News May 2022

Green Key signs collaboration agreement with TripDoodler

Green Key International and the green-tech platform TripDoodler are joining synergies to empower conscious and curious tourists to make more sustainable travel decisions.

Credits: Magical Pond - https://www.magicalpond.com/en/

TripDoodler and Green Key recognise the increasing global interest of consumers in environmental certifications and how transparent and accessible information plays a crucial role in shaping the tourism and hospitality sector. That being so, there exists a need to invite travellers to become an active part of the solution. 

As part of this collaboration, travellers can now locate the Green Key certified establishments through the visual presentation of the Green Key logo on the TripDoodler platform. This new feature allows all certified establishments, including hotels, restaurants, or smaller accommodations, to claim their business on the TripDoodler app and get acknowledged by the travellers for their sustainability practices.

The sustainability practices integrated on the TripDoodler platform go beyond carbon emissions and enable travellers to rate up to 40 easily visible parameters of environmental, social-cultural, and economic sustainable tourism. As part of the rating process, the tourists are asked different questions such as “Does the hotel provide recycling bins?”, “Is the establishment run by female-led management?” or “Does the restaurant use local produce?”. To find the full list of parameters, visit TripDoodler’s Beta App here.  
 
The Green Key International Director, Finn Bolding Thomsen, and the CEO of TripDoodler, Josephine Piplits, highlight the importance of this collaboration:  

“With Green Key being a leading standard for environmental and sustainable operations within the tourism industry, we are happy to enter a partnership with TripDoodler to help support consumers on their decisions about sustainability and travel. Through this collaboration, travellers can now easily find Green Key certified accommodations on the TripDoodler platform, and certified establishments can benefit from accessing data on how customers perceive their sustainable actions". 
                                                       - Finn Bolding Thomsen, Green Key International Director 

“We are very excited to partner with Green Key and work closely together on translating all the great initiatives that are implemented throughout our industry into a language that every traveller can relate to and make new better decisions based on.”  

- Josephine Piplits, Founder & CEO, TripDoodler 

 

About TripDoodler 

TripDoodler is an online platform that empowers travellers to easily find, acknowledge, and share verified sustainable travel options, powered by a crowd-sourced certification. With a vision to make sustainable choices the easiest choice, TripDoodler aims to create the world’s largest searchable database of better travel choices, led by first-hand insights from globetrotters across the world. These insights further provide managerial comprehensions to the tourism establishments on how the travellers perceive their sustainable practices. Guided by the 2030 Agenda, TripDoodler offers an easy, independent, and trustworthy solution for travellers and businesses to assist them on their sustainability journeys.  

Booking.com reveals new travel trends in Sustainable Report

The international booking platform report compiles information from 30,000 travellers from 32 different countries and territories and analyses travellers’ behaviour and expectations with regard to sustainability.

Photo by Jamie Fenn on Unsplash

For the 7th consecutive year, Booking.com inquired thousands of its users about their travel choices. The results show an increasing interest in sustainability around the globe, at environmental, social, economic, and cultural levels.

According to the Sustainable Travel Report 2022, half of the global travellers admit that the alarming news on climate change has influenced them to pursue more sustainable choices when travelling. Almost half of the travellers inquired (46%) chose at least one sustainable accommodation during their travels last year. The main reasons for this choice were a willingness to reduce the impact on the environment, wanting to have a locally relevant experience and supporting sustainable accommodations that treat the community better.

The Booking.com report suggests that the demand for sustainable accommodations can grow soon, with 78% of respondents showing their intention of staying at a sustainable property throughout this year.

Despite the significant positive numbers, the Sustainable Travel Report 2022 of Booking.com