On Monday, April 6, EcoTrotters interviewed the hotel management staff at the Casa Calma, the first environmentally friendly hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina. What we discovered was indeed an earthly jewel…

The Casa Calma stands on a crowded street surrounded by office buildings in the heart of downtown Buenos Aires. At first you might pass it by; it is so calm and unassuming.  But then you will notice the green ivy climbing up balcony upon balcony, and the delicate white letters spelling its name in loopy and beckoning letters.

When you step inside, the noises from downtown Buenos Aires are drowned out by the double-paned glass windows. The hotel lobby looks like my family's living room, with chairs and comfortable cushions welcoming you, and bookshelves lined with a variety of reading material, mostly books about living "green".

Just past the cozy lobby is the again very home-like restaurant, which looks more like a slightly large family dining room than a formal restaurant. A handful of tables sit next to a long counter-space covered with bowls of fruit, freshly-baked pastries, organic teas, an espresso machine, and two refrigerators- one filled with bottles of beer and one filled with healthy snacks and juices.

One wall is dotted with small whiteboards assigned to each room number. This is the "Honesty Bar," which allows guests to take whatever they want from the refrigerators and trusts them to record their goodies on their whiteboards. At the end of the day, the hotel staff records each whiteboard and charges each room accordingly.

The other wall is a glass pane shielding a vertical garden. The ivy and green plants stretch up-up-up. No chemicals are used in the care-taking; simply a cloth to clean pollution from the leaves, and good old-fashioned water. The vertical garden cuts down on the hotel's energy consumption as it keeps out heat during the summer and keeps in heat during the winter. And, as an extra treat, it also helps to improve breathing quality in the surrounding atmosphere.  ¡¡Qué bueno!!

Then there is another very important part of the restaurant: the cuisine. Oh, it is richer than rich! Made fresh from scratch every day with organic and as-local-as-it-gets ingredients, the nutty whole-wheat breads, crisp and flavorful salads, softly marinated meats, and gently sugared scones will leave you pining for Casa Calma’s comida on those days following your stay...

After we finished our amazing meals, Agustina, the hotel manager, explained to us the origins of the Casa Calma. The hotel was founded by an Argentine architect and an Argentine investor, both of whom believe strongly in investing within their own country.  This is a very special point because many investors take their money abroad, believing that better economic opportunity lies outside of Argentina. That may be true to some point, but Argentina's economy will never recover without the trust and financial backing of its citizens. Thus, the Casa Calma is a beautiful effort at restoring the faith in economic opportunities in Argentina (hmmm, I'm feeling social entrepreneurism vibrations...).

Furthermore, the Casa Calma founders ALSO believe in bringing the environmental movement to Argentina: this is the VERY FIRST eco-friendly hotel in Buenos Aires!  And is it ever environmentally friendly! These guys have thought of everything. Let me tell you some of the crazy things they have covered:
• There are no pens in the Casa Calma; rather employees use environmentally friendly pencils that are made from a plant native to Argentina that grows 20 cm/week...Therefore, nothing gets chopped down to make these writing tools; only harmless trimming is necessary.
• The hotel's wallpaper is made entirely from recycled materials (which I think also lends an earthy, rich, holistic aesthetic appeal!).
• Buenos Aires currently does not have an official recycling program, so the hotel has begun to lobby the city government in an effort to create a recycling program!
• Each hotel room has individual heating and cooling systems. Therefore, if a room is unoccupied, no energy is wasted in heating and cooling it.
• Hallway lights are motion-censored.
• The hotel bathrooms are bedecked in the softest cloth towels, so no paper towels get thrown away!
• Laundry is done every THIRD day (rather than every single day) to cut down on water consumption, and only natural, organic-based cleaning products are used.

Believe me, the list goes on and on. You will just have to visit this lovely hotel for yourself to experience all of its green treasures first-hand. And I hope this write-up helps to capture the spirit of this beautiful and progressive endeavor.

This article is courtesy of green blogger Sarah Maxwell, at www.enchantingchallenge.com
For a closer look at Casa Calma and its wonders, check out its profile on EcoTrotters.