Green Key's partner helps to reduce single-use bottled water from international hotel chain

Green Key’s corporate partner Purezza Premium Water has signed a global partnership agreement with one of the world-leading hotel groups in hospitality, Accor, which wishes to adopt more sustainable water consumption solutions.

The hospitality industry historically has had a dramatic impact on the environment, which has led to many hotel groups adopting sustainable practices and aligning them with their operations. One of the most effective actions that hotel groups can take is to reduce their consumption of single-use materials and products, such as plastic bottles.

As a global provider of freshly dispensed drinking water solutions that has direct supply and distribution in more than 60 countries, Green Key’s corporate partner, Purezza Premium Water, has played an important role in helping tourism businesses to adopt more sustainable water dispensing solutions, as well as reusable bottles. By making simple choices regarding guests’ and staff’s water consumption, hotels can reduce their negative impacts on the environment and save on delivery costs.

With over 5,000 hotels around the world, Accor is one of those hotel groups that have built a strategy around sustainability to include initiatives which aim to reduce the negative impacts on the environment. A top priority for Accor is to remove single-use packaging from its hotels and this includes single-use bottled water. The hotel’s chain has now chosen Green Key’s partner Purezza Premium Water as a preferred global supplier to assist them in removing single-use bottled water from the supply chains of their hotels.

Purezza provides water dispensers, which filter tap water, as well as reusable, glass branded bottles, in still and sparkling variants. By switching to this alternative solution, a hotel can remove hundreds of thousands of single-use plastic water bottles from all areas of their hotel operations every year!

Scott Mitchell, Global Head of Purezza Premium Water, says: “We are pleased to be partnering with Accor and supporting them in their sustainability initiatives. Our shared goals of eliminating single-use packaging and reducing waste complements our strategic partnership.”

As consumers continue to actively select their accommodation based on the sustainability practices and performance of the properties, it is essential for hotels to build a strategy around sustainability and partner with sustainability-minded suppliers.

To learn more about Purezza Premium Water solutions, visit their website here.

Green Key signs collaboration agreement with TripDoodler

Green Key International and the green-tech platform TripDoodler are joining synergies to empower conscious and curious tourists to make more sustainable travel decisions.

Credits: Magical Pond - https://www.magicalpond.com/en/

TripDoodler and Green Key recognise the increasing global interest of consumers in environmental certifications and how transparent and accessible information plays a crucial role in shaping the tourism and hospitality sector. That being so, there exists a need to invite travellers to become an active part of the solution. 

As part of this collaboration, travellers can now locate the Green Key certified establishments through the visual presentation of the Green Key logo on the TripDoodler platform. This new feature allows all certified establishments, including hotels, restaurants, or smaller accommodations, to claim their business on the TripDoodler app and get acknowledged by the travellers for their sustainability practices.

The sustainability practices integrated on the TripDoodler platform go beyond carbon emissions and enable travellers to rate up to 40 easily visible parameters of environmental, social-cultural, and economic sustainable tourism. As part of the rating process, the tourists are asked different questions such as “Does the hotel provide recycling bins?”, “Is the establishment run by female-led management?” or “Does the restaurant use local produce?”. To find the full list of parameters, visit TripDoodler’s Beta App here.  
 
The Green Key International Director, Finn Bolding Thomsen, and the CEO of TripDoodler, Josephine Piplits, highlight the importance of this collaboration:  

“With Green Key being a leading standard for environmental and sustainable operations within the tourism industry, we are happy to enter a partnership with TripDoodler to help support consumers on their decisions about sustainability and travel. Through this collaboration, travellers can now easily find Green Key certified accommodations on the TripDoodler platform, and certified establishments can benefit from accessing data on how customers perceive their sustainable actions". 
                                                       - Finn Bolding Thomsen, Green Key International Director 

“We are very excited to partner with Green Key and work closely together on translating all the great initiatives that are implemented throughout our industry into a language that every traveller can relate to and make new better decisions based on.”  

