Moli de la Plana, are integral part of an environment which is not confined to the gîtes and meadows, nor to the brooks and the surrounding woods. We are deeply rooted in the district of Riudaura, in La Garrotxa area, and we work in order to keep our relationship to operating, and others staff members related to this nature. At the same time, we take care of the environment because we know the future of the Earth depends on our behaviour towards it. To make places respectful of the natural environment out of our rural touristic residences, we adopted the following strategies :
- We assigned the hunting rights of our 55 hectares property to the hunters association of Riudaura. The hunters, unlike what a certain local legend asserts, fulfill an important mission, keeping the logging roads opened, extinguishing fires and controling the wild boars proliferation, which, whithout their intervention, would become a plague.
- We participate to the village great fair and during Christmastime.
- We assigned the Old Mill reservoir to the Association of Defence of the Forest (ADF) which needs accessible reservoirs for the tractors hauling water tanks. .
- About our customers, in order to improve our services, we encourage the visitors to fill a satisfaction questionnaire about the different aspects of the gîtes and their environment.
- We concluded an arbitration agreement with the Consumption Arbitration Commission.
- Three of our new apartments at Illa del Moli, are adapted dwellings.
- Because we believe in the associative system, we are part of rural tourism and self-catering accomodation associations.
- Our staff members follow training courses.
- We buy validated and biodegradable household cleaning supplies.
- On the whole, at Moli de la Plana we use energy sources: solar energy, gas oil for heating, electricity, butane gas for the kitchens and wooden logs.
- All the gîtes, including the oldest ones are provided with one type of thermal insulation (double glazing, insulated roofs).
- The new electric household appliances and those which are to be replaced are selected according to the A,B or exceptionally C energetic efficiency levels.
- The outside lighting is provided by low-voltage lamps and at the same time, we try to avoid the luminous pollution
- The Casa Solar, which was built during 1979 according to the criteria experimented in Font Romeu (Cerdaña francesa) by the french engineer Trombé, is designed to take great advantage of the solar energy through passive systems. The South facade is glazed and the sun, after passing through the glass, heats the massive, dark-colored walls. On the other hand, it has a big greenhouse which distributes the warm air inside the house, and preheats the swimming pool water.
- In the apartments at Illa del Molli the water preheating is assured by solar panels. This hot water is destined to a sanitary use but also feeds the radiators.
- The heating installations are new and work well, but we advise our customers to have a moderate use of heating.
- We provide wooden logs for the fireplaces in limited but sufficient quantity. Usually, we avoid to cut down trees from the woods, in order to use already fallen trees, and we buy the remainder.
- At Moli de la Plana we treat all the residual waters with two biological treatment systems.
- The first one treats the waters of La Rovirota, the Old Mill, the Solar House, the Reception and the Refuge. It includes a former septic tank divded in two compartments, the first acting as a digestion chamber, and the second as a filter. Water goes by capillarity to the adjacent channel where the treatment is completed by wet areas plants.
- The second treats water from the apartments of Illa del Moli. It includes a prefilter where are gathered the elements that should not have been thrown in the WC, like compresses and diapers. After, there is a digestion camber and a SIMOP filter. In the end, there is a 30 linear meters channel with wet areas plants.
- The plants used are all of indigenous species. iris (Iris pseudoacorus), sword grass (Thypha angustipholia), reeds (Phragmites australis), rushes (Juncus acutus), tamarinds (Tamarix), small willows (Salix purpurea), and duckweeds (Limna minor) which prevents the proliferation of mosquitos.
- The supermarkets plastic bags are reused in the garbage cans located in every bathroom, where it is proper to put compresses and diapers ( and not to throw them in the WC).
- The oil left by some customers is reused to fight mosquitos, which, if not, could proliferate in the pipes of the treatment systems.
- We encourage our customers to sort their wastes according to their type: glass, paper, plastic packings and bins and organic matter. this last one must be put down in our composters.
- The new washing machines and dishwashers as well as those which are to be replaced are selected among those which have the lowest water consumption.
- The showers carboys and the sink tanks are also selected among those which have the lowest water consumption.
- The swimming pool is located inside the big greenhouse of the Solar House, which allow to have heated water during wintertime, offering the opportunity to go swimmingin this cold period of the year.
- In order to prevent skin irritations, water is sterilized with bromide instead of chlorine
- Analytic controls are made according to the legal norms. Every day we analyse the bromide contents, the PH and the algas, and a laboratory in Olot is in charge of the bacteriological analysis.