GREEN WITH A SMILE


When we created Hotel Pincoffs we had the desire to make it a sustainable hotel. We reused a monumental building. We took all kinds of measures and followed our hearts. We took care of your comfort and our green mission.
We cherish what the world has to offer. Our boutique hotel is driven by the heart. Hotel Pincoffs is therefore awarded with the Golden Green Key, the highest level of the international ecolabel.


Last year the hotel won the Gaia Green Award for Dutch sustainable hotels. 

We hope to welcome you soon in our small-scale boutique hotel in Rotterdam.


Edwin van der Meijde & Karen Hamerlynck
Founders of Hotel Pincoffs

GOING GREEN IS FUN



Green should also be fun, is our position. Green with a Smile is our motto. We are creative in everything we do. We try to cause as little damage to the earth as possible. We think circularly and want to reuse and possibly recycle as much as possible in the hotel. And the comfort of the guest should never be up for discussion. The proof that doing green is also fun can be found in many places in our hotel. And also outside on the quay next to the hotel or further away. With creative and original ideas we try to make sustainable entrepreneurship a party. We hope to catch our guests smiling during their stay.

LATEST PROMOTIONS



  • Sustainability of the most important installations in 2023 and 2024. Installation of solar panels, hot water by solar energy, energy-saving boilers, heat pumps for heating and cooling.
  • Earlier this year, we planted trees again on behalf of our guests with Hotels for Trees.
  • By joining the Made Blue Foundation, we as a hotel have become even more aware of water. Made Blue wants to make clean drinking water accessible to everyone. As a hotel, we can lend a helping hand. For every bottle of filtered and bottled water served (with or without fine bubbles), 10 times the content is donated to countries where water is not a given. Made Blue takes care of this. Anyone who showers or bathes with us has the opportunity to give 100 litres of clean water as a gift to a family for whom clean drinking water is a luxury. This costs the guest nothing. It is a gift of water.

SPECIAL NATIONAL MONUMENT



Recently, the hotel's most important installations were made sustainable. And that is a special achievement for a hotel that is located in a national monument. We can rightly call ourselves a leader when it comes to sustainable business operations. Our hot water is made with solar power (used to be gas), we have energy-efficient boilers, our rooms are heated and cooled with heat pumps, our central heating system on the ground floor has become hybrid (electricity and a little gas in the winter) and we already had good insulation and double glazing.

CIRCULAR



  • Various antiques were given a new lease of life, such as an old laboratory cabinet that was transformed into a guestbook cabinet, which now contains thousands of comments from guests about their stay at Pincoffs,
  • We had 28 historic doors from our building (these were not fireproof enough) converted into mini bar cabinets, daybeds, desks, mirrors, etc.
  • One of our suites can even be called circular. The furniture and decorations in this suite were made by artists from recycled materials such as bicycle tires, sea maps, Delft blue porcelain... And there is much more to discover in Hotel Pincoffs,
  • For example, our glassware is made by Rebottled from wine bottles,
  • Used coffee cups from the rooms and suites are recycled,
  • Even our waste is given a new life. For example, our coffee grounds and orange peels are collected weekly. These are used to feed Rotterzwam mushrooms and Dik & Schil distills gin and orangecello from the peels. The orangecello is also available as a sustainable gift in the hotel.

ORGANIC



The lion's share of the products we use in the hotel are organic, locally sourced or produced by a company with a social mission. Think of our artisanal jam from Rotterdamsche Confituur or our cookies from the Koekfabriek. All our meats come from the organic butcher De Groene Weg, but of course we also serve many vegetarian and vegan meals. Think of the products from the Vegan Pizza Bar and our breads and rolls from Carl Siegert.


The list is long and is updated monthly. Our house wines are organic, we also serve organic whisky and gin, our soft drinks and ice tea are organic, our vegetables, almost all breakfast products, all dairy, vegetable juices, fruit juices, apples, coffee, tea and much more. Even our popular bathroom products from Grown Alchemist are organically produced.

CIRCULAR



Various pieces of antiques were given a new second life, such as an old laboratory cupboard that was transformed into a guest book cupboard containing thousands of comments from guests about their stay in Pincoffs.
We had 28 historic doors from our building (these were not fireproof enough) converted into minibar cabinets, daybeds, desks, mirrors, etc.
One of our suites can even be called circular. The furniture and decorations in this suite were made by artists from recycled materials such as bicycle tires, sea charts, Delft blue porcelain... And there is much more to discover at Hotel Pincoffs. 

For example:

  • Our glassware is made by Rebottled from wine bottles,
  • Used coffee cups from the rooms and suites are recycled,
  • Even our waste gets new life. Our coffee grounds and orange peels are collected every week. This feeds Rotterzwam mushrooms and Dik & Schil distills gin and orange cello from the peels. The orangecello can also be purchased as a sustainable gift at the hotel.


SOCIALLY INVOLVED



A gift of water
Through our collaboration with the Made Blue Foundation, we give many liters of water as a gift to families in countries where clean drinking water is not available daily. Made Blue invests in water projects in an enterprising and transparent manner. Ten times the amount of hotel water served is donated to Made Blue. Every hotel guest can donate water to a good cause via a QR code from Made Blue. A Gift of Water is free for the guest. 


Playing for Success
Playing for Success teaches children to work on self-confidence, cooperation, motivation and independence. This allows them to develop better at school and beyond. We support this foundation that gives children the opportunity to learn in a special environment outside of school. Active and meaningful education with lots of individual guidance, role models and success experiences.


