Marholmen – a sustainable destination in every aspect
Given our philanthropic history, social sustainability is particularly close to our hearts. But it's obviously just as important that our beautiful nature and archipelago environment are protected and cared for so that future generations can enjoy them. That's why we do what we can to ensure our operations leave as small a footprint as possible.
About Marholmen's Sustainability Efforts
We're committed to a sustainable future for generations to come by actively working towards ecological, economic, and social sustainability, and by striving to achieve the UN's global goals together. A big part of this is meeting the strict requirements set by the Nordic Swan Ecolabel to ensure our operations have the smallest possible impact on the environment.
Given our philanthropic history, social sustainability is particularly close to our hearts. But it's obviously just as important that our beautiful nature and archipelago environment are protected and cared for so that future generations can enjoy them. That's why we do what we can to ensure our operations leave as small a footprint as possible.
You can also read about some examples of everything we do below.
Frequently Asked Questions & Answers
Here, we try to answer everything you might be wondering about or need to know when you visit us – from directions to what activities you can do while you're here.
Questions & Answers
We are Nordic Swan Ecolabel certified
The Swan is the official eco-label for the Nordic countries. This label makes it easy for you as a guest or customer to choose the most environmentally friendly products and services available. We are a Swan-labelled hotel, restaurant, and conference facility, and we've gone through an extensive certification process with documentation and controls to ensure we meet the strict Swan criteria.
Social sustainability – it's been a given at Marholmen since before the last turn of the century.
Social sustainability is something we really care about. Our whole story started in the early 1900s when Nils & Hanna Berg donated Marholmen to LO, wanting to give hard-working women and families a place to relax and recharge. Back then, families could come to Marholmen to escape their tough daily routines and enjoy a week's holiday each year, long before Sweden had legal vacation time. Plus, we're taking lots of steps to reduce our impact and protect our beautiful archipelago environment. Below, you can read more about what we're doing to look after people and nature.
Family time at Marholmen
No child should live in poverty. However, Save the Children's annual Child Poverty Report shows that approximately 196,000 children in Sweden live in an economic situation where their families struggle to cover their costs. That's why it feels natural for us to offer families in need "Family Time on Marholmen" with accommodation, activities, and meals in collaboration with RoslagsBlomman in Norrtälje.
The project started in 2020 and gives families who don't otherwise have the financial means a chance to enjoy a few days off together. What's a given for many families can be an unattainable dream for others. Given our history, it's natural for us to support vulnerable families, and it feels meaningful to us to help more children get away and experience a change of scenery with their families.
About RoslagsBlomman
RoslagsBlomman is a non-profit organization that supports children and young people from economically vulnerable families in Norrtälje municipality. Based on individual needs, financial efforts are made to provide young people with an active and meaningful leisure time. Read more
Repower Ukrainian healthcare workers 🇸🇪🫶🇺🇦
Since the war broke out, medics and doctors working on the front lines in Ukraine have been spending a week at a time with us at Marholmen for rest, recovery, safety, and rehabilitation.
This is a passion project for us, done in collaboration with the Ukraine-based Repower Foundation, whose mission is to help active military doctors and paramedics get a break from their work in the combat zone on the Ukrainian front. Among many other things, they do this by organizing rehabilitation trips to Sweden so these brave men and women can get a chance to rest, recover, and receive psychological support to regain strength and motivation.
Besides resting, sleeping, enjoying good food, swimming, taking a sauna, and participating in a range of activities, participants also get to exchange knowledge with colleagues from places like Karolinska University Hospital and meet Swedish ministers and decision-making politicians. The picture here shows a group who visited us in January 2024 along with Minister of Defence Pål Jonson.
Locally grown cut flowers – all year long!
Working with our local flower supplier Kärodlat, we're setting up 'Beda's Flower Meadow' this spring 2024 – our very own flower cultivation here on Marholmen. This new flower meadow means we'll be self-sufficient in cut flowers all year, so we can stop buying imported ones completely. And of course, the cultivation is free from pesticides and artificial fertilizers!
This new initiative also means that we can offer activities based on the cultivation, such as courses in arranging flowers in vases, flower binding, and self-picking.
– Through our local cultivation, we can completely opt out of the global flower industry's chemical use, high water consumption, and long transports. We can decorate the entire facility year-round with beautiful flowers that grow naturally here on Marholmen, while also increasing biodiversity on the island, says Marholmen's CEO Fredrik Utheim.
Flower decoration that follows the seasonal cycle
When Sara at Kärodlat creates Marholmen's floral decorations, she works with fresh flowers from the gardens from June to October, and for the rest of the year, she uses dried flowers, year-round greenery, and things found in nature.
