Ecolab & Green Key move forward on their partnership to support hotels & restaurants, reaching their sustainability goals

According to a survey requested by the European Commission, 82% of European citizens are prepared to change at least some of their travel and tourism habits towards being more sustainable. On that account, Green Key and Ecolab decided to continue their partnership to promote sustainability in the industry.

© Ecolab

Ecolab helps solving the world’s greatest water, food, health, and climate challenges through its commitment to protect the environment, address social concerns and adhere to responsible policies and practices. Therefore, the company is protecting what’s vital for our survival and enables the best outcomes for people, the planet, and business health at the highest return.

Green Key’s partnership with Ecolab will promote the use of sustainable solutions in hotels and restaurants worldwide. This should help tourism establishments to achieve their sustainability goals and achieve Green Key certification.

Philippe Meunier, Senior Marketing Sustainability Manager Institutional Europe, Ecolab, comments on the cooperation agreement with Green Key:

“I am excited to see the collaboration with Green Key moving forward as we share the same vision on the importance of reducing the total impact of hotels & restaurants. Ecolab can do so much in that respect to help them. “

Through programs and services that provide an unmatched value to companies, such as the reduction of water, and energy consumption, as well as the CO2 footprint, Ecolab will support the effort of the hospitality industry to implement the highest sustainability standards.

Green Key International Director, Finn Bolding Thomsen adds:

“We are happy to, once more, sign the partnership with Ecolab. This will help us to increase the awareness of Green Key certificates and sustainable development within the hospitality and tourism industry and gives us a possibility to further work towards a more sustainable future.”

Soraya Hlila, Senior Vice President & General Manager, Institutional Europe at Ecolab comments by saying:

“At Ecolab, we are protecting what’s vital, planet health and people health. Through our partnership with Green Key, we can help hospitality businesses achieve the highest sustainability standards”

About Ecolab

A trusted partner at nearly three million customer locations, Ecolab (ECL) is the global leader in water, hygiene, and infection prevention solutions and services that help protect people, the planet, and business health. With annual sales of $13 billion and more than 47,000 associates, Ecolab delivers comprehensive science-based solutions, data-driven insights, and world-class service to advance food safety, help maintain clean and safe environments, optimize water and energy use, and improve operational efficiencies and sustainability for customers in the food, healthcare, hospitality and industrial markets in more than 170 countries around the world.

To learn more about Ecolab’s sustainability commitments and achievements, click here.

Green Key Members Supporting Running Out of Time

Launched in Glasgow, Scotland on 30 September, Running Out of Time, the world’s longest relay, ended in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt on 8 November after covering 7,767 kilometres and 18 countries.

© Green Key Netherlands

Team members of Green Key Netherlands running part of the stage in Running Out of Time and handing over the baton at Green Key certified Van der Valk Hotel Venlo.

The relay crossed the finish line on 8 November together with the baton, which included a message to the world leaders at COP 27 demanding quality climate education for all. Over the past 40 days, several Green Key members and certified establishments have supported the relay and the message in the baton by hosting baton handovers, running stages of the relay and offering the relay’s Support Crew a good night’s sleep!

Erik van Dijk who is a National Operator of the Green Key and Blue Flag programme in the Netherlands, shared why he decided to support the Running Out of Time:

“When I heard about Running Out of Time, I was immediately enthusiastic. I called some of our Green Key certified establishments and Blue Flag awarded sites in the southern part of the country. Eight of them were also enthusiastic and they offered their support and hospitality. Even my colleagues, Laska and Johan, were participating and running a part in the relay. It was wonderful to see the baton in Brussels, its handover at a marina in the Netherlands and the end at the COP27 in Sharm El Sheik. I am proud to be a part of FEE, an organisation where people care. And even more proud, that part of my daily work is to help entrepreneurs in hospitality, beaches and marinas to make their business more sustainable.”

We would like to thank the Green Key members around the world as well as the Green Key certified establishments and their teams who took part in the run and supported this amazing initiative! A special thanks to:

• Keep Scotland Beautiful – runs the Green Key programme in Scotland and the first Green Key certified hotel in Scotland, Radisson RED in Glasgow hosted the prelaunch event in Glasgow, and provided rooms for the Support Crew of Running Out of Time.

