André Gide, French author, said at the end of the 19th century, ‘Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But, since no one was listening, everything must be said again.’
As broadcaster Simon London mused at our podcast launch at London’s Treehouse hotel: ‘In the battle for the planet, we need to be eco-warriors, not eco-pacifists. When it comes to the climate emergency, we’re not so much fiddling as Rome burns — we’re waltzing around at violin concertos. Thank you, Bouteco, for waking me up to what we need to be doing better!’
LISTEN TO OUR PODCAST: Funny Old World, series 1, episodes 1—5
Our new six-part sustainability podcast hosted by Juliet Kinsman and Simon London, powered by Weeva, includes experts such as environmentalists George Monbiot and Angela Terry, Citizen author Jon Alexander and activist Mitzi Jonelle Tan. Hear uplifting conversations on serious topics, get thoughts on best ways of reducing your carbon footprint, learn how the media covers the climate emergency and the economic benefits of running a better business — and enjoy a lot of much-needed laughter along the way. As recommended by PodPod and Podcasting Today, it's ideal for those wanting to better understand the basics as well as advance their understanding of climate science.
Subscribe, download, and listen: this season is available from all the usual pod platforms, find it on Apple and Spotify — evergreen and entertaining, give your sustainability knowledge a boost this holiday season.
NEW ECO EXPERIENCES BOOK
Order 'The Bucket List Eco Experiences: Traveling the World, Sustaining the Earth’by Juliet Kinsman
This beautiful hardcover coffee-table book published by Rizzoli stars some of our Bouteco Loves heroes, with contributions from leading writers such as Shivani Ashoka, Imogen Lepere, Shafik Meghji, Sarah Reid. Celebrating 1,000 eco experiences around the world, across every continent. A donation is made to TreeSisters for every copy. For press information, or to bulk order copies for corporate gifts, your travel business, hotel library or shop, email sophie@sophieliardet.com
ESSENTIAL READING
Order these sustainability and eco books from independent booksellers, including authors featured in our podcast series.
Folks alway ask for our recommendations of the best books to learn more — tuck into this reading list of our favourite impact-inspiring publications, from Greta Thunberg, George Monbiot, Jon Alexander — these also make the ideal gifts that keep on giving.
GOOD NEWS FROM 2022
Our TreeSisters fundraiser reached a total of almost £10,000 — that's tens of thousands of trees planted! Thank you, everyone.
Greta Thunberg shared wise words at the Southbank Centre; we shared her insight on being climate positive for Condé Nast Traveller.
How to tell if a hotel is eco? Juliet Kinsman gave the world the ultimate checklist through Condé Nast Traveller.
We returned to Education for All's boarding houses in Morocco, the focus of our 2019 documentary Changing Worlds in the Atlas Mountains. EFA students were achieving 100% pass rate for their girls, which plummeted to 76% in 2020, but was back up to 84% in 2021 and 98% in 2022 thanks to the hard work of this charity — we need more businesses supporting the education of girls in remote rural areas. And congratulations, Morocco, the first ever African team to reach the World Cup semifinals!
Watched Don't Look Up yet? This LinkedIn post went viral, underscoring we need more lighthouses, less skeptics.
51 Reasons to Love Phaea, our guide to the good-doing at this family-run hotel group behind Cretan Malia Park won lots of acclaim — congratulations also to Bouteco writer Imogen Lepere, for being awarded Best Young Travel Writer of the Year by AITO.
Weeva — the sustainability management system we've all been waiting for — has launched at pilot stage. Sign up to get involved in 2023.
We hope to host more Jeffersonian dinners in 2023; we loved ours at London's first mindfulness hotel, and being first guests at this Bouteco client's new sister property in Bayswater, Inhabit Hotels Queens Gardens. Get in touch if you'd like us to host important conversations with you.
A powerful way to circulate more climate facts and future-fixing ideas? Through 'edutaining' talks and thought-provoking keynotes and panel discussions — Juliet Kinsman took to podiums in 2023 at PURE Life Experiences — as covered poignantly by TTG (Marrakech), Design Hotels (Crete), Women in Travel's IWWTF, IncluCare's launch (London), LE Miami (USA), Small Luxury Hotels of the World's regional conference, Madrid's Luxury Travel Reboot (where we learned this), and many more events, travelling by train where possible, most recently returning from Morocco by train, boat and bus, with the help of B Corp-certified operators, Intrepid and Byway. And we travelled to Africa without leaving home, with &Beyond's webinar on What Makes Travel Epic.
What is Bouteco best at? Hosting communications workshops for hotel groups and telling inspiring stories of sustainability. This year, our consultancy has helped The Datai Langkawi launch their Datai Pledge, worked with Aman to shine a light on culture and conservation, such as at Aman-i-Khás, huddled with The Hoxton on their hub launching soon, communicated Soneva's A—Z of their incredible achievements, spent time with the Net Zero Hometel team behind Room2, obsessed about waste with Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons. We work with hoteliers, luxury brands and tourist boards to encourage hospitality to think more deeply and act more boldly to increase awareness around the challenges facing people and planet. And we share inspiring stories from boutique, eco hotels on Instagram to educate travellers on what goes into greener operations — we love hearing your stories, too.
GIVING THANKS AND SPREADING THE LOVE
Share with friends who might enjoy our occasional newsletters which aim to spread messages that matter from sustainable luxury travel. A huge thanks to all those who’ve worked with Bouteco this year to encourage a better understanding of sustainability and impact — here's to helping more brands stand for something and stand out for it. We don’t profit from plugging our favourite hotels on Bouteco Loves, but we might earn a small affiliate commission if you buy from our bookshop, you'll be supporting independent booksellers, with no extra charge for international deliveries.