- Josephine Piplits, Founder & CEO, TripDoodler 

About TripDoodler 

TripDoodler is an online platform that empowers travellers to easily find, acknowledge, and share verified sustainable travel options, powered by a crowd-sourced certification. With a vision to make sustainable choices the easiest choice, TripDoodler aims to create the world’s largest searchable database of better travel choices, led by first-hand insights from globetrotters across the world. These insights further provide managerial comprehensions to the tourism establishments on how the travellers perceive their sustainable practices. Guided by the 2030 Agenda, TripDoodler offers an easy, independent, and trustworthy solution for travellers and businesses to assist them on their sustainability journeys.  

Greek tour operator to be the first to reduce environmental impact on excursions

The Greek company Avra Tours has signed an agreement with the Green Key National Operator in Greece to reduce the environmental footprint of its transports and excursions to the minimum.

Avra Tours has now a new green strategy, aligned with the Green Key sustainable standard. The company, which is the largest Greek inbound tour operator in the country, has entered an agreement with The Hellenic Society for the Protection of Nature, the body responsible for the Green Key programme management in Greece.

The collaboration agreement was officialised by Avra Tours CEO Ioannis L. Dimitriadis and the President of the Board of Directors of HSPN, Nikolaos G. Petrol, also Vice President of the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE). In a joint statement, both parties manifested their commitment and hope on this agreement, aligning with UN goals. They also emphasised the importance of joining synergies to create short and long term results for the tourism industry.

Avra Tours is further compromising to become the first Greek tour operator with the smallest environmental footprint on excursions and transports as part of this partnership. To achieve this goal, the Greek operator will offset its carbon footprint through the FEE Global Forest Fund, helping plant trees and educating new generations to become more sustainable in the near future.

Additionally, Avra Tours will also have stricter criteria for partnerships by only working with organisations and destinations actively engaging in sustainability practices or strategies. The Greek tour operator aims to encourage the businesses it collaborates with to reduce its environmental impact.

Green Key featured in The Historic Traveller magazine

The Historic Hotels of Europe publication has dedicated a page to the eco-label certificate, highlighting the recent changes in the Green Key programme.

Historic Hotels of Europe that promotes an incredible collection of hotels, manors and palaces throughout Europe has now published the third issue of its Historic Traveller magazine, with a page dedicated to the Green Key programme. In the article, the Green Key’s International Director, Finn Bolding Thomsen, reflects on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in the hospitality industry and Green Key’s role in supporting the certified hotels and other categories in the hospitality industry during these challenging latest years.

“During this uncertain time, we have supported our Green Key awarded establishments by showing flexibility in the certification process and by running campaigns that were tailored to the needs during the pandemic”, explains Finn Bolding Thomsen, adding that due to the recent worldwide events, the climate crisis is further becoming a top global concern.

The set of Green Key international standards for establishments is also highlighted in The Historic Traveller issue since the criteria have recently been strengthened to increasingly focus on the reduction of carbon emissions and pollution and the protection of biodiversity. Ultimately, the goal is to continue sharing the best practices of the certified establishments, as the Green Key International Director emphasises:

“Our ambition is to support our participating establishments through training, webinars, and other supporting tools […]. We also want to increase awareness of the guests visiting Green Key certified accommodation through information and involvement during the visit as well as promotion of the sustainability efforts through social media”.

Lastly, the Historic Traveller’s article on Green Key also addresses the intention of the eco-label organisation to join the Glasgow Declaration, which aims for a net-zero future by 2050.

More details on The Historic Hotels of Europe can be read here.

NH Hotel Group continues sustainable initiatives as they gain recognition for third year in a row

NH Hotel Group has continued to be recognised for their sustainable efforts through numerous environmental commitments and initiatives. As they are among the top three establishments within S&P Global report for a sustainable hotel corporation, whilst similarly maintaining recognition as a top performer within the hospitality industry.

NH Hotel Group has been recognised within the hotel sector as one of the three most sustainable companies in the world. S&P Global assessed the group for the third subsequent year, as they repeat their position at third place among the top three establishments within sustainability in the hotel industry globally. S&P Global assesses the organisations yearly as they produce promising corporate procedures concerning sustainability, with a focus on three sustainable dimensions: economic, social and environmental impacts and initiatives. In 2021, over 8,000 organisations were asked to partake in the method as a questionnaire was produced containing both public and private data from the participating organisations. Since the previous year, the NH Hotel Group have improved their score acquired in the criteria. 

