Green Key and Travel Without Plastic are proud to announce a new cooperation agreement aimed at promoting and facilitating plastic reduction without compromising the guest experience or health and safety expectations.
Travel Without Plastic is a social enterprise that supports hotels and other accommodation businesses with practical, cost-effective solutions to reducing or eliminating single-use plastics from their operations. The initiative was founded in 2017 by Jo Hendrickx and Rachel McCaffery, who have over 40 years of combined experience in the tourism industry - including health and safety auditing, sustainability auditing and implementing quality assurance programmes within hotels.
The “Let’s Reduce Single-Use” toolkit created by the Travel Without Plastic team has helped hundreds of hotels transition towards sustainability. The toolkit contains straightforward guides that clearly explain how hospitality businesses can balance plastic reduction with practical concerns such as cost, customer expectations and health and safety considerations. Travel Without Plastic also offers personalised support, workshops, Litter Pick Kits and an interactive e-learning platform to guide hotels throughout their sustainable journey.
The partnership between Green Key and Travel Without Plastic will boost efforts to reduce and eliminate the use of single-use plastics in the over 3,200 Green Key establishments in 65 countries around the world. Green Key awarded establishments will have the opportunity to access Travel Without Plastic’s toolkit at a discounted rate, and will be invited to engage the initiative’s other online learning materials and training sessions.
Green Key and Travel Without Plastic recognise that, due to health and safety concerns, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a negative impact on the tourism sector’s efforts to phase out single-use plastics. At the same time, they agree that sustainability should not be neglected as tourism establishments re-open, and want to amplify the message that there are sustainable alternatives that comply with the new hygiene standards. To that end, Green Key and Travel Without Plastic will host a joint webinar on how establishments can transition to sustainable plastic alternatives during and after the pandemic.
Please visit the website of Travel Without Plastic for more information: www.travelwithoutplastic.com.