Green mountain huts in the Tirol

Located amid some of the most stunning mountain scenery in Europe, the Tirol's mountain huts provide inexpensive, good quality and environmentally friendly places to stay. Not only are the surroundings supremely green, but the environmental management is both innovative and of the highest standards.

For example, at the Magdeburger Hütte, purification of the drainage is carried out biologically with the help of freely swimming microorganisms which thrive in a naturally ventilated a pond.

Green mountain huts
Austria's biggest accommodation provider, the Austrian Alpine Club (alpenverein.at), which owns 190 category 1, high altitude huts, awards a seal of quality to the management of mountain huts which achieve benchmarks of environmental standards. The award requires certain environmental conditions to be observed, e.g. environmentally-friendly energy and energy-saving measures, avoidance and disposal of waste and clean surroundings. Alpine huts are also being equipped with their own biological sewage plants so that effluents can be properly treated. At present 53 Austrian Alpine Club huts bear the seal of quality, 27 of them in the Tirol.

Mountain hut has the green `bug’
One exemplary example of environmental management is found at the Magdeburger Hütte at an altitude of 1,600 m in the Karwendel mountain range. The hut has a drainage system where purification is carried out biologically with the help of freely swimming microorganisms which thrive in a naturally ventilated a pond. Cleansing is promoted by select plants and the remaining clean water seeps away in the wood.

Flower power
The Olpererhütte in the Zillertal has been rebuilt with particular attention being paid to environmental protection. The wooden casing of the hut is CO2-neutral and a fully biological sewage plant purifies the hut's waste water. A photovoltaic system and rapeseed oil-powered block heating plants produce the necessary energy and hot water.

For more information, log on to Tirol.at.