In Denmark, an increasing number of hotels and conference facilities become eco-labelled and most establishments choose the Green Key label.

In connection with the international climate conference, COP15, in Copenhagen in 2009, many hotels and conference facilities were certified with an eco-label. This development has continued since then, so that Denmark today has 138 eco-labelled hotel compared with 52 hotels in 2008. This means that 26% of the hotels and conference facilities in Denmark now are eco-labelled. Both the Danish and the International hotel business has embraced the Green Key programme, which was in fact invented in Denmark in the mid-1990s.

One of the partners that assisted in starting the development was the Copenhagen hotel chain, Arp-Hansen. Managing Director from Arp-Hansen, Malene Friis, says: “Arp-Hansen chose to join Green Key ahead of the COP15 event in Copenhagen where environmentally labelled hotels were preferred. Since then, we have experienced an increasing request for a green profile of our hotels”.

Claus Hansen from the hotel and conference centre, Nyborg Strand, says: “As a centrally located place for business meetings in Denmark, Green Key makes a difference for us. We use the certification to attract new customers and as an active part of our PR activities. At the same time, it is our aim to show our customers that we take responsibility in relation to sustainability issues.

In Denmark, an increasing number of larger companies (e.g. Maersk, Danisco, Novozymes and Nykredit) are looking for the green profile when choosing hotel and meeting facilities. Maersk had 88,000 overnight stays in Denmark in 2013, and the company has focus on e.g. environmental and working conditions of the hotels and conference centres that used by checking the correlation with their Responsible Procurement Programme.

Source: Kursuslex.