First Green Key awarded hotel in Ethiopia

The Radisson Blu Hotel, Addis Ababa is the first Green Key awarded establishment in Ethiopia, raising the number of participating countries to 58!

Copyright Radisson Blu Hotel, Addis Ababa

Radisson Blu Hotel in Addis Ababa is centrally located within Ethiopia’s capital city—adjacent to the United Nations Compound and 6 kilometers from Bole International Airport. The hotel is also a short distance from the city’s main points of interest, such as the Imperial Palace, Meskel Square and Holy Trinity Cathedral.

The hotel has many great social and environmental initiatives such as donating unused linen and clothes to an orphanage, supporting a retirement home and engaging guests in tree planting activities. Furthermore, over 95% of the food and beverages in the hotel are locally sourced.

Learn more about the hotel here

Copyright Radisson Blu Hotel, Addis Ababa

Copyright Radisson Blu Hotel, Addis Ababa

Folly Farm Adventure Park & Zoo having a high focus on communication and engagement of guests in its sustainability work

The Green Key awarded attraction in Wales has been upgrading its work with resource saving and has created an energy centre in its Jolly Barn attraction which looks into its biomass plant and informs guests about its sustainability initiatives and performance.

Folly Farm Adventure Park & Zoo, located in the Pembrokeshire region of Wales, was named the 10th best zoo in the world by TripAdvisor in the 2017 Travellers’ Choice Awards.

Folly Farm is not only focusing on being a fun location to spend your day. The attraction has been awarded with the Green Key since 2016 as recognition of its outstanding performance in the saving of energy and water resources, high level of waste separation and its excellent environmental information.

Folly Farm is actively informing guests about its environmental performance through large signs in the energy centre, and encourages guests to participate in waste separation through fun-looking bin stations.  

“We’re delighted to have been recongnised by Green Key since 2016 for our commitment to sustainability. Our ‘Working for the Future’ group has worked hard to introduce a number of waste reduction and energy saving initiatives and this award recognises their hard work and the company’s commitment to green, sustainable energy.”

Folly Farm

For more information about Folly Farm Adventure Park & Zoo, please visit their website.

Interest for Green Key in Armenia

During a series of workshops held in Yerevan (Armenia) on 3-6 December 2018, participants from national authorities and a range of local B&Bs (Bed & Breakfast sites) expressed interest for Green Key 

The Green Key workshops in Armenia were organised by the consultancy company, Soluton, in cooperation with the SME DNC (Small and Medium Entrepreneurship Development National Center of Armenia) under the Ministry of Economic Development and Investments, and the workshops are kindly supported financially by GIZ, the German Corporation for International Cooperation “Private Sector Development and Technical Vocational Education and Training South Caucasus” Project. The Green Key International Director attended the workshops as well.

In the capital, Yerevan, most accommodations available are hotels, but accommodation in the countryside of Armenia is mainly covered by small B&Bs. Green Key in Armenia should therefore be focusing on attracting hotels as well as small accommodations to the programme.

Ahead of the workshops, surveys had been conducted among B&Bs in Armenia revealing interest for Green Key. This interest was confirmed during the workshop by the attending representatives from 11 B&Bs as well as by the Armenian B&B Association. The B&B owners stressed the importance to take local uniqueness into consideration.

Another workshop was held among national stakeholders with representatives from the public, private and NGO sector. Here it was stressed that it would be preferable to identify an Armenian NGO to be the national administrator of the Green Key programme in Armenia.

A training workshop was also held for individual trainers to facilitate the introduction of Green Key in Armenia by supporting the B&B owners with training on how to implement environmental standards at the individual businesses. 

Areg Karapetyan, CEO of Solution, says: “I am happy to know the positive outcome of the workshops and Soluton will work on the next steps, including the establishment of an Armenian Green Key office and the introduction of the programme to hotels and B&Bs in Armenia.”

Finn Bolding Thomsen, Green Key International Director, adds: “It is a pleasure to be invited to Armenia to experience first-hand the welcome of Green Key as a possible suitable initiative for Armenia and the wider region. I will be looking forward to continue the cooperation.”

The Radisson Blu Hotel, Kyiv Podil creates art with plastic straws

The Radisson Blu Hotel in Kyiv-Podil, Ukraine has found a creative way for reusing their unused plastic straws by creating a work of art.

Copyright: Radisson Blu Hotel, Kyiv-Podil

When implementing Radisson Hotel Group’s campaign #RefusetheStraw the hotel wondered what they could do with the unused plastic straws that they had left in stock.

Instead of throwing them in the recycling bin, they found a local artist who created a sculpture of a seabird out of the straws. The original piece of art is now displayed in the lobby of the hotel to raise awareness on plastic pollution.

Mostly birds and sea animals suffer from plastics - they perceive it as a food, eat it, and die in terrible agony. Moreover, many birds are already on the verge of extinction and are included in the red book. It is a symbol of freedom, hope, new life, which must be protected.

- The Radisson Blu Hotel, Kyiv-Podil

Copyright: Radisson Blu Hotel, Kyiv-Podil

Copyright: Radisson Blu Hotel, Kyiv-Podil

Miskin Manor – a historical hotel with a green twist

Miskin Manor Country Hotel in Wales has been awarded with the Green Key for its work on introducing high sustainability standards in a historical manor without compromising the exclusive feeling of the establishment.

