During a weekend in September, the entrance to the ME Madrid Reina Victoria no longer looks like a hotel and has become an upscale neighborhood market. Beds from 100 euros, cutlery from 50 cents and more than 10,000 pieces of… … The furniture has been arranged in a row so the public can take it home after the temporary closure of the historic Santa Ana building. The scene was as viral as it was revealing. If this time the furniture finds a second life, how many times has it disappeared out the back door before without anyone wondering what landfill it ended up in?
The project was organized by Valencian startup Eco-One, His proposal is based on the assumption that so far no one has solved it. Centralize everything the hotel needs to reduce its impact. Diagnostics, training, procurement of sustainable products, recycling projects and technological solutions are centralized on one platform. “Eco-One offers and manages all the product and service options a hotel needs to be more sustainable through one hub,” summarizes Carlos Floixa, co-founder and CEO of the company.
The company was born in 2020, when the sector began to reprioritize after the pandemic. “Covid has contributed to the development of sustainability in the hotel world. “The laws were there but they were not taken seriously,” explains Floixa. “Today they work with more than 2,300 hotels in Spain and France and have just added a major boost. The entry of the Portuguese fund 3XP Global with an investment of 765,000 euros will allow the unification of the two markets and the opening of Portugal.
The company already works with more than 2,300 hotels in Spain and seeks to grow in France and Portugal
Professionalization of the sector is one of the gaps where Eco-One finds greater margin. Its sustainability training program has already reached more than 7,000 employees in chains such as Palladium, H10 or Catalonia. “It is essential that the entire team is aligned with the sustainability strategy, not just the management layer,” emphasizes Floixa. The key, he says, is for training to be practical and adapt ESG to the daily life of each department.
New front
For its part, the circular economy has become a new frontier for efficiency. The ME Reina Victoria project has avoided generating more than 43 tons of waste thanks to the recovery and sale of furniture. Another project that is gaining momentum is the one developed with Gravity Wave. There the guest actively participates. If you forego daily cleaning, the hotel will fund the process of removing plastic from the Mediterranean Sea. “We see that a high percentage of tourists who stay in hotels near the sea are really committed to cleaning the environment,” explains the CEO. This initiative has enabled the removal of more than 13,000 kilograms of plastic.
With the entry of the Fund, the roadmap became clear. Accelerate France’s pace and Portugal’s deployment and enhance internal structure, processes and technology. And looking further, to strengthen itself as a platform that accompanies European hotels throughout their sustainable transformation.