Direction La Badira!

While the meeting of the Business Club in December 2022 marked the end of the first pilot project “Towards a zero plastic single-use hotel” at the InterContinental Marseille – Hotel Dieu, attention is now turning to the southern shore of the Mediterranean… We invite you to discover our second pilot at the Tunisian hotel La Badira in Hammamet. 

The hotel La Badira, whose name means “as bright as the full moon”, is a member of the prestigious Leading Hotels of the World standard, on an exceptional site bordered by 2 beaches, which has earned it the N°1 ranking on all the country’s ranking sites. La Badira advocates a strong local anchorage, as much cultural as artisanal and culinary, as well as a committed environmental approach, aiming to protect the beauty of the Tunisian coast from the impact of tourism. To find out more, don’t hesitate to (re)discover our article presenting the hotel in the last Business Club newsletter! 

The support of the 5-star hotel in its transition to “zero single-use plastic” will be based on 3 specific objectives :

Eliminate or significantly reduce the use of single-use plastics: how to transpose the success of the InterContinental to La Badira? How to find solutions for single-use plastics in the front and back office, while respecting the waste hierarchy?
Improving the collection and recovery of plastic waste: how to improve the collection and sorting systems in the hotel? What are the solutions for recovering the remaining plastics, with the local players? 
Make it a collective approach, with and for the staff: how to involve and raise awareness of the different departments in the approach? How to train staff in the new practices associated with alternatives? 

In order to achieve these objectives, it will be valuable to capitalise on the lessons learned and the experience of the Marseille pilot to replicate the successes and transform the disappointments. The two hotels, which share a sponsorship link in this context, also share common challenges: a luxury clientele that expects high quality service, international standards to be respected (or challenged), similar infrastructures such as the conference areas or the Spa by Clarins… 

However, it is not a question of replicating the project identically; there is no need for alternatives for the Minot kit, for example, since La Badira is an “Adult Only” establishment! To ensure that the environmental, economic and social results are as positive as those of the first pilot, it will be essential to adapt the project’s outlines, taking into account certain characteristics specific to La Badira: the Tunisian context, but also the different “starting point”, since the hotel has already implemented numerous actions to reduce single-use plastics.

Finally, as with any BeMed project, the notion of “collective” is key. It will take its meaning by involving other Tunisian hotels to take up common challenges, or by crossing complementary views within the Business Club. As soon as the project was set up, French and Tunisian experts began to study the scientific robustness of the activities, while collective exchanges allowed the business members to contribute on different axes. 

What’s next? Stay tuned, a call for service providers will be issued at the beginning of the year to identify contributors and partners for the project, with a view to launching it in spring-summer 2023!