Responsible Travel Policy
We are partners with Responsible Travel,
a company that since 2001, has been
leading the way in sustainable travel and tourism.
Our commitment to your sustainable travel:
Policy aims
To provide travellers with yoga retreats and teacher trainings that teach them about the true meaning of yoga, ahimsa -or non-violence- and peace.
To provide food in such a way that the environment is respected.
To provide energy and to recycle in a way that the environment is respected.
To ensure that our staff are valued.
To maintain the retreat centre in such a way that the Valencian houses which are used are kept in Valencian style.
To make sure that the environment is kept as chemical free as possible in terms of cleaning products, organic food and so forth.
To use local suppliers wherever possible.
To respect others and one’s own self in accordance with the yama and niyama of yoga. (These are rules of social and moral conduct).
To recycle.
To bring not just the students to their own natural state of peace but everyone who comes into contact with the shala.
Our promise to support our community:
- We work hard to maintain two of the foundations of yoga practice - yama and niyama which are rules for social and moral conduct. It is therefore very important for us to have a positive connection with the local people in our community.
- Our permanent staff are local: Our chef Fernanda cooks the most amazing healthy and delicious food that you can imagine and lives in Benirrama - one of the local villages. Our housekeepers are local as is our handyman. Our drivers live in the Valencian Community.
- All of our fruits and vegetables are organic and sourced from local farmers in the Community of Valencia. Many of our fruits and vegetables come from organic farmers in neighbouring villages.
We also have organic Valencian lemons growing here at the retreat centre and they are the most delicious lemons we have tasted!
Using these local farmers for fresh produce reduces the impact on the environment in terms of transport and emissions. It also means that our food is much fresher and hence more healthy and that we provide money to the local community which is very important to us.
Our dry foods come locally from Spain as well - some even from nearby villages too.
- All of our staff are invited to the yoga, meditation and other classes and our chef is really developing as yoga student as a result.
Our promise to sustain the environment:
- We actively recycle and there are nearby recycle bins which we use regularly to recycle plastics, glass, paper & cardboard.
We provide bins for recycling in the kitchen for guests to use here.
- We do not print brochures - instead we provide all of our information electronically via the internet.
- Any information we do print - whether about ourselves or the charities we support, is printed on paper from sustainable forestry.
- All washing is done at low temperatures.
- We actively ask guests not to waste water.
- Nearly everything here is locally sourced so as to use very little transport and so minimise effects on the environment.
- Most of our paper hygiene products - napkins, kitchen towels, toilet paper and so forth come from European companies which are committed to the environment, sustainable forestry and to recycling. Many of the products we use carry the FSC logo (Forest Stewardship Council, an international non-profit organisation established in 1993 that promotes responsible management of the world's forests, i.e. sustainable forestry) or the EU Ecolabel. The EU Ecolabel helps identify products and services that have a reduced environmental impact throughout their life cycle, from the extraction of raw material through to production, use and disposal.
- Where we cannot get recycled paper hygiene products, we make sure that the alternative products we keep have FSC certification to ensure that they come from responsible forestry sources.
- Nearly all of our lighting is with energy saving light bulbs again to reduce the impact on the environment.
- Our yoga products are friendly to the environment. Our yoga straps are made from organic cotton so that pesticides and other chemicals have not been put into the earth where the cotton was grown. The yoga mats that we use are made from non-harmful plastics as well.
- We are very much involved in a local animal charity called APROP.
- We provide information on local walking routes here in the Valencian countryside to guests who come here.
- All of our food as well as our yoga straps (as mentioned above) are organic. These means that the cotton and the food are grown in an environment that is free from pesticides, chemical fertilizers and other products that are harmful to the environment, to the soil and to the consumer. Organically grown food is also higher in vitamins, bioflavinoids and other nutrients that are anit-oxidant. Our aim is to truly create a healthy environment where our guests and the soil can thrive.