Green Key certified establishment joins group of climate partners in Denmark

The conference hotel Kolle Kolle is one of the organisations joining the Furesø Klimapartner working group. The project aims to encourage business owners in the Furesø municipality, in Hovedstaden, Denmark, to compromise with climate action and adopt strategies to reduce environmental impact. 

Located in the Furesø municipality, a few kilometres of distance from the Danish capital, the Kolle Kolle hotel has long been a Green Key certified establishment. Inside the conference hotel, attention is given to food waste, recycling, and knowledge sharing about sustainability issues between staff and guests.  More recently, Kolle Kolle’s compromise with reducing its environmental impact has transcended the hotel's frontiers.

Since 2019, the establishment has been involved in the creation of Klimapartner, a project developed by several local businesses in collaboration with the Furesø municipality. Although the COVID-19 pandemic put the project on hold, the working group has now restarted the course of action. Inspired by SDGs 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) and 13 (Climate Action), the Klimapartner initiative hopes to involve local businesses and encourage them to share knowledge and work together in areas such as waste management, heat and energy supply and green mobility. The goal is to inspire all 4,000 companies in Furesø to take action against climate change and join efforts as a community.

The general manager of Kolle Kolle Berit K. Leth considers that the Klimapartner objectives align with the hotel’s goals of raising awareness of environmental issues:

KolleKolle sees Klimapartner as a very important task and we hope to contribute with ideas and knowledge, from our long history of working with environmental issues and most important our membership of Green Key. We hope to be able to help other companies in our local community with environmental questions and how they can turn even small things into reality. We of course also hope to get new ideas and knowledge, which can contribute to our never-ending work to improve KolleKolle’s contribution to a greener world.

Green Key International praises Kolle Kolle’s efforts and compromise toward a more sustainable hospitality world. Visit Kolle Kolle’s website to learn more about its sustainability actions.

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.