• Keep Britain Tidy, which is responsible for Green Key England and helped to recruit runners and increase the awareness about Running Out of Time.

• Keep Wales Tidy, runs the Green Key programme in Wales and their team who helped carry the baton while cycling during the relay.

• GoodPlanet Belgium responsible for Green Key Belgium has been supporting sustainable development in Belgium for over 20 years and this time, once again, supported this amazing initiative for the climate education by organizing a special baton handover event with the European Commission and former FEE President, Jan Eriksen.

• Green Key Netherlands who not only helped to involve multiple  Green Key certified establishments in the relay but also helped run and cycle the baton to Germany! The following establishments supported the Running Out of Time: Boutique Hotel The Roosevelt, Molecaten Park Wijde Blick. Suite Hotel Pincoffs, Hotel Central in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Van der Valk Hotel Venlo and De Maaspoort Theater & Events.

• FEE’s member in Germany, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Umwelterziehung (DGU), whose board member Jens Hepper attended the special baton handover event at the UNFCCC Headquarters in Bon.

• Environmental Consultancy of Montenegro (ECOM), running the Green Key programme in Montenegro helped to spread the word about the Running Out of Time and increased awareness about climate action and climate education.

• Hellenic Society for the Protection of Nature (HSPN) in Greece together with the Vice President of FEE and President of HSPN Nikos Petrou, who helped with the baton handover in Greece and to spread the word about message in the baton. Moreover, Green Key certified establishments, specifically the Mediterranean Village, Grecotel Larissa Imperial, Mitsis Galini Wellness Spa & Resort and Anastasia Hotel hosted the relay’s Support Crew and Fissi Villas from Agios Nikolaos supported Running Out of Time with a donation.

• Cyprus Marine Environment Protection Association (CYMEPA), FEE’s member in Cyprus that helped to move the baton through Cyprus to Israel.

• And finally, EcoOcean in Israel who helped to recruit hundreds of runners and cyclists, organized incredible handover events and made it possible to get the baton to its final stages in Egypt.  

The Baton Message was handed to the world leaders at COP27 at the UNESCO Pavilion on 8 November. You can read more about its journey here and you can still support the message here.

Discount to help Scotland’s smaller tourism establishments access eco-certificate

Green Key offers a chance to secure environmental improvements and financial savings to smaller tourism establishments in Scotland.

Scotland’s smaller tourism and hospitality establishments are encouraged to find out how a leading international sustainability programme, Green Key, can help them to secure year-on-year environmental improvements, financial savings and attract customers who are increasingly seeking out sustainable options.

Environmental charity Keep Scotland Beautiful is working with VisitScotland to give smaller and medium tourism establishments the chance to join Green Key with a discount of £500 off the first year of membership. The funding is part of VisitScotland’s Sustainability Certification Scheme Fund for Tourism Recovery, and the Destination Net Zero Programme. The discount is available for ten micro, small and SME businesses until March 2023, on a first come first served basis.

Lyn Donnelly, Senior Responsible Tourism Manager at VisitScotland, comments on the special discount offered to smaller tourism establishments:

“Visitors are becoming increasingly aware of their impact on the world around them. We want to support their desire to be environmentally conscious by equipping those within the tourism industry with the knowledge and understanding of how their business can meet these needs, reduce their own operational costs, and preserve and enhance Scotland’s natural surroundings, all at the same time.”

Through Green Key, Keep Scotland Beautiful, the national operator for the certification programme in Scotland, offers a comprehensive in-person audit of premises and additional support to help tourism establishments achieve year-on-year environmental improvements and reduce climate-change-causing greenhouse gas emissions.

The Green Key audit also provides an ideal opportunity to access advice on how to make financial savings, such as through more efficient use of energy and resources - vital with the current rise of operating costs.

With the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow last year has put a spotlight on sustainability in Scotland’s tourism sector, Green Key provides a way to help businesses showcase their green credentials to a large pool of environmentally conscious consumers.

