Rifugio Oltradige Al Roen - Überetscher Hütte

Enviromental sustainability

Environmental commitment

As you know, I am an old man and I belong to another era, so I think it is more appropriate to let Andrea and Martina talk about a sensitive topic that is very close to my young friend's soul. I will therefore take a break and leave you to your reading.

Talking about sustainability and environmental commitment is now established practice, nearly obligatory, to the point of bordering on rhetoric. We could fill these few lines with abstract and trite concepts, but we will get straight to the point instead, describing the small actions of good practices that we manage to put in place at the refuge, and we will naturally be happy to receive your advice on where we could possibly do better.

Short supply chain and sustainable packaging

We believe it is right and important to turn to local producers, especially for everything related to fresh food. Cured meats, cheese, meat, fruit, vegetables, eggs and bread come from very nearby. This allows us to give value to the territory and the producers themselves, bringing to the table genuine, zero-kilometre food (or with a direct and very short supply chain).
On these products we have also managed to reduce the use of plastic packaging to zero: this type of merchandise is in fact always delivered in paper and cardboard packages or containers. This is unfortunately a little more difficult on large-scale retail articles but, even in this case, we always try to prefer products in non-plastic packaging.

Here is a list of our fresh food suppliers:

  • Eggs from Azienda Agricola Bertoldi Stefano (Amblar, Val di Non)
  • Meat and cold cuts from Butcher Macelleria Endrighi Silvano (Don, Val di Non)
  • Meat and cold cuts from Butcher Metzgerei Pliger (Appiano South Tyrol)
  • Bread from Panificio F.lli Borzaga (Cavareno, Val di Non)
  • Cheese from Latteria Sociale di Cavareno (Cavareno, Val di Non)
  • Fruit and vegetables from La Bottega dell'Orto (Cavareno, Val di Non)

Use of plastic and single-use packaging

Also at the hut, in all aspects where we can do something about it, we have eliminated the use of plastic, especially single-use plastic.

We have, for example, no plastic bottles, neither for service nor for take-away. The tins for taking home leftover food are made of cardboard and we have no disposable packaging (jams, butter, honey, coffee capsules).

Reducing food waste

One of the important objectives of cooking is, in addition to serving good food to the best of our ability, to minimise, or better still avoid, food waste. Waste from processing that can no longer be used in any way ends up feeding our compost heap.

We are, of course, aware that these initiatives are not enough to make this hut an environmentally sustainable place; suffice it to say that we depend on a power generator to produce the electricity needed to run the hut. In our own small way, however, we try to do our best, in the conviction that big changes always start with small steps.


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