César Ritz Colleges Switzerland: Education in Biodiversity for Future Generations

Green Globe member César Ritz Colleges , Le Bouveret Campus Switzerland educates hospitality students about the importance of biodiversity to encourage awareness and promote positive actions for the protection of the environment.

In a recent article entitled “Why hospitality should teach biodiversity”, Sylvana Navarro, Hospitality Assistant Dean at the campus explains how students are made aware of the relationship between tourism and biodiversity.

More and more hoteliers are beginning to understand that they have a key role to play in the protection of the environment and that ultimately, their success depends on its preservation. It is encouraging to see the many ways in which hospitality is changing in order to contribute to the protection of ecosystems.

A great example of hotels taking concrete action is that of eco-friendly hotels in Costa Rica that preserve and protect beaches for turtles to come nest every year as a part of their lifecycle. While this example is very location-specific, some actions could be normalized across the industry. The use of environmentally friendly building materials, of vegetable roofs or walls for temperature control, considering local indigenous species when landscaping, or planting domestic gardens with local herbs and vegetables to use in restaurants... all of these things contribute toward making a difference.

Leading by example

[caption id="attachment_30662" align="alignleft" width="272"] Honey hives at the campus.[/caption]

When it comes to changing the behavior of society, education plays a key role. At César Ritz Colleges, Le Bouveret Campus, not only do we challenge our students to change their mindset about the role they have as tourists but also as future hoteliers, entrepreneurs, and business owners. You don’t need to be a biology major to learn about biodiversity and how to protect it. Here are some examples of what we do with students and staff on our campus:
• environmental and biodiversity workshops for students
• installing “insect hotels”
• producing our own honey
• planting herbs and vegetables for use in our restaurants
• providing nesting aids for hedgehogs, insects, and different bird species

Our latest addition:

Eva Meyer, a biologist specializing in birdlife, has recently started giving workshops on different bird species. In a two-hour outdoor session, she explains what biodiversity is, why it's important, how it comes into co-existence with tourism, why it's threatened, and how it can be protected.

We might not have sea turtles on campus but we do have many other species, local to the woodlands, lake, and surrounding Alps. After the bird biodiversity workshop, our students will never look at the sky in the same way.

Among the array of feathered creatures living in the forests surrounding our campus is the tawny owl, which has just been added to the list of species whose population has declined in recent years. We’ve installed nests for these birds in the neighboring forests, which we show to our students to help them see the small but meaningful ways we can positively impact the wildlife surrounding us. By next spring, we hope to see the first baby owls.

Through our commitment to protecting the biodiversity of the surrounding area, we instil in our students a sense of the responsibility each of us has toward our planet. Our goal is that upon graduation, these future entrepreneurs will have a multitude of practical ways to live sustainably that they can implement in their careers. Every contribution counts.

Contact

Ms Sylvana Navarro
Hospitality Assistant Dean
César Ritz Colleges Switzerland
Route Cantonale 51
CH-1897 Le Bouveret
SWITZERLAND
P: +41 24 482 81 33
E: sylvana.navarro@cesarritzcolleges.edu
W: www.cesarritzcolleges.edu