Open since 2009 and located just 10 minutes from Agadir and two and a half hours from the royal city of Marrakesh in Morocco, Atlas Kasbah Ecolodge was the 2015 Gold Winner of the World Responsible Tourism Awards in London, as best hotel for local sourcing. 

From its original environmentally friendly construction by expert local craftsmen with ancestral knowledge, specialists in rammed earth, tadelakt, stone and wood, to the sustainable philosophy of the ecolodge, everything has been through to promote Moroccan value of humanity, traditions and heritage and its unique know-how.

Everything concerning the management and operations at Atlas Kasbah is environmentally responsible, using natural materials with properties that provide wellbeing and refreshment and actions that preserve nature.

Conservation & Community Highlights:

1. Sustainable Development

2. Environmental Preservation:

• 1st Criterion Water: Phyto Purification station unique in southern Morocco: built in collaboration with the university Ibn Zohr of Agadir, this gentle waterfall on different floors purifies all the wastewater of the ecolodge. The aquatic green plants filter the water on each level, restoring a purified water on the last floor allowing it to water the plants of the garden.
• 2nd Criterion Energy: Use of ETRs, renewable energy technologies for electricity and water heaters.
• 3rd Criterion Waste: Implementation of the 3RV rule: reduce, re-use, recycle, valorize.
• 4th Criterion Purchasing Policy: Local supply in the permaculture garden and among small producers and craft and agricultural cooperatives. Providing good menus for the climate with a very limited carbon impact.
• 5th Criterion Landscape Integration: Eco-construction through traditional local architecture and 1st ecolodge with a permaculture garden in Morocco.
• 6th Criterion Environmental Awareness: Awareness of staff, visitors and residents about the environment and agro-ecology.

1. Community Service:

• FIGHT AGAINST POVERTY: The ecolodge supports more than a hundred families directly or indirectly.

• SOLIDARITY SHELVES: By selling local products from local cooperatives in partnership with the German Cooperation (GIZ) and the High Commission for Water and Forests and the fight against desertification.

• FIGHT AGAINST THE PRECARIOUSNESS OF WOMEN: The ecolodge employs a large number of Amazigh women from neighbouring villages. These women have been trained to ensure high quality standards. Promotion of products made by cooperatives and women’s associations (care products, paints, crafts, etc.).

• RAISE AWARENESS TO SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN AGADIR: Organisation of environmental days, organisation of cleaning campaign, waste management, hosting initiatives of local associations of Agadir Souss Massa.

• SCHOOL CAMPAIGN : Support in the purchase of a school bus so that students can continue their education at the College of Drarga, made available to a library in the Kasbah for children of the village.

Images provided.