Green Key enters collaboration with Wyndham Hotels & Resorts

Green Key to support the world’s largest hotel franchising company’s sustainability efforts across Europe, Middle East, Eurasia and Africa

Green Key, the world’s leading eco-label for the hospitality and travel sector, and Wyndham Hotels & Resorts – the world’s largest hotel franchising company with over 9,200 hotels in more than 80 countries – today entered a new collaboration, which will see Green Key help Wyndham’s hotels in Europe, Middle East, Eurasia and Africa (EMEA) improve sustainability and environmental performance, working towards the prestigious Green Key Award.

Based on compliance with a strict set of criteria that include environmental management, environmental awareness raising and social responsibility, Green Key’s criteria for hotels are recognised by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC). The collaboration will support Wyndham Hotels & Resorts’ continued sustainability efforts in the EMEA region, including initiatives to preserve natural resources, solutions to mitigate the impact on climate change through linen and towel reuse programmes, energy efficient lighting, recycling and water conservation. Wyndham Hotels & Resorts is also exploring long-term sustainability targets in alignment with the latest climate science including the encouragement of renewable energy where feasible.

Green Key’s application, audit and award process is standardised with a third-party verification of the award, a leading standard of excellence in the field of environmental responsibility and sustainable operation in the tourism industry. Wyndham hotels in the EMEA region will work closely with Green Key in a bid to join the eco-label’s 3,100 awarded establishments in almost 60 countries around the world.

Finn Bolding Thomsen, Green Key International Director, said: “We are extremely proud to be an official cooperation partner of Wyndham Hotels & Resorts. The Company’s commitment to sustainability strongly match Green Key’s expertise and we look forward to supporting its broad range of hotels in EMEA in further advancing their efforts.”

Edwin Broers, Vice President Central Operations Wyndham Hotels & Resorts EMEA, added: “Sustainability and environmental performance are crucial for Wyndham Hotels & Resorts,  and we are committed to providing our guests with places to stay that are socially, ethically, and environmentally responsible. Many of our hotels across the EMEA region are engaged in a broad range of sustainability initiatives, and we look forward to continuing this work in cooperation with Green Key.” 

For more information, please contact:

Finn Bolding Thomsen, Green Key International Director, e-mail finn@fee.global and phone +45 61248082

About Green Key

Green Key is the world’s leading eco-label for hotels and other tourism facilities with more than 3,100 awarded establishments in almost 60 countries around the world. The Green Key award is based on compliance with a strict set of criteria that include environmental management, environmental awareness raising and social responsibility. Green Key’s criteria for hotels and hostels are recognised by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC). Green Key’s application, audit and award process is standardised with a third-party verification of the award.

 About Wyndham Hotels & Resorts

Wyndham Hotels & Resorts (NYSE: WH) is the world’s largest hotel franchising company, with approximately 9,200 hotels across more than 80 countries on six continents. Through its network of approximately 817,000 rooms appealing to the everyday traveller, Wyndham commands a leading presence in the economy and midscale segments of the lodging industry. The Company operates a portfolio of 20 hotel brands, including Super 8®, Days Inn®, Ramada®, Ramada Encore®, TRYP by Wyndham, Hawthorn Suites®, Trademark Collection®, Wyndham® and more. Wyndham Hotels & Resorts is also a leading provider of hotel management services, with more than 400 properties under management. The Company’s award-winning Wyndham Rewards® loyalty programme offers over 77 million enrolled members the opportunity to redeem points at tens of thousands of hotels, vacation club resorts and vacation rentals globally. For more information, visit www.wyndhamhotels.com.

The restaurant A Cozinha por António Loureiro wins Best Practice Competition 2018!

Each year, Green Key runs a best practice competition to encourage its awarded sites to present their most inspiring sustainability stories. And today on World Tourism Day we announce our winner: A Cozinha por António Loureiro restaurant (Portugal). Finishing second and third were Sinatur Storebælt (Denmark) and STF Lugnåsbergets vandrarhem (Sweden).

This year, Green Key’s best practice competition focused on how to inform and involve guests in sustainability. The theme relates to SDG 12 “responsible consumption and production” to ensure “sustainable consumption and production patterns". Not only does Green Key help consumers to identify responsible tourism establishments, but awarded establishments also have to inform their guests about sustainable practices during their stay. Furthermore, Green Key awarded establishments are encouraged to engage their guests in their sustainability actions through activities, events, rewards etc.

At ‘A Cozinha’ , Chef António Loureiro and his team are totally committed to sustainable eating and also strive to pursue a policy of near-zero waste. An integrated approach considering several practices was implemented since the opening day. António, awarded Portuguese Chef of the Year in 2014, is well-known for his high quality gastronomy that combines tradition and innovation. He mainly uses regional or local products and the motto “cooking what Mother Nature is offering” has become an integral part of every menu he creates. To prevent food waste, António uses the entire product that is bought, cooked and combined in different ways.

As a part of the restaurant’s mission towards sustainability, António opens his kitchen for several initiatives to inform the local community and children about food waste. For example, in the activity “be a chef for a day”, or "team building with a cooking experience" guests have the chance to have a hands-on high level experience where they learn how to respect the products, how to promote the local economy with their choices and how to plan a week menu without creating a big amount of food waste.

In addition, António has adopted the ‘Eco-Cooks’ initiative which is part of the Eco-Schools programme in Portugal promoting healthy and sustainable food in schools.

First Green Key video now available

Green Key International is in the process of making a video series explaining the programme, its criteria and the application process, and the first video, an Introduction to Green Key, is now ready!

Click on the image to open the video in a new browser window or scroll down to see the video in this post. 

With the video series, we aim to make our programme and our criteria more approachable with an easy to understand, visual format. This first video provides an overview of Green Key and its different components and you are more than welcome to utilize the video in your channels!

Our coming videos are going to explain the Green Key criteria and the application process in more detail.

Do you have an idea for a Green Key video? Let us know by contacting us at the Head Office!