– There are so many beautiful flowers that can be grown locally here in Sweden, and I don't see the point in importing them. The season starts with tulips, narcissus, as well as wild raspberries, wild honeysuckle, mayberry, hazel, and early perennials, and then it continues with ranunculus and anemones, annuals like delphinium, snapdragon, zinnia, summer mallow, asters, statice, amaranths, cosmos, and everlasting flowers, etc. In early August, the garden's prima donna, the dahlia, arrives. Something we all look forward to!, says Sara Lewell, Kärnodlat Roslagen.
Photographer: Mia Lewell
Beehives that promote biodiversity
Since summer 2020, our beehives have been a popular feature here at Marholmen. Every year, we harvest honey several times, which you, as a guest, can buy and enjoy.
The cool thing about our bees is that they help spread biodiversity here on the island, and at the same time, we get amazing, locally produced honey! Its flavor changes depending on which flowers are blooming at the moment.
Did you know:
- On average, a honeybee produces about one-twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in its lifetime.
- To make just one kilo of honey, bees need to visit six to eight million flowers!
- Honey lasts forever, as long as it's kept in an airtight jar.
- The honey from our bees is extracted several times a year, bottled in glass jars, and then served in our restaurant or sold to our guests.
Want to learn more about bees and beekeeping? Click the link below to Allt om biodling's YouTube channel, where you can choose episodes that interest you.
Tens of thousands of pike-perch fry are released into the Baltic Sea.
Here, 10,000 new zander fry swim out on an adventure in the Baltic Sea! Through a collaboration with, among others, Stockholm City and Fiskeguiderna, every year we release tens of thousands of zander fry from our shores here on Marholmen to help increase the zander population in the archipelago.
The fry are released in several places along the Baltic Sea coast to maintain the stock of predatory fish and balance the natural ecosystem. The fry are released into waters where they get direct access to protective reeds and jetties to increase their chances of not becoming bird food. They will be fully grown in about two years.
We are proud to be part of this great initiative and to contribute to a healthier environment in the Baltic Sea.
Locally grown apple juice
Nils Äppellund is the name of the old orchard here on the island, named after the merchant Nils Berg who donated the island to LO a hundred years ago. Even today, the apple trees growing in the grove yield more apples every autumn than we can manage. But the ones we do take care of, we turn into a delicious and popular apple must that we sell in our hotel shop and restaurant. It's both locally grown and truly wonderful!
We invite guests and neighbors to pick any apples we can't take care of ourselves.
We are KRAN-certified
Tap water is much better for the environment than bottled water. Bottled water requires manufacturing and heavy transportation, causing unnecessary emissions and waste. Producing and delivering one liter of bottled water requires at least 300 times more energy than pouring one liter of water from the tap. Tap water is always locally sourced and distributed through pipes, which is very energy-efficient. That's why we've chosen to get Marholmen 'KRAN-labeled'.
Kranmärkt (Tap Water Label) is a national sustainability label for businesses that choose tap water over bottled water. In a Kranmärkt business, no bottled or canned water is served at the workplace, during meetings, external conferences, or training sessions. Instead, locally sourced tap water is chosen, which is a much more environmentally friendly option. For us at Marholmen, it feels natural to serve the drinking water available from our taps and to encourage more sustainable drinking water use.
More sustainable measures
For us, making sustainable decisions is super important. Every single day. When it comes down to it, it’s pretty simple – we need to be able to look ourselves in the mirror! Besides what we’ve already told you above, here are some more things we’re doing to help boost sustainability and create a better society for future generations.
- Of course, we sort our waste and have recycling stations where guests staying in our cabins, villas, and pitches can sort their garbage.
- We purchase renewable electricity, which consists of 95% hydropower and 5% wind power.
- Our staff drives eco-friendly electric cars on the island, and our guests have access to charging stations.
- Vegetarian options are a given on the menu
- Here, you'll drink from reusable glasses – no single-use plastic cups for us!
- We reuse and reupholster furniture and decor whenever possible. For example, we chose to renovate all of our worn-out Grythyttan furniture instead of throwing them away and buying new ones.
- If we need to buy new furnishings, we always choose natural, durable materials that will last a long time.
- We work with an Ecolabel-certified laundry service and have opted out of table linen in the restaurant to reduce the amount of laundry.
- We wash and reuse bathrobes/slippers from our spa and saunas.
- We reuse our old bathrobes as laundry bags for guests in the cabins
- Of course, the few papers we print out go straight into paper recycling when they're thrown away.
- When we need to use paper, we choose Swan-labeled, and of course, we work with a Swan-labeled printing company.
The list can get even longer! If there's anything you're wondering about, you're very welcome to contact us by email or phone.
