Global Carbon Guru puts his money where his mouth is

Professor Stefan Gossling rolls sleeves up in own idyllic green guest farm

Long a globe-trotting scientist and academic, Professor Stefan Gossling is at the heart of the tourism and climate change argument. Just recently he warned that there was little hope of hitting the carbon reduction targets if nothing was done about airlines.

He is professor at the Department of Service Management, Lund University, and at the Linnaeus University School of Business and Economics. He is also the research coordinator of the Research Centre for Sustainable Tourism, Western Norway Research Institute.

Stefan’s recent books include Tourism and Global Environmental Change, Sustainable Tourism Futures Climate Change and Aviation and Carbon Management in Tourism He has also been and a contributing author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change AR4.

And he is a regular presenter at Vision on Sustainable Tourism/TotemTourism masterclasses see:http://www.travelmole.com/stories/1148861.php

You would think that all left him with little time for practical matters, but now he’s delved into the deep end in Sweden’s most popular holiday area and turns up  with his family as Head Honcho (his description is “formally in charge”) at Solberga Gard – an historic organic farm and guesthouse on the island of Oland.

Stefan – 'formally in charge'

There are two summer houses, a mansion and a flat and space for around 60 guests in 18 rooms. Naturally food is very high up on the agenda and the restaurant has been selected as one of Sweden’s best by the White Guide, as you would expect much of the food is produced on the farm and all of it is organic – certified under the KRAV label.

Linnea and Meike 'Animal friends'

The farm shop sells up to 140 different plants and an impressive 40 species of pumpkin. The morning’s harvest is on sale each day. One of the farm’s specialities is delicious asparagus of which it can now harvest 1,000kg a season.

Clearly sustainability is the farm’s great concern and to become sustainable, the farm has implemented a wide range of measures:

• agriculture is certified by KRAV, a very strict Swedish label for foods. For instance, all fertilizer used is organic, as is all the fodder for the animals.
• all heat and warm water in buildings is produced through geothermal water heating. The electricity needed for the pump is 100% green, coming from wind- and hydropower. All wood used for heating purposes also comes from the farm’s own forest.
• the restaurant only uses organic foodstuffs. This goes even beyond the standards for organic restaurants labelled with KRAV.
• guests are encouraged to arrive by train or bus, and the group does anything to support environmentally friendly travel. For instance, they provide a pick-up service, rent bicycles, and provide everything from towels to linen and toys for children, so that guests can travel as light as possible.
• In 2012 they will try to build a small wind power station. The wind power station is supposed to produce exactly the amount of energy used annually, i.e. 100,000 kWh. Plans are currently being discussed with Swedish wind power company WindEn (www.winden.se).

Says Stefan “One problem that we have yet to solve is the use of fossil fuels for agriculture and transports, as well as the emissions stemming from the arrival of our guests. We will try to find an innovative solution for this over the next years and are currently cooperating with Atmosfair (www.atmosfair.de) to compensate our emissions.”

And Stefan’s advice to anybody in the industry: “Get engaged in mitigation, whatever the international policy situation might be. It does not even have to cost money. Just take my farm as an example: through energy-efficiency measures and new technology, I cut energy use from the previous owner by half. Solar power – with a government subsidy – is now accounting for 8% of remaining power needs. The rest is green energy bought from outside, but that will be replaced in about 3 years with wind power produced here on the farm.”

“So essentially within five years, I will be energy-autark, and even earn money
on selling excess energy.”

You can’t say that he’s not walking the walk as well as talking the talk can you?
http://www.solbergagard.se

Valere Tjolle: Valere is editor of the Sustainable Tourism Report Suite 2011 Special Offers HERE