Implementation of green practices is valuable for Danish hotels

There is a big potential for the hotel industry to rethink business models and services aiming to reduce the consumption and increase the sustainability of the hotel experience. A new research project shows that sustainability in the sector is more than saved kilowatt hours – it is as much about the combined care for the environment and for the guest.

Green Solutions House (photo; Adam Mørk)

The hotel industry is often associated with large energy consumption, food waste, carbon emissions and lots of chemicals for washing and cleaning, but many Danish hotels encounter an increasing number of hotel and conference guests that request more sustainable solutions from their accommodations.

A research project “Green change of the hotel industry” has been initiated to explore the value guests experience while staying at more sustainable hotels. At the same time the project is investigating whether guests can be engaged in the environmental efforts of the hotels, and thereby get new experiences with sustainability habits to bring back home.

HORESTA (Danish Association for the Hotel and Restaurant Industry), Aarhus University and the Alexandra Institute, together with the hotel chain, Guldsmeden Hotels, and the hotel, Green Solution House are documenting the positive effects of being an environmentally friendly hotel - both externally towards the guests and internally towards the employees.

The results from the research project show that care for the guests, communication at eye level and involvement of employees in the green transition are just some of the areas the hotels must focus on in order to succeed with the green transition. If it is done with personality, credibility and conviction, the project shows that sustainability and the green touch are parameters where a hotel can differentiate itself positively.

The extent of travels, international conferences and overnight stays have increased significantly and will continue to rise. This development helps to increase profits, create more jobs and new business opportunities for the hotel industry. The development has, however, a downside. ”More domestic and foreign hotel guests and tourists can provide increased environmental impact, unless it is done in a smarter way. It is therefore important that just the hotel industry develops and improves its services in direction of more green solutions and alternatives”, says Mikal Holt Jensen, Green Key National Operator and Environmental Manager at HORESTA.

At the hotel chain, Guldsmeden Hotels, the green path has been quite a natural way to go, tells PR and communications manager Kirsten Aggersborg: “We are in an industry that is not exactly known for being green leaders, and for that reason we think that we should have extra focus on this issue. Therefore, our whole concept is built on sustainability and the idea that we are doing more good than harm in relation to our environment. We feel that we can stand up for all the choices we make, even in relation to biodegradable garbage bags, the purchase of recycled furniture, offering almost 100% organic food, etc. When you operate a hotel it means at the end of the day many garbage bags, a lot of furniture and many croissants.” Kirsten Aggersborg explains that Guldsmeden Hotels have joined the research project to know more about the value that their environmental efforts give: “We can already see that the actions we do are perceived very positively by the visitors and provides them with the knowledge that we care for them as well as for the environment. We can see that our ideas work, and it is deeply motivating”, she says while underlining that it is an ambition for the hotel chain to bring the new knowledge to others in the hotel industry.

The results from the research project also show that the management must take the lead in the green transition, as this commitment is crucial to pave the way for the green initiatives. Once the environmental thought and line are imbedded among the employees, they will naturally take the next steps. The motivation of the employees in relation to the involvement and ownership in the environmental solutions is a key requirement for successful green transition. At the same time, the sustainable initiatives which are initiated must not be finger pointing towards the guests, but should instead be seen as an environmental care that the hotels are showing their guests. The director of the Green Solution House and partner in the project, Trine Richter, also strongly agree with this point: “At our location, guests are not met with demanding signs about turning off the light or using fewer towels. It all runs behind the scenes so our guests are not bothered with facts about wastewater and carbon quotas - unless they ask. Because in that case we will be happy to tell about all our sustainable initiatives”, says Trine Richter. Green Solutions House has special rooms showing use of energy for particularly interested guests. And there are actually a number of very guests at the hotel interested in environmental issues!

Source: Alexandra Instituttet A/S

Recycling Soap is Responsible Business

We’ve all done it, more times than we care to admit.  We stay in a hotel while traveling, barely use the brand new bars of soap placed in our rooms, and then mindlessly toss them in the trash upon our departure. 

It’s not that we’re irresponsible hotel guests, it’s just that perhaps the thought never occurred to us that there might be a better way.  However, the folks behind Sealed Air’s Soap For Hope™ program created a better way to reduce hotel waste, and they’re taking it a step further, by converting that waste into free hygiene to better the lives of citizensand communities in need around the world 

Soap for Hope is simply perfect and perfectly simple. It is based on a simple process that requires no running water or electricity. Once the used soap bars are collected from hotels, Sealed Air teaches the local community members to recycle soap with specialized equipment. The cold-pressed fresh bars of soap are distributed to local communities which lack access to soap or sanitation. Through this process, the local people earn a small income to supplement their livelihood, learn a new skill in recycling soap, and communities receive free access to soap.

