Looking for sustainable initiatives for your hotel or hostel?
Keep on reading this good practice to discover an interesting choice for hospitality businesses to support ongoing green projects, while involving guests and employees in a meaningful experience, where they can see the concrete impact of their choices.
Picture courtesy of Kapellerput Hotel
The benefits of charity
If you and your business care about the impacts of the hospitality industry on the environment and society, you may want to help mitigate the negative effects. However, if you are not an environmental specialist, you might ask yourself ‘How do I do it?’
Kapellerput Hotel and Conferentiehotel Kontakt der Kontinenten, both Green Key certified hotels from the Netherlands, have shared their solution to maximise the positive impact of their charity efforts and turn it into awareness-raising experiences for the guests and staff:
contributing to the (re)forestation projects through the Hotels for Trees initiative.
An opportunity
"Hotels for Trees is a non-profit initiative that invites guests to actively participate in the hotel's commitment to sustainability. Guests staying multiple nights at a participating hotel can choose to skip the daily cleaning service, thereby saving resources and contributing to the planting of a tree instead!"
Tree planting is an initiative that contributes to the environment in multiple ways:
Trees remove the carbon from the atmosphere, one of the main drivers and causes of climate change and global warming.
Planting native tree species helps preserve and sustain endangered ecosystems.
New trees fight with deforestation and desertification and offer green areas for people around the world to enjoy.
More trees and bushes can help restore dunes and protect coastal areas from floods.
More Trees will improve water management and increase biodiversity
The programme
Hotels for Trees is a free programme that any hotel can easily join without obligations. From the guest’s perspective the process works as follows:
Upon arrival, guests are informed about the initiative: during their stay, each day they have an option to put a designated Hotels for Trees door hanger outside of their room.
If the hanger is on the door, the housekeeping team skips the daily cleaning for the guest.
That information is then entered into an online platform. The next day, the guest can see that the ‘Planted trees’ counter on the hotel’s website has been updated - now, thanks to their choice, a new tree will be planted.
Once per month, a hotel receives an invoice in accordance with the number of trees planted. All donations from the hotels are spent on (re-)forestation projects across the globe or used for running and growing Hotels for Trees.
With each donation, a certificate is given, stating exactly which trees in which projects have been made possible by the joint donation of the hotels. However, the initiative does not end here!
Involving other stakeholders
Shortly after the launch of Hotels for Trees, another opportunity was unveiled: many hotels rent out their spaces for business meetings, conferences, and events. However, these guests often do not stay overnight. A sub-label program “Meetings for Trees” was then invented, to allow hotels to engage with their other stakeholders.
With the fixed cost of 5 EUR per tree, meeting organisers are approached with an opportunity to partially compensate the carbon emissions related to their event, and plant new trees through the Meetings for Trees initiative.
Picture courtesy of Kapellerput Hotel
Numbers from the network
Kapellerput Hotel, in Eindhoven, extends the opportunity to donate 5 EUR and plant a tree to one-night guests. Even though there is no possibility to skip the daily cleaning, hotel guests can still get involved and have their share in the tree planting initiative. As a result, the hotel has planted over 2,600 trees in total.
As of July 2024, Conferentiehotel Kontakt der Kontinenten has funded 3, 167 trees through the Hotel for Trees and 444 trees through Meetings for Trees.
Hidden value
So, in how many ways can Hotels for Trees help your establishment make a tangible impact on the environment and engage your staff and guests? The benefits include:
contributing to reforestation projects that combat climate change;
reducing the pressure on the housekeeping team and improve company culture;
creating memorable guest experiences thanks to the interactive component of planting new trees;
promoting environmentally-conscious tourism among the various stakeholders;
Hotels that are based in The Netherlands or Belgium have the opportunity to plant the trees with their own hands;
Hotels for Trees has a Dutch ANBI status (special charity trademark including tax benefits for people from Europe who donate).
Top tips:
Kapellerput Hotel gifts their staff new trees as a sustainable birthday gift - why not follow this idea and combine employee recognition with helping the planet?
Donations are not ‘just an easy way’, but a ‘smart way’ to increase your sustainable efforts - cooperate and use the expertise of others to drive positive change and support ongoing projects.
Help all your stakeholders to become part of the initiative - be creative and look out for small actions that make an impact.
Picture courtesy of Hotels For Trees
About Hotels for Trees
Hotels for Trees is a non profit foundation established in May 2021. Hotels for Trees started in the Netherlands and has rapidly expanded in Europe since 2022. A separate entity is established in Australia and North America. Currently Hotels for Trees is active in 30 different countries and has planted over 400.000 trees. Their goal is to expand their operation across the globe in the years to come, whereby they aim to plant at least 1 million trees per year as of 2026, together with their partners.
Hotels for Trees collaborates with many industry partners to achieve this goal. As Founding Partner Blycolin is financially supporting Hotels for Trees’ growth across Europe and PMS partner Mews offers the “industry first” sustainable addition to their online check-in module and a full integration with the Hotels for Trees Dashboard.
Hotels for Trees is not linked to any specific country, brand, hotel chain, hotel size or star rating. Anyone can join!