Rastrello, a fully restored 14th-century palazzo hotel that sits on the border of Umbria and Tuscany in Italy, is thrilled to announce that it has achieved B Corp certification, joining a global community of companies who put high standards of environmental and social impact at the core of what they do.
Photo credits: Rastrello
A proud member of Design Hotels, Rastrello, an independently owned and family run hotel, is fully committed to its social responsibility and sustainability practices and, following its recent certification, is now one of only 76 B Corp certified companies in the accommodation and hospitality industry globally.
The luxury boutique property boasts nine rooms and farm-to-table restaurant Cucina & Giardino, headed up by celebrated regional chef Nicola Fanfano. Overlooking Lake Trasimeno, Cucina &
Giardino offers a panoramic garden terrace with breath-taking views as well as an intimate indoor space for guests and locals to enjoy.
There are five areas that are used to evaluate a company’s level of practice and commitment: governance, workers, community, the environment, and customers. Following a rigorous audit of its practices in these areas, Rastrello’s B Corp certification means guests can knowingly invest their time in a hotel that treats its team members ethically, is committed to its local community and working with like-minded partners, consciously acts with environmentally-friendly practices and is committed to offering its guests the healthiest and most environmentally-friendly food and beverage options in its restaurant and bar.
Sustainability at Rastrello
Originally an abandoned historic house, Christiane Wassmann, whose family have lived in Panicale for over 25 years, bought and lovingly restored the 14th century building, which opened as Rastrello in 2020. Its renovations were carried out using a local third-generation construction company, using traditional methods and materials and repurposing materials where possible.
The majority of the appliances and machines at Rastrello are A+ sustainability rated and the hotel is almost 100% plastic-free, offering all water (both in the hotel and restaurant) filtered and bottled in-house. Guests can fill their bottles in the lounge’s water station.
The team, including owner Christiane Wassmann, has a personal relationship with all of its suppliers and communicates with them regarding how they would like to receive their products, with a minimal amount of packaging or in some cases no packaging at all. As an example, the guest laundry service is delivered in the laundry bag, which is then washed and used to also return guests’ washed and folded clean laundry (unless requested otherwise).
In room, all bathroom products are refillable and made in Italy and house service changes sheets and towels only on a guest’s third night stay (or if requested). The hotel works with This Was a Sheet to provide the guest slippers as soon as its current inventory is finished, which is where the current service uniforms come from too.
The hotel also has a vigorous waste recycling system implemented and cardboard from the hotel and restaurant is used in the garden beds to help with weed control and to keep moisture in the earth.
In the gardens and farmhouse, solar panels have been installed for electricity and the complete heating system is run on wood from renovating abandoned olive groves. They also use sustainably-collected water such as a blackwater cleaning system, captured rainwater and a well - all of its gardens are irrigated with captured or well water. The cleaned blackwater is used in the olive groves.
Photo credits: Rastrello
Food practices
The majority of the produce used in the restaurant and bar comes from its organic gardens. The grains, wines, cheeses, charcuterie, spirits and sodas are from local suppliers, with very few exceptions being imported.
For its backbar, Rastrello makes many in-house infusions for its curated cocktails from foraged herbs, flowers and nuts, as well as offering tea infusions from the herbs and flowers from its farm, including its organic olive leaves for olive tea.
All of Rastrello’s kitchen waste is composted and they pasteurize and pulverize all eggshells to use in the garden to give calcium to the tomatoes and other plants. This compost and eggshells from the kitchen are used in the vegetable gardens. In both the kitchen and bar, the hotel tries to utilize every part of base food to minimize waste as much as possible. For example, onion peels are used to make broth for sugo.
EVOO
Rastrello is also known for the award-winning, organic extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) it produces, which is certified DOP for the Lake Trasimeno area.
The hotel has around 2000 trees, the majority over 400 years old. Making EVOO from centenarian trees is very sustainable as you are not changing or replanting crops.
Rastrello has traditional olive groves, relying on natural irrigation for its older trees. Irrigation for its younger trees is done via its sustainably-collected water, only during the drought months. The team has renovated about 12 abandoned olive groves and replanted new trees in the traditional method with a larger spacing between trees, as it was done hundreds of years ago.
Rastrello harvests its olive crop in the traditional way, avoiding practices that can harm the roots or trunk. It maintains high quality harvest practices, making sure that they rely solely on this to create a high-quality EVOO.
No herbicides or pesticides are used in the groves or gardens and its earth is inspected to maintain organic standards and certification. Its EVOO bottles are made out of 100% recycled glass and the shipping boxes for our EVOO are made out of 100% recycled cardboard.
Local Community
Rastrello takes its commitment to the local community as seriously as its commitment to the planet. All team members live locally, with most able to walk to work.
Rastrello supports team members with interest-free loans for furthering their education or family emergencies, and the hotel actively supports local culture. For example, the hotel hosts a rotating art exhibit for local artists with 100% of proceeds from sales going to the artist.
