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.

Radisson is the first hotel chain to make meetings and events carbon negative

The Radisson Hotel Group has shared some of its most significant responsible initiatives for 2021.

Radisson Collection Hotel in Georgia

In 2019, the Green Key partner had already set high standards for sustainability after deciding to offset the carbon footprint for every meeting and event from its hotels at a global level. In 2021, the Radisson group achieved a new benchmark by offsetting twice the CO2 emissions from all the events and meetings across more than 400 hotels in their EMEA portfolio, becoming the first hotel chain in the world to make its events and meetings carbon negative. According to the hotel group, the initiative that started in 2019 has allowed for offsetting more than 30,000 tons of CO2, equivalent to taking more than 6,500 fuel-powered cars off the road.

Among other responsible initiatives, the Radisson Hotel Group has also developed two new partnerships that reinforce its position as a green mobility leader. The new collaborations with pan-European Allego and the Indian Sunfuel focus on bringing new electric vehicle options and stations across Radisson establishments in Europe and India. Furthermore, the Group has also compromised to reduce the surplus food from all of its hotels across Europe in an effort to reduce food waste.

At a global level, the Radisson Hotel Group is also one of the 25,000 hotels worldwide that support the creation of the Basic Sustainability Framework, currently being developed by the WTTC and the Sustainable Hospitality Alliance. This new framework will be announced in March 2022, and it aims to provide shared knowledge about sustainability and sustainable practices in hotels across the world.

With a new year ahead, the Global Senior Vice President Sustainability, Security and Corporate Communications for Radisson Hotel Group, Inge Huijbrechts, has reinforced the importance of continuing to develop responsible initiatives in Radisson hotels in 2022:

“[…] Sustainability is a top priority for our industry and our customers. At Radisson Hotel Group, we continue to work on our roadmap to Net Zero and are proud of the milestones we have realized in a challenging year for our industry. 2021 marked an opportunity to harness our focus on responsible business initiatives for both our Group and collectively for the hospitality industry. We look forward to another year of establishing strong strategic partnerships as we all work towards a responsible recovery and return of travel”.

More details of Radisson Hotel Group’s achievements can be read here.

Reduce your carbon footprint with the Global Forest Fund

Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE) has revamped the Global Forest Fund with a new calculator and platform allowing travelers to calculate and compensate for their carbon emission.

After nearly a decade of compensating for FEE’s own emissions this upgraded cutting-edge platform is now open to the public and other organisations interested in compensating for CO2 emissions. 

The Global Forest Fund aims to actively protect the environment through education and active tree-planting. It is a unique scheme to help individuals reduce their carbon footprint while providing valuable resources and education to communities worldwide.

Since 2008, the Global Forest Fund has been investing in tree planting events and environmental education activities, with more than €80,000 invested in over 120 projects worldwide.

Trustworthy and transparent, the Global Forest Fund platform makes a real and lasting impact. 90% of the funds goes directly to the projects while the remaining 10% goes to the administration at FEE.

Visit the Global Forest Fund website to know more about how to reduce your carbon footprint: help the world breathe!

Green Key guesthouse equipped with the latest green technology

Located in Snowdonia North Wales’ stunning landscape, this carbon neutral guest house is managed by one of the first people in the UK to put solar panels on the family home.

Since the beginning of this new business in 2006, the owners John and Celia placed sustainability at the heart of the project. Built in 1883, Bryn Elltyd now is equipped with some of the latest green technology thanks to the owner’s skills and experience as former aircraft engineer and technology teacher.

Bryn Elltyd Eco Guest House does not skimp on responsible practices to protect the natural environment. It is powered completely by renewable energy thanks to a computer run biomass boiler and two solar water heating arrays supplying the heating and electricity to the guest house. Moreover, this energy also powers three electric car charging points and a sauna. All this valuable heat is kept within the guesthouse thanks to external and internal insulation including sheep’s wool and two conservatories.

Seasonal fruit and vegetables are produced in an allotment where water comes from rainwater. Afterwards, 80% of the food and drinks are sourced from within 13 miles of the property. Guests cannot find more local free range eggs, sausages and bacon!

Bryn Elltyd is a central and ideal place for exploring Snowdonia and the rest of the North Wales. Consequently, its owners encourage visitors to use one of the many bike trails in the area to enjoy the Moelwyn mountains or the close hydro lake. This Green Key awarded establishment leaves nothing to chance!

The Hotel sector must cut Carbon Footprint by 90% to meet 2-degree climate threshold

The Hotel Global Decarbonisation Report by the International Tourism Partnership (ITP) states that the hotel sector must reduce its carbon footprint by 90% by 2050 in order to keep global warming below the 2-degree threshold agreed upon in the Paris Agreement.  

The Report by Greenview, commissioned by ITP, was published earlier in November, just before the start of COP23 (the 23rd session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Climate Change) taking place in Bonn, Germany, where the convening parties will further discuss how to meet the Paris Climate Agreement agreed upon at COP21.  The Report reveals the huge contribution hotels must make to help in the fight against climate change.

In order to manage the global increase in tourism over the coming decades, the hotel industry must reduce its absolute carbon emissions by 66% by 2030 and 90% by 2050, the Report states. The Hotel Global Decarbonisation Report was published to complement the September launch of ITP’s 4 Goals for 2030, which align the hotel sector’s sustainable activity with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also called the Global Goals. The ITP Goals focus on Carbon, Water, Youth Employment and Human Rights, which are core sustainability issues impacting responsible hospitality providers globally, and the goals are a carefully constructed and practically achievable response to these issues.

The threshold of 2 degrees is a quantifiable “science-based target”, which forms the basis of ITP’s Goal on Carbon:

To drive sustainable growth for the future, ITP members embrace the ambition of science-based targets* and encourage the wider industry to join their collaboration to develop carbon reductions at scale.

Fran Hughes, the Director of ITP, said at the announcement of the Report: “These figures are significant, but we believe they are achievable. They are representative of the level of reduction the whole hotel sector needs to make in order to decouple its growth, from growth in emissions. The reductions individual companies need to make may vary, dependent on where they are located and their infrastructure. That’s why we’re encouraging hotels to develop their own science-based target.

“The technology exists today to fully decarbonise the sector. Solving the issue of climate change becomes how to accelerate the solutions which are currently available. To do so, hotel industry leaders will need to support an evolution of thought and approach to make it happen through carbon pricing and how projects are financed.

“ITP’s members support our vision and our four ITP Goals which tackle carbon, water, youth unemployment and human rights. We are supporting our members with research and best practice sharing to build their capacity to develop science-based targets. Going forward we want to explore opportunities to collaborate where we can deliver carbon reductions at scale.”

Green Key awarded Radisson Blu Frankfurt is mentioned as a case study in the Report. 

Founder of Greenview, Eric Ricaurte, added:

“We all share one planetary KPI: 2-degree temperature rise or less. Now translating that to each industry and company, we can shift focus toward the opportunities to decarbonise while protecting what travellers value. No other sector like tourism will play a role in literally shaping the future of our world.”

* A Science-Based Target is one adopted by a company to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and is considered “science-based” if it is in line with the level of decarbonisation required to keep global temperature increase below 2°C. It is based in scientific research and evidence.

Source and Pictures: International Tourism Partnership