Miskin Manor Country Hotel has a rich history stretching back to the 10th century. Since 1996, the place has been a carefully restored family-run hotel with attention to details in respect of the heritage of the building, surrounding garden and landscape. Today, Miskin Manor Country Hotel is a four-star hotel with 42 unique bedrooms, an award winning restaurant and 25 acres of beautiful garden surrounding the establishment.

Miskin Manor Country Hotel has recently been awarded with the Green Key as the first hotel in South East Wales due to its work with its sustainability performance. The light bulbs have been changed to LED light, the water flow in taps and showers are reduced, the restaurant has a focus on products that are locally produced and the environmental work is communicated to guests in an environmental corner by the lobby.

“As a family we have always worked towards helping our environment for now and the future. It is wonderful that we now have recognition for the effort we are making and we will strive to maintain and improve.  Amongst many things we grow some of our own produce on site, produce water from our own borehole, keep bees and produce honey on site, installed energy efficient lighting throughout the hotel and recycle our waste. It is hoped that other business owners will join us in achieving Green Key throughout Wales.” - Amanda Rosenberg, Managing Director at Miskin Manor.

Nick Ashby, Welsh Green Key coordinator says: “We are proud to have Miskin Manor Country Hotel awarded with Green Key for its balance between history, luxury and sustainability”.

For more information about Miskin Manor Country Hotel, please visit their website.

XL Green Key Cartoon makes visitors curious about sustainability

The interactive science centre Hidrodoe in Herentals, Belgium came up with a creative and fun way to inform their guests about sustainability and Green Key.

At Hidrodoe, visitors can learn everything about water - from Roman baths to water in space -in a fun and interactive way. The science centre is an initiative of the Flemish water company Pidpa to raise awareness about the importance and value of water. The centre has more than 150 interactive exhibits, covering indoor and outdoor activities.

One of their newest additions is an XL Cartoon that shows the centre with all it’s environmental initiatives, for example their bee hotel, the electric bike charging station and the fair trade café. A Green Key logo on each of the illustrations indicates that this is part of their environmental agenda. At the same time, visitors learn about Green Key and it’s requirements. The creators compare the comic with the well-known “Where’s Wally” children illustrations.

Due to its high environmental ambitions and creative ways to engage visitors in environmental issues, Hidrodoe won the Belgian Energy and Environment award for Sustainable Education in 2018. Moreover, Hidrodoe has been Green Key awarded for 7 years in a row.

The Green Key Best practice winner A Cozinha por António Loreiro restaurant received a prestigious Michelin award

Located in the city of Guimarães (Portugal), Green Key awarded and the Best Practice winner A Cozinha por António Loreiro restaurant has recently been recognized with Michelin award. Michelin is the most famous and influential guide for the best restaurants.

In September 2018, Green Key announced the Loreiro restaurant as the number one in the annual Green Key Best Practice Competition, where the restaurant stood out not only with its excellent sustainable practices, but also with its successful guests’ involvement into sustainability related topics through various activities and events. For local community and children, the chef António Loureiro organized several workshops oriented on the benefits of local food, weekly food planning etc.

On 21 November 2018 at the Michelin Guide Gala in Pavilhão Carlos Lopes in Lisbon the restaurant was  awarded with the first Michelin star. António Loreiro is known by its outstanding commitment to create masterpieces from local or regional food and his striving towards zero waste. More than once he has been recognized as a leader in his business by multiple awards.

BookDifferent.com has launched the SME Travel Tool

The online booking and travel agency, Bookdifferent.com, has recently established an online tool for small and medium enterprises to motivatebusiness travelers to give preference to green accommodation.

The new booking tool aims to increase eco-friendly choices among customers of small and medium enterprises. The platform integrates accommodations with verified and evidence based indicators at the best price. BookDifferent.com has more than 1.4 million accommodations available in 60,000 destinations.

The booking tool promotes various CSR principles such as fairness and equality, respect for nature and environment, respect for local traditions and local economy. All accommodations that are eco-certified and socially repsonsible receive the “staygreencheck” mark that allows companies to select the greenest choice, and Green Key is among the ecolabels with the highest extent of the “staygreencheck” compliance.

Another way to check accommodations’ sustainability at Bookdifferent.com is to see their calculated carbon footprint, done through a statistical formula is based on the actual output of direct electricity consumption of accommodations and the country-specific energy production.

The SME Travel Tool can be used as part of the CSR policy for businesses suggesting them to include green travel scores to their yearly reporting.

Green Key is actively cooperating with Bookdifferent.com, and Green Key encourages all companies to use this tool in order to contribute towards more sustainable world.  

Growing interest for Green Key in Northern Ireland

Green Key Northern Ireland organised a “breakfast briefing” in Belfast with the participation of hotels and various tourism industry stakeholders to inform about the Green Key programme

The Green Key programme was launched in Northern Ireland earlier in 2018. To respond to the interest for the scheme from establishments and tourism industry stakeholders, Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful (the organisation managing Green Key in Northern Ireland) organised a “breakfast briefing” in Belfast on 8 November 2018.

At the event, the International Director of Green Key, Finn Bolding Thomsen, presented the programme in general, the criteria and application process, promotion and best practice examples from other establishments around the world having implemented Green Key.

The CEO of Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful, Ian Humphreys, explained that the launch of the Green Key programme is closely connected with the growing tourism in the country, and it is important that the growth is managed in a sustainable way.

Please visit www.keepnorthernirelandbeautiful.org for more information.