Sustainability
Follow @marholmen.hotell for inspiration for your next trip.
Tack till er som kom på gårdagens självplock! Missade du så finns en ny chans redan i helgen, nämligen på söndag den 10/4 kl. 14-16, när Sara från @karodlat.roslagen finns på plats. 🌷
Tulpanerna kostar 25 kr styck alternativt 7 för 150 eller 10 för 200 kronor. Betalning sker med swish! Hoppas vi ses!
#roslagen #destinationroslagen #hållbarhet
ÄNTLIGEN SJÄLVPLOCK!🌷
Nu på torsdag, 7/5 kl. 17-19, är självplocket av frilandsodlade tulpaner på lök öppet på Bedas blomsteräng här på Marholmen.
Sara Lewell på @karodlat.roslagen finns på plats och tar emot. Tulpanerna kostar 25 kr styck alternativt 7 stycken för 150 kr eller 10 stycken för 200 kr. Betalning endast med Swish.
Notera att självplocket bara är öppet under dessa tider. Fler datum och tider kommer inom kort.
Varmt välkommen!
#marholmen #hållbarhet #snittblomsodling #roslagen
Naturen är vaken 🌿
Visste du att vi gödslar Bedas blomsteräng med komposterat matavfall från restaurangen? Det är så vi vill ha det – ett hållbart kretslopp från jord till bord!
#marholmen #roslagen #norrtälje #hållbar #hållbarhet
Så här kan det se ut när blommor som växte här på Bedas blomsteräng i somras får nytt liv. 🌺
Visst är det fint?
Tack vare vårt fina samarbete med @karodlat.roslagen, är vi självförsörjande på härodlade snittblommor – året runt!
#marholmen #roslagen #destinationroslagen #hållbarhet #snittblomsodling
Ljuvliga färgkombinationer och en rejäl dos skaparglädje när @karodlat.roslagen ordnar Blomsterverkstad hos oss. 💐
Här kan förbokade grupper skapa sin egen bukett eller krans med närodlade blommor efter säsong. Visst blir det vackert?
Vill du också prova? Mer info hittar du på vår hemsida.
#marholmen #roslagen #norrtälje #visitroslagen #destinationroslagen #hållbarhet #bukettbinderi #bukettbindning #snittblommorisäsong #snittblomsodling
Konsten att binda en bukett 💐
Kreativitet, skratt och ljuvliga blommor när Sara från @karodlat.roslagen håller workshop i krans- och bukettbindning här på ön. Med blommor från Bedas blomsteräng, förstås!
#marholmen #roslagen #norrtälje #visitroslagen #visitnorrtälje #destinationroslagen #hållbarhet
Högsäsong i honungsfabriken! 🍯
Visste du att vi har egna bin här på ön? Varje år producerar de en supergod honung som du kan njuta av här eller köpa med dig hem så långt lagret räcker.
#marholmen #roslagen #norrtälje #hållbarhet #lokalproducerat #destinationroslagen
Förra året anlade vi en blomsteräng här vid 7° Bad & Bastu. För att det är fint för våra gäster att titta på förstås, men också för våra bins skull. Nu, ett år senare blommar det för fullt och bina har kalas på ängen.
Precis som det ska vara 🌼🐝💚
#marholmen #roslagen #norrtälje #visitroslagen #stockholmarchipelago #destinationroslagen #blomsteräng #hållbarhet
Visste du att lökarna som drivs upp i Bedas blomsteräng för att pryda våra krukor inte rensas bort när de vissnar? Istället planteras de om i våra rabatter, där de får nytt liv till nästa säsong.
Tack vare samarbetet med vår lokala blomsterleverantör @karodlat.roslagen kan vi dekorera hela anläggningen året runt med vackra blommor som växer naturligt här på ön, samtidigt som vi ökar den biologiska mångfalden. 🌼
#Marholmen #hållbarhet #roslagen #norrtälje #visitroslagen #visitstockholm
Äntligen dags för självplock!🌷
Det börjar bli skördedags i Bedas blomsteräng! Nu på lördag den 3/5 mellan kl. 10-12 så öppnar vi upp för självplock av frilandsodlade tulpaner på lök. Sara från @karodlat.roslagen är på plats och tar emot er.
Tulpanerna kostar 25 kr styck alternativt 7 st för 150 eller 10 st för 200 kr. Det kommer även att finnas möjlighet att köpa till redan skördade vårkvistar för den som vill binda sig en bukett. Betalning med Swish. Vi har tyvärr ingen möjlighet att ta emot kontanter eller kortbetalning.
Vänligen notera att självplocket bara är öppet under tiderna ovan.
#marholmen #hållbarhet #norrtälje #roslagen #destinationroslagen #självplock
