Kasbah du Toubkal Morocco receives environmental certification to COP22

Responsible tourism, with a real focus on social and environmental sustainability is gaining ground very quickly. At the UN Climate Change Conference in Marrakesh, COP22, the Kasbah du Toubkal hotel in Morocco received an environmental certificate for sustainable tourism.

Kasbah du Toubkal is a hotel owned by British company Discover Ltd. and is located 90 minutes outside of Marrakesh in the Imlil village in the High Atlass Mountains. Also known as the “Berber Hospitality Centre” in honour of the local indigenous community, the hotel offers accommodation in 14 rooms, with 3 family rooms and a self-contained house, plus 5 thematic suits to deliver an experience covering 4,000 years of local culture. 
So both the spaces and the facilities encompass the Berber culture, from the architecture and interior design through to the customs and traditional cuisine. But the hotel - which you can only get to on foot or on the back of a mule - doesn't stop at this gentle approach to tourism, it extends its sustainable vocation to the social sphere as well. 
And it does this through the “Village Association Programme”, a charity programme started by the hotel's Berber management, funded by a 5% surcharge on all hotel services. This money is invested directly onsite, to the benefit of the locals and of the environment.
The programme has made it possible to set up a waste collection system with disposal by small local incinerators, a 4-wheel drive ambulance service, providing safe water to outlying villages, accommodation of students in the town of Asni so they can attend school, the creation of an internet café and the promotion and adoption of a design code to preserve the vernacular architecture.
An aware choice to preserve a natural environment of rare beauty, as well as the culture of the Berber population, whose peculiarity is the great added value of the project.
At the UN Climate Change Conference in Marrakesh, COP22 Kasbah du Toubkal received an environmental certificate, adding to the long list of awards for this hotel in Morocco.

Christiane Bürklein

Kasbah du Toubkal, Imlil, Morocco
http://www.kasbahdutoubkal.com/home.html
Images: courtesy of thepresscompany
Awards: National Geographic’s Unique Lodges of the World, Knight Frank Award for outstanding excellence and innovation at the Condé Nast Johansens 2012 Awards for Excellence, Environmental Certificate at COP22