Hockey club Feijenoord
Based on our belief that everyone should be able to play sports, we have become a sponsor of hockey club Feijenoord. Our contribution is used to enable children who face more headwinds in their youth to participate in sports. For example, by sponsoring clothing or making membership possible for families who cannot easily afford to do so.


Guided Tours for kids
Hotel Pincoffs is involved in a few small-scale social projects that we sponsor. We support Rotterdamsch Geluid, which brings Rotterdam to the attention of school-going youth and the over-70s in a special way. This is done through guided tours for the young and virtual tours for the elderly. The reactions to this are very positive.

MORE THAN 50 GREEN INITIATIVES


A brief idea of our efforts:

  • We are Green Key Gold certified, winner of the national Gaia Awards and Ecoleader at TripAdvisor,
  • Our motto is Green with a Smile. Corporate social responsibility is useful and fun. Where possible, we try to share with our guests how we can do better for our living environment together,
  • We are continuously working on reducing the environmental impact and increasing the sustainable character of our company. By actively striving to reduce waste flows and our consumption of gas, water, electricity and fossil fuels,
  • In 2023, the hot water system and the heating and cooling system will be made sustainable. Our hot water comes from solar energy and the entire building is heated and cooled with heat pumps. Pincoffs hardly uses any gas anymore due to these measures (only in cold winters there is gas to always offer our guests maximum comfort; even when the sun is not shining).
  • We are continuously working on improving our own purchasing process and focus in particular on goods and services that are sustainable, preferably provided with a recognized environmental and/or sustainability and/or social quality mark,
  • We are affiliated with the Made Blue Foundation, an organization that strives for clean drinking water for everyone in the world. We donate to this foundation so that they can provide drinking water to people where it is not self-evident,
  • Participation in the Hotels for Trees foundation that plants trees for every room that does not need to be cleaned during a multi-day stay,
  • We serve organic meats from De Groene Weg Butchery by Theo Pronk,
  • We serve organic dairy products, eggs and bread,
  • Tea (Mr. Jones) and coffee (Giraffe from Rotterdam) are organic SKAL certified,
  • We use sustainable, biodegradable coffee capsules for the espresso machines in the rooms and suites,
  • Organic cane sugar and organic coffee creamer or soy milk (also for lattes and cappuccinos),
  • Participation in Dopper Wave, a program against the use of plastic bottles. Our hotel has been free of plastic bottles and bottles since 2020,
  • Use of The Good Roll. These are toilet paper rolls that are sustainably produced and support the construction of toilets in countries where toilets are not self-evident. This program is implemented by Simawi,
  • Our Grown Alchemist bathroom products are made from organic products and not tested on animals,
  • Sweet spreads are as much as possible organic, Fair Trade or locally and socially produced, such as our delicious Rotterdam Confiture,
  • We have our own sustainable table water for the brasserie, meeting rooms and hotel rooms, which means we have to transport far fewer bottles of spring water,
  • Organic house wine and whisky,
  • Organic soft drinks and juices,
  • We use glasses from Rebottled that transforms wine bottles into beautiful drinking glasses
  • Sustainable meetings in our rooms. Every group receives a free tree,
  • We planted approximately 2000 trees in our 'Pincoffs Forest' in Panama (project completed),
  • Greening of quays in Rotterdam: trees and vegetable garden on our quay,
  • Sponsor Floating Forest in the Rijnhaven, Rotterdam (project completed),
  • Our furniture is largely circular. It consists partly of reused materials and antiques with a second life,
  • We have sustainable duvet covers (organic cotton and Fair Trade quality mark),
  • 100% Green energy,
  • 100% 'Green' gas (forest compensated by energy supplier),
  • Energy-saving lighting (LED),
  • All rooms can be heated and cooled individually,
  • On our in-room tablet (SuitePad) you will find a Green Option for guests who do not want housekeeping and clean linen,
  • Energy-saving glass everywhere (despite the monumental windows),
  • Water saving according to Green Key standards,
  • Sustainable printing,
  • Responsible paper use (quality mark and active paper reuse),
  • Environmentally friendly cleaning products,
  • Anti-allergic and environmentally friendly produced carpet, awarded a certificate from the EU Environmental Audit,
  • Extensive waste separation into 10 fractions (glass, paper & cardboard, swill, coffee grounds, orange peels, batteries, lamps, linen, electrical appliances, residual waste),
  • The staff is involved in our way of doing business and enthusiastically promotes the idea of Green with a Smile,
  • We actively keep ourselves informed of CSR developments within our profession and actively contribute to the transfer of our knowledge about this to employees and others who want to learn the profession,
  • We inform our guests, employees and suppliers about how we conduct our business in a socially responsible manner,
  • We make transparent agreements with third parties about the quality of our products and how we monitor quality,
  • We maintain the building using sustainable materials,
  • We carefully monitor all our consumption,
  • In addition to the financial and social impact, we also determine the environmental impact of our product and limit any negative consequences as much as possible,
  • We contribute to social goals through donations, sponsorship and volunteer work,
  • We are active in training high school students in the field of hospitality and corporate social responsibility,
  • We are a sponsor of Rotterdamsch Geluid, which guides schoolchildren and the elderly and provides them with information about their own living environment in Rotterdam.
  • Our working methods are checked and certified by Green Key once every two years.