Moreover, Barry Fisher, Chief Executive of Keep Scotland Beautiful, says:

“We’ve been delighted to receive interest in Green Key from a variety of large hotels and attractions, with Radisson Red becoming the first we’ve supported to receive accreditation. Now we are delighted to work with Visit Scotland and offer smaller businesses the chance to access the multiple benefits of Green Key for a reduced price.”

Finn Bolding Thomsen, International Green Key Director at Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE) also adds:

“Internationally recognised, the Green Key programme is open to a variety of tourism establishments - from small accommodations to large hotel facilities. We are very appreciative of VisitScotland for supporting Keep Scotland Beautiful in offering a discount for SME establishments in Scotland wishing to join the Green Key programme.”

To help prospective Green Key applicants find out more about the initiative and the discount Keep Scotland Beautiful will be running a Green Key webinar on 10 January 2023.     

Find out more and register for Green Key information webinars here.

Biodiversity Preservation in Green Key certified Hyvärilä Youth Centre Nurmes, Finland

Sustainability is a core component of the Hyvärila Youth Centre, which holds a Green Key certification, reflecting the centre’s standard of excellence in environmental responsibility and its awareness of its own environmental impacts.

© Hyvärilä Youth Centre Nurmes, Finland

In January 2021, the Youth Centre launched its Wildflower Meadow project, which involved planting a wildflower meadow near the Youth Centre as part of a larger biodiversity preservation project. Staff from the centre, the Association of Women in Agriculture and Housekeeping of Eastern Finland, the Association for Rural Culture and Education and the Environmental School of Finland all came together to support this initiative, providing local expertise and helping hands.

Planted using native Finnish species and species from the local area, the new wildflower meadow provides an excellent outdoor area for non-formal learning and is currently used to host biodiversity lessons for the youth centre visitors.

Wildflower meadows are a crucial habitat for many animal species. The diversity of wildflowers provides food and shelter to hundreds of insects, including pollinators, which, in turn, supports mammals and birds. Besides the planting of a wildflower meadow, the Hyvärila Youth Centre also worked closely with the local community and youth visitors to host a series of very successful insect hotel-building workshops, which will be repeated given their popularity. While only in its second year, the project serves to promote positive actions that individuals can take to preserve the natural habitat of local pollinating species and smaller animals.

The learning activities in connection with the planting of the wildflower meadow have also been used to teach about the importance of maintaining and preserving Finnish traditions and cultural landscapes. Co-funded by the European Solidarity Corps Programme, in the next five years the project aims to involve at least 70 local and international volunteers , teaching about how to grow meadows, and maintain them using traditional techniques. This includes learning about the use of traditional tools such a scythe, as well as the process of hay making. Participating in an annual flea market in North Karelia, the Youth Centre hosted an event, helping revive the Finnish tradition of “Haymaking Talkoot” – a community-based event which involves gathering local people to help complete a large task that needs doing, such as haymaking, cleaning or building something.

© Hyvärilä Youth Centre Nurmes, Finland

Launched in 2021, a programme by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration is a ‘rallying call for the protection and revival of ecosystems all around the world, for the benefit of people and nature’. Local youth and community-based projects such as the one from Hyvärilä Youth Centre play an important role in maintaining and teaching about local biodiversity and ecosystems. Overall, restoration of such wildflower meadows is essential to helping achieve the UN Decade’s goals and combating insect and pollinator decline worldwide.

If you would like to learn more about the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration and how you can get involved, please visit the following link.

This article is part of our UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration series which highlights the projects and activities of FEE members that contribute to the UN Decade.

The Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE) signed the Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism

Together with its tourism programmes, Blue Flag and Green Key, FEE is committed to creating action plans that can help reduce climate change and limit the negative impacts of tourism.

© UNWTO

The Glasgow Declaration is a voluntary commitment aiming to combat climate change in tourism. The Declaration is initiated by UNWTO in collaboration with the Travel Foundation and was launched at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in November 2021. The Foundation for Environmental Education signed the declaration in May 2022, and agreed to various commitments, such as:

• To support the global commitment to halve emissions by 2030 and reach Net Zero as soon as possible before 2050.

