Our contribution to
ECOLOGICAL sustainability:

  • Our organic garden provides vegetables, salads and herbs for the kitchen, based on permaculture principles
  • We don't use any pesticide or chemical fertilizers on the whole property (but are composting organic matters)
  • Organic fertiliser (compost, horse and chicken dung)
  • Continuous planting – to encourage the local fauna population
  • We have a natural water source which we use to irrigate our garden
  • No chemicals to clean fresh water, we use natural sand and stone filters
  • We use septic tanks for wastewater
  • We use the cloudy water (in rainy season) from the nearby spring for toilet flushing
  • We change towels only every three days or when guests request
  • We try to reduce plastic waste as much as possible. For example plastic straws are banned at Hillside and replaced by reusable bamboo straws
  • For every guest the welcoming plastic water bottle will be refilled at any time, free of charge
  • Our free-range chickens provide breakfast eggs. Kitchen left overs won’t be thrown away but fed to our chickens and horses
  • Our construction material is mainly renewable and locally sourced
  • We contribute to nature and land conservation
  • Natural pest control is ONLY used to manage your bungalow, certified by WHO
  • Local sustainable timbers & materials harvested from our property or the surrounds where possible
  • Bamboo is grown onsite for construction purposes
  • Plastic straws are banned at Hillside. Instead we use bamboo straws
  • At Hillside every guest receives a refillable aluminium bottle, which can be refilled at any time at the refill station. With this arrangement we could reduce our plastic bottle waste by 90%

Our contribution to
SOCIAL sustainability

  • Our Lao staff is purely hired from our neighbouring villages to support them and their families by creating a source of income and a perspective
  • We employ 10 full time and 10 part time staff
  • We trained our local Lao staff to become professional waiters, cooks, gardeners and cleaners
  • Our wages are way above the recommended Government wage
  • Our staff choose their work days to allow to attend to ceremonies and family
  • We buy our supplies from local markets and communities whenever possible
  • For construction maintenance or reconstructions we also hire local workers
  • We support a school nearby by useful donations such as toothbrushes, toothpaste, books, pencils and other teaching or learning materials they need