"This recognition showcases our firm commitment to the responsible and sustainable management of our company, even in the most adverse of times. These results confirm that we are moving in the right direction and encourage us to continue working towards leading sustainability within the sector". - Ramón Aragonés, CEO of NH Hotel Group, 

Additionally, the NH Hotel Group, part of Minor Hotels has maintained recognition as a top performer within the hospitality industry. They are among the 25,000 hotels that have endeavoured to establish a standard definition of hotel sustainability, this will be launched in March 2022 to drive responsible travel & tourism. The framework will provide a common ground starting point for hotels to begin their sustainability journey. The information will be easily accessible for hotels around the world, regardless of whether they are a large corporation or independent hotel. Furthermore, a recent internal training has been made mandatory for all employees on Environmental Awareness.

Green Key partners with Greener Guest to help businesses source ethical and sustainable hospitality supplies

Green Key partners with Greener Guest as they aim to bring together the worlds’ largest marketplace exclusively for ethical and sustainable hospitality supplies.

Greener Guest is an online store which supplies hospitality businesses with ethical and sustainable items and arms them with the information they need to transform the sustainability of their operations.

Next to their online shop, Greener Guest provides advice, tips and information regarding sustainable actions to reduce single-use plastic, whilst providing a variety of products with transparent descriptions. This provides a practical solution for hospitality organisations in order to be more conscious of the products they purchase whilst also being able to save time and money. Examples of informed decision-making include being aware of where materials and products are sourced from, how products and packaging can be appropriately disposed of and being aware of the rights of the workers in the supply chain. 

Greener Guest do not see themselves as solely an e-commerce platform for sustainable products, as they also consistently encourage their users to review their purchasing behaviour and to consider implementing more efficient processes instead of using products to prevent unnecessary waste. Additionally, they offer a knowledge hub with downloadable resources e.g. standard operating procedure templates which businesses can use to switch from single-use to reusable products.

Green Key is proud to partner with Greener Guest as we hope to implement sustainability into hospitality businesses together. Similarly Greener Guest states:

“Greener Guest are delighted to be partnering with Green Key and look forward to sharing our expertise and insight with members through a series of webinars and by offering special discounts on loads of great products across our site”.

For more information, please visit their website at: https://www.greenerguest.com/

FEE member organisation takes on Green Key programme in Japan

The Japan Alliance of Responsible Travel Agencies (JARTA), the new Green Key National Operator for Japan, is an organisation that is committed to delivering high-quality tourism products and services.

“Japan Alliance of Responsible Travel Agencies, JARTA, is thrilled to be a part of the FEE global family. As we are growing steadily with the members comprising travel agencies, tour operators, and other interested parties in the tourism industry, there is also an increase in demand to seek reliable and like-minded accommodation facilities that unite all of us under the name of responsible and sustainable tourism.” says Masaru Takayama, Green Key National Operator for Japan.

He adds: “We see huge opportunities in working with the Green Key programme as welcoming more responsible travellers is now the national agenda. In addition, Japan boasts of having 35,558 km of coastlines, the 6th longest in the world. We feel responsible to keep our beaches and marinas/ports clean as the oceans and seas have been supporting our diet for thousands of years. Should you plan to travel to Japan, do not hesitate to contact us because our members can offer a unique and responsible holiday that you have always been dreaming of.” says Masaru Takayama from JARTA.

Finn Bolding Thomsen, Green Key International Director, highlights: “We are very happy to have the Japan Alliance of Responsible Travel Agencies as a FEE member organisation. Their work in the responsible tourism industry is important to us and makes JARTA a good fit as the entity responsible for the Green Key programme in Japan. We believe Japan is a remarkable country which needs to be protected and it is vital that the hospitality industry contributes to the responsible actions in Japan through Green Key.”

For more information about Green Key in Japan, please contact the Green Key National Operator, JARTA, Masaru Takayama via phone: +81(0)75-406-7700, e-mail: takayama@eco-tourism.jp or through an online form on their website: https://jarta.org/en/

Green Key accredited Marriott hotel outlines their current sustainable practices and links with the net-zero campaign

The general manager Mr. Franco Vella of the Sheraton Tel Aviv hotel in Israel shares his experience implementing sustainable practices throughout the hotel and how this supports the recently announced Marriott Net-Zero campaign.