Sealed Air’s Soap for Hope livelihood initiative has become an integral part of Radisson Blu Hotels and Resorts’ responsible business program, Blu Planet, with a specific focus on conserving and protecting the earth’s priceless water supply. The partnership launched in early September as part of the group’s worldwide Responsible Business Month. Radisson Blu has already brought over 50 Radisson Blu hotels across Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa into the Soap for Hope™ program and has pledged to make it a brand wide program. In the program hotels collect and repurpose used guest room soap bars, something that would otherwise end up in a landfill, and in the process, hygiene in the surrounding communities is improved. 

Each of the 53 Radisson Blu hotels on the Soap for Hope program produces approximately 1.5 tons of soap waste each year, which will now be diverted from landfills. According to the World Health Organization, a person needs about 120 grams of soap per month for proper hygiene, thus Soap for Hope in Radisson Blu hotels can supply about 55,000 people with soap for 1 year based on their participation in the program.

 “We are very excited to have the support of Radisson Blu and parent company Radisson Hotel Group for the Soap for Hope program,” said Stefan Phang, Sealed Air Sustainability and CSR Director in the Asia Pacific region. “Soap for Hope creates shared value for our companies, our customers and the communities where we operate. The program also helps Radisson Blu deliver on their efforts to care for water and wash and reduce landfill waste from hotel properties.”

During September’s Responsible Business Action Month, Soap for Hope launched for the first time in Rwanda with the Radisson Blu Hotel & Convention Center, Kigali.
Mr. Wolfgang Neumann, President and CEO for The Radisson Hotel Group, and Ms. Inge Huijbrechts, VP of Responsible Business for Radisson participated in the Soap For Hope™ launch event. The very first soap bars they helped to recycle were auctioned for the local community partner Nyamirambo Women's Centre. The Centre provides education and training to local women to provide livelihoods and chance at a stronger position in society.

Inge Huijbrechts, Vice President Responsible Business at Radisson Hotel Group, explained the Company’s interest in the program. “We are delighted to join the Soap for Hope program with Sealed Air. We have been impressed by the enthusiasm and commitment from participating hotels. Providing local access to better hygiene and reducing property waste aligns closely with the brand’s Blu Planet program to encourage water mindfulness and create shared value in the local community.” For our Radisson Blu hotels, recycling their soap waste, and repurposing the product to better the lives of residents in their local communities not only helps them meet their sustainability goals, it just makes good business sense”. 

Sealed Air and Radisson Blu hotels are proving once again, that finding a new way with something previously considered waste is not only good for the environment, it’s good for communities and ultimately good for business.

Radisson Blu hotels participating in Soap for Hope can be found here. 

Source: http://3blmedia.com/News/Recycling-Soap-Responsible-Business.

Human Rights and the Hotel Industry

International Tourism Partnership has prepared a Know How Guide as a high-level introduction to human rights for the hotel industry – what human rights are, the context of the hotel industry, steps to implement the UN Guiding Principles and resources for further reading.

The Know How Guide is primarily written for Corporate Responsibility Managers in hotel companies, though it may also be of interest to individual properties.

What are human rights?

Human rights are fundamental principles and standards that aim to secure dignity, freedom and equality for all people. The Universal Declaration on Human Rights of 1948 sets out 30 fundamental human rights. This, together with the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and its two Optional Protocols, form the International Bill of Rights.

Human rights underpin everything we do, from the way staff are treated, their working conditions, to how guests are treated, in the supply chain and how goods and services for the hotel are produced, in the communities where a hotel is based and in the way a hotel or hotel business is run. Many issues are inter-related, e.g. water is not just an environmental issue: access to water is a human rights issue.

Some key human rights issues in hotels

• Right to work – are you providing jobs for local communities and contributing to the local economy?
• Labour conditions – are your staff well-treated?
• Land rights and forced displacement – has your hotel siting denied local people access to their land?
• Forced labour – how well are your agency workers treated? Can you be sure they are not being exploited?
• The right to water and sanitation – are you enhancing the drinking water availability for the local area? Or is your hotel’s consumption of water at the expense of others?
• The right to life and health – how do you ensure staff wellbeing?
• The right to dignity and privacy – how do you protect the privacy of your guests?
• Economic impacts– How are you giving back to the local communities through employment and supply chains? Are you paying suppliers and workforce fairly?
• Cultural impacts – Are you providing a centre for community involvement that enables positive and shared cultural experiences? Or do you provide excursions that exploit local communities?
• Child labour – are any of the goods or services you use the product of child labour?
• Sexual exploitation – are your premises used to sexually abuse adults or children?
• The right to participate – do your workers have a voice?

