Environmentally friendly accommodation and experiences

We take nature and sustainability into account in all of our decisions

Hawkhill is a family company in the third generation. Our cottages and villas are only a short bike ride away from our childhood home. The surrounding woods and the Nuuksio National Park were our playgrounds when we were children. We want to make sure that the Finnish nature and the planet as a whole stays clean also in the future.

This is why we decided to use Hawkhill as a tool in the fight against climate change and nature loss.

These values and nature in essence is our company’s bedrock.

Our acts for the climate

We have calculated our company’s carbon footprint since 2019 and our goal is to be carbon negative by 2030.

Here is a summary on what action we have taken in our company:

• We use low-emission electricity (nuclear power)
  • Our electrical consumption is minimized (e.g. LED lighting)
• Emissions from our heating are minimized
  • Low-emission heating solutions (including heat recovery ventilation, ground source heat, air heat pumps)
  • AI controlled temperature control in villas
  • Room temperature set to 21 degrees
  • Bedroom temperature lowered to 20 degrees
• Low-emission mobility
  • Our company cars are 100% electric to lower our emissions
  • Guests are offered the option of charging an electric car
• Low-emission catering
  • We prefer vegetarian food and local food from local products
  • We grow the herbs our own garden
  • For dairy products, we always have a plant-based alternative available.
  • We do not use disposable dishes
  • We reduce the amount of food waste
  • All fractions generated by our restaurant operations are sorted.
  • Our kitchen appliances are low-emission
• We restored the Haukansuo carbon sink on our lands in 2023
• We build all of our cottages from wood to bind carbon and last for over 100 years
• We buy used furniture and give the old furniture for reuse

As a last resort we compensate the emissions we cannot minimize with Nordic Offset. Our emissions from our business in 2022 were 9.8 t CO2. We compensate our emissions twice.

In addition we focus our marketing to the markets near to us to minimize our guests flight emissions.

Our actions to tackle nature loss

Nature loss is a significant and visible threat to our immediate environment, which is why safeguarding biodiversity is particularly important to us.
For example:

• Restoration of Haukansuo bog on our land
• Restoration of old meadows on our land
• We have planted and are planting small flower beds in our area that also provide living space for pollinators
• Together with our visitors, we have built several bug hotels, birdhouses and deadwood fences in our area

Fight against invasive alien species

In addition to the actions we mentioned above, we are protecting our biodiversity by fighting against harmful invasive alien species. The most important invasive species at Hawkhill is garden lupine (Lupinus polyphyllus).

Native to the mountains of western North America, the garden lupine has spread in Finland widely and is considered a harmful invasive species. Every little helps with the fight against the lupines; once removed from the environment, the beautiful Finnish meadows, native to our country, are once again allowed to regenerate.​

In June 2023, we held lupine harvests, during which the lupines of our entire 6,000 square meter meadow were mowed at just the right time to bloom – before they start seeding. We will arrange harvest every year and challenge all local companies and residents to join: Event on Facebook

Another important way to prevent the lupine from spreading and to destroy it is allowing sheep to graze on the meadow. He have invited our neighbour’s sheep to do the job.

We also arrange lupine harvesting with our guests as part of our regenerative travel programme.

We give hands-on instruction at using the scythe and/or other tools, and help people to understand why removing garden lupines is vital to the regeneration of Finnish
meadows and all the species that live in them.​

When serving at Hawkhill’s Forest Restaurant, we always pay attention to responsibility in different ways:

• We prefer locally produced vegetarian food, game and Finnish lake fish
• We grow herbs in our own garden
• We always have a plant-based option for dairy products
• We do not use disposable containers
• We reduce the amount of food waste (e.g. food portion model and donating leftover food)
• The waste fractions generated from our restaurant operations are 100% sorted

Water consumption and protection

With the help of an AI-controlled system, we continuously monitor our water consumption and have already limited all our showers and faucets, achieving significant reductions in our water consumption.

We only use eco labeled detergents and shampoos.

Involving our guests and business partners

One big part of our environmental work is to guide and teach our guests, so that they know how what impact their actions have on the environment and make it easy for them to make the right choices. Small actions and the right attitude can make a real difference!

We expect that our business partners share the same values and are committed on making the right choices for the environment.