What influence will the net-zero target have for your hotel (which changes do you foresee and when)?

We are already doing a lot of eco-conscious initiatives in the hotel, so this is a continuation for us as we are not starting from the bottom. In 2017 we started renovations to become more sustainable; this included changing all the pipe-works so there is no loss of energy if the pipes were old or damaged, plus changing windows to keep heat in. Additionally, we changed to IPM to reduce our consumption of electricity so it is sourced from cleaner methods. Furthermore installing VRF units to use air-conditioning exclusively in areas where it is needed to control the consumption. As well as installing energy-efficient lighting throughout the whole building which has been converted but also to ensure replacements are done to continue being eco-conscious. We also utilise solely already generated fuel for our hot water needs as we try to use the heat generated from air conditioning. Our kitchen equipment has begun to be adapted into more energy-efficient and this will be finalised by the end of the year. 

How can your work with Green Key support the net-zero target?

Green key is very important to us, Green Key advocates to ensure we are always improving our efforts and continuing to make environmentally conscious endeavours. We have stopped including guest utilities in bathrooms and our suppliers do not use any single-use plastics, to ensure the item inside is still sustainable and not plastic and rather a tear box is used to confirm to the guest the product has not been used previously for Covid-19 reasons. We have likewise eliminated plastic water bottles and instead are using glass bottles which we send back to a partner organisation to be refilled. A new project we are working on involves the installation of electric scooters which are run through an app that allows guests to take a tour and so the guests will not use public transport but the tour can take them to areas which large bus tours usually cannot reach. 

As a result of working with the net-zero target, what differences will guests experience at your hotel and how will the local community be involved?

As previously mentioned, this is a continuous process for us, a priority is also that we try to minimise the impact on the guest. With the introduction of glass water bottles, the guests initially complained about not receiving a plastic bottle, however as we explained our reasoning and the importance of the change they understood and were fine with it. We think it is important to inform and try to change the guest's habits and perspective, the guests appreciate the changes we make and know this will be a positive impact on the environment.

We also sell any unused furniture which is in good condition and is sold to community centres so people with different needs are still able to utilise the furniture. An example is that we donated a substantial amount of furniture to an organisation looking after soldiers with PTSD so they can gather together. This also helps the hotel as the furniture which is sold to larger companies, the funds received from the sale is used to assist their associates if they are dealing with any difficulties. 

For more information contact: National Operator for Israel; michal@ecoocean.com

Google announces travel feature to improve the booking experience for eco-conscious travellers

Google has added a new feature to its travel site, making it possible to see whether a hotel is eco-certified or not. Green Key is one of the certification programmes used by Google Travel.

The feature allows tourists to distinguish whether a hotel is committed to contributing towards sustainable methods, the hotel is aware of their environmental impact and take responsibility and participate in sustainable practices.

Whilst searching on Google Travel for a hotel to stay in, the options on the list displayed will show a tag that states "eco-certified" next to a green leaf. This leads to travellers being able to identify hotels that take upon sustainable efforts and practices.

However, not all eco-certified hotels are featured as the tool is optional for hotels that opt-in to self-reporting. The eco-certified establishments would need to adhere to a set of practices provided through an accredited independent organisation such as Green Key.

How to use the feature:

1. On google.com/travel, search for hotels.

2. Select a hotel with an "eco-certified" label.

3. On the hotel's detail page, select the About tab.

4. Scroll down to the "Sustainability" section.

5. Find hotels with sustainability practices.

Nevertheless, it is essential to note that not all establishments participating in sustainable practices are also eco-certified. Google provides a list of twenty-nine reputable green programs, which the hotel selects the one applicable to them which they are contributing to alongside adhering to external on-site audits. Next hotel staff add the hotel to the listing through the free Google My Business Profile.

This new feature enables tourists who are mindful of their environmental impacts while travelling a simpler booking experience. Among travellers desiring further transparency against greenwashing, which has become increasingly popular alongside the desire to locate eco-friendly hotels, the new feature is anticipated to be well received from tourists.