For more information about human rights and how it is relevant for the hotel industry as well as information about how to start the work, develop a human rights policy, please follow the following link: http://www.greenhotelier.org/know-how-guides/human-rights-and-the-hotel-industry/. Here you can also download the full Know How Guide. 

Source: International Tourism Partnership. 

Green Key seminar in beautiful surroundings

The annual Green Key seminar in the Netherlands took place on 9 February 2017 at the Green Key awarded conference facility, Slot Loevestein, an medieval castle in central Netherlands

Annually, Green Key Netherlands organises an event with many issues on the agenda: discussion about the status of the programme, handing out the award certificates, interesting topics for discussion in break-out groups, the annual Green Team award competition, the possibility for corporate partners to showcase their products and the possibility for all participants to network and share experiences.

This year the event was held at Loevestein Castle, a beautiful conference centre as well as accommodation and attraction facility located by the rivers Maas and Waal in the central part of Netherlands.

The participants at the Green Key seminar received a status update from Green Key in the Netherlands and at the International level. As 2017 is declared by UN as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development (YT2017), the seminar was allocated as one of the many Green Key activities in YT2017.

An exciting Green Team Award competition was organised with questions related to Green Key related topics (e.g. waste), and the winner of the Green Team Award 2017 was NH Leeuwenhorst.

Education about natural areas near Green Key establishments, education and training of staff at Green Key establishments, information and education of guests at Green Key establishments, and communication about sustainability and Green Key were among the issues discussed in the break-out groups.

The seminar finished by handing out the 2017 certificates to the many Green Key establishments in the Netherlands. There are now 670 Green Key awarded establishments, and about 90 establishments were present at the conference to Green Key certificate, handed out by Ms. Stientje van Velthoven, member of the Dutch Parliament.

Winners of the Green Team Award 2017: NH Leeuwenhorst congratulated by Mr. Erik van Dijk (Dutch Green Key coordinator) and Ms. Stientje van Velthoven (member of the Dutch Parliament)

Green Key awarded Port Side Resort Hotel strongly committed to the environment

Port Side Resort Hotel, located in the beautiful area of Antalya (Turkey), is a 5-star hotel which offers a variety of amenities to their guests as well as spacious and beautifully decorated rooms with great views. As a Green Key awarded hotel, it is strongly committed with the environment. 

The name of the hotel, Port Side Resort, comes from the old port, called Evrenseki. The region is well-known for its rich vegetation and bio-variety. Olive, pomegranate and laurel trees are planted there. In the hotel garden there is an olive tree more than 250 years old and a pomegranate tree that is 50 years old. In the sea, you can find the special Caretta Caretta turtle. 

Because the sand lilies (Pancratium maritium, Sea Daffodil, Sea Lily) are threatened by the extinction, the hotel grow them in their own greenhouse and plant them on the beach. Therefore, the hotel supports the replication and the protection of these lilies. 

In order to protect the environment, the hotel has also taken a lot of other actions: 

• Water saving devices are used in faucets, and there are sensors in general areas
• The six litre tanks are used in toilets
• The garden is watered by drip irrigation system
• Daily change of towels and bed sheets are only made by demand of the guests - in order to reduce the use of water, energy and detergents
• Energy saving systems are installed in the rooms
• Energy A class and LED bulbs with sensors are used
• All windows in the rooms are double grazing
• Refrigerators,  cold rooms and minibars are placed far from the sun or other heating sources
• Solar panels are used for heating water
• The VRV system is used for cooling and heating of the rooms 
• Electricity and water consumption are regularly followed and reported
• Regular education programmes are organised for staff discussing environment, action plan, policies and the use of chemicals.
• The hotel is using electronic communication system in order to minimise the paper consumption
• All trees and other flora in and around the hotel are carefully protected
• Guests are encouraged to separate waste in recycle bins located in general areas
• Batteries, accumulators, oils and all other types of dangerous waste are collected and stored in a special room before being delivered to licenced firms
• All oil waste from the kitchen are delivered to a licenced firm for recycling

Landal Hochmontafon using toilet paper made of 100% recycled fibre

The Green Key awarded holiday park, Landal Hochmontafon in Austria has started to use a very environmentally friendly toilet paper product made from tetra packs. 