• To deliver climate action plans and publicly report on their progress within the 12 months from the day of becoming a signatory.

• To align future plans with the five pathways of the Declaration (Measure, Decarbonise, Regenerate, Collaborate and Finance) and to report on their progress publicly on annual basis.

FEE will promote the Glasgow Declaration through its tourism-related programmes, Blue Flag and Green Key, which should encourage other tourism organisations to become signatories of the Glasgow Declaration as well. Promotion of the Glasgow Declaration within the wide network of both tourism programmes can help to reach the goal of Declaration and build a better future.  

Blue Flag and Green Key will also work on their climate action plans and further develop their list of criteria, so that they can align with the five pathways of the Declaration.

In addition, both programmes will systematically promote the use of the Global Forest Fund by organisations and individual tourists visiting Blue Flag awarded sites and Green Key certified establishments to compensate for travel emissions in the hospitality and tourism sectors, which aligns with the collaboration pathway of the Glasgow Declaration.

Furthermore, FEE is updating its Travel Policy and Planning document to incorporate ways for the organisation to decrease its travel-based emissions to align with the Declaration’s collaboration pathway and to accelerate and coordinate climate action in tourism.

Supporting the global commitment to halve emissions by 2030 and reach Net Zero as soon as possible before 2050, is an important step for FEE which is supported by the words of the International Green Key Director, Finn Bolding Thomsen:

“Becoming a signatory of the Glasgow Declaration shows the FEE’s commitment and desire to make a change in the tourism industry. This commitment is especially essential for the FEE and its programmes, as it aligns with our internal GAIA 20:30 Strategy, addressing the three burning environmental problems, where climate change is one of them. In the Green Key programme, we will raise awareness on climate change education to support climate action in tourism.”

© UNWTO Glasgow Declaration on Climate action in Tourism

To learn more about the Glasgow Declaration, click here.

Hapimag Sea Garden Resort, certified with Green Key, shares its waste management best practice

Hapimag Sea Garden Resort near the city of Bodrum in Turkey/Türkiye has been continuously working on the development of new nature-inspired solutions, and they did the same this time, by implementing new waste management system.

© Hapimag Sea Garden Resort, Bodrum

Hapimag Sea Garden Resort has been continuously Green Key certified since 2015. The establishment has developed a new waste management system by implementing new waste collection points and sustainable waste containers in the area of the resort. 

Kerem Demirkol, the Director of Hapimag Resort Operations for Turkey/Türkiye, Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands, explains more:

"When we look at our nearly 30-years history, we have always implemented sustainability. We have been implementing the zero-waste system for the last 4 years. We sort the waste at the source and bring it to the temporary waste collection point that was created in the hotel area which is afterwards delivered to the licensed company. By separating the organic food waste from the liquids, we deliver nearly 300 kg every week for the "food for street animals" project, which we have done in cooperation with the municipality.”

© Hapimag Sea Garden Resort, Bodrum

In order to effectively separate the waste, the establishment provides various trainings to its personnel such as waste separation training and efficient waste disposal. In this way, the establishment tries to make a difference, minimize the impact on the environment and save natural resources. This then helps to preserve the beauty of the nature, which plays a big role for the establishment and follows their philosophy of “luxury is in the nature”.

However, effective waste management is only one of the actions that Hapimag Sea Garden Resort implemented to lower its impact on the environment. Another action is the support of the local producers, using their products, and promoting their services. Most of the meals prepared at the hotel are made with the use of local organic products or grown in the hotel’s own greenhouse. On the other hand, because Bodrum city is rich in terms of traditional handicrafts, Hapimag Sea Garden Resort focuses on social development and support of the local traditions to preserve the cultural heritage from the area.

Kerem Demirkol added: “We brought the producers together with our guests from all over the world, enabling them to perform their art and exhibit their products such as carpets they weave. Our most important goal is to transfer this spiritual heritage to future generations. We see every motif woven here as a value thrown into the spiritual treasure of our children.”

With its sustainability goals, Hapimag Sea Garden Resort contributes to the support not only of the nature but also the local people and cultural heritage.

Read more about Hapimag Sea Garden Resort, Bodrum here.