Landal Hochmontafon is in 2017 testing a new toilet paper product produced by Green Key’s corporate partner, Lucart Group. The toilet paper is called “EcoNatural” and is made by Fiberpack®, the raw material developed in a collaboration between Lucart Group and Tetrapak. The toilet paper is made out of used beverage cartons, so it is produced using 100% recycled cellulose fibres. Beverage cartons furthermore contain polyethylene and aluminium that Lucart Group ensures are reused in other manufacturing activities.

The “EcoNatural” products supports a more sustainable future by giving life to materials which otherwise would be lost as waste, it contributes to the reduction of carbon emissions in the atmosphere and it prevents the cutting of trees. Lucart Group’s EcoNatural products are certified with the FSC Recycled® label and the EU Ecolabel.

As the toilet paper from Lucart Group is produced in Northern Italy it is transported over a shorter distance to Landal Hochmontafon in Austria than the previously used toilet paper produced in the Netherlands.

Green Key’s corporate partner, Lucart Group manufacture a full range of tissue product in Fiberpack® toilet paper, handtowels, facial tissues, wiper rolls, napkins, medical sheets, handkerchiefs.

Radisson Blu Kyiv launches a new campaign to recycling oil

This year Radisson Blu hotel, Kyiv, has launched a new campaign regarding recycling oil from the kitchen. They have signed an agreement with an Ukranian company which buys cooking oil from the hotel. After the recycling process the company receives biodiesel.

Biodiesel is a biodegradable combustible fuel,  which is usually made from vegetable oil or animal fat. It is desirable as an alternative to petroleum fuel because it uses renewable resources that are less damaging to the environment. It also produces and emits less harmful greenhouse gasses when burned as fuel.

Biodiesel fuel can be used in any vehicle with a compression ignition engine that can take regular diesel fuel.

Thanks to this campaign, 60 litres of the substance every three weeks can be recycled!

Time Hotels Management announcing Green Key status for its hotels

UAE-headquartered hospitality company, TIME Hotels Management, has added another environmental accolade to its growing roster of achievements with the announcement of its first Green Key status for most of its hotels and hotel apartments across the hospitality groups portfolio.

As a leading international standard of excellence in the field of environmental responsibility and sustainable operation within the tourism industry, the Green Key award is a voluntary eco-label that represents a commitment by businesses that their tourism establishments adhere to the strict criteria as stipulated by the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE). It aims to contribute to the prevention of climate change by awarding and advocating facilities with positive environmental initiatives and, to qualify, the hotel passed an exhaustive audit.

“TIME Hotels has been committed to pursuing an active strategy of initiatives, events and programmes designed to engender a pro-sustainability culture across all our properties and in the communities in which we operate. This Green Key award is further endorsement of this commitment, and provides further motivation for us to maintain our corporate policy of putting the environment at the top of our agenda for positive change,” said Mohamed Awadalla, CEO, TIME Hotels. TIME Oak Hotel and Suites, TIME Grand Plaza Hotel and TIME Ruby Hotel Apartments were all successful in the latest round of Green Key assessments.

The annual Green Key award also promotes awareness and encourages the creation of behavioural changes in guests, staff and suppliers, as well as applauding increased use of environmentally friendly and sustainable concepts and applications within hotel operations.

The audit covered 13 key areas from water conservation, waste management systems and indoor environment to green activities, staff involvement and guest awareness. No stranger to sustainable initiatives, TIME Hotels launched The Urban Garden project early this year, which can be found at TIME Oak Hotel & Suites in Barsha Heights, Dubai. Managed in partnership with Slow Food Dubai and attracting keen interest from organic food enthusiasts across the emirates, the garden educates people on how to grow their own herbs and vegetables in a challenging climate.

TIME Oak Hotel & Suites has also recently become a member of the Emirates Green Building Council, a UAE-based organization formed in 2006 with the goal of advancing green building principles for protecting the environment through the expertise of its members. The group was also recently awarded the Dubai Chamber of Commerce & Industry (Dubai Chamber) CSR Label Award.

Landal Brandnertal using locally sourced energy

The Green Key awarded holiday park is saving transportation and expenses by using locally produced wood chips as source of energy

Landal Brandnertal is located in a beautiful mountain area in Austria treasured by tourists both during summer and winter time.

The holiday park recently achieved the Green Key award for its high environmental standards within waste reduction and recycling, water and energy saving etc.

Landal Brandnertal receives its energy from renewable sources. As the surrounding mountainous areas are full of forests, the holiday park has installed a very efficient wood burner and receives wood chips from a nearby sawmill. After the wood chips have been burned creating energy for the establishment, the ashes are provided to local farmers to be used as organic fertilizers.

Not only is Landal Brandnertal using a renewable and local source of energy avoiding long distance transportation, the establishment is also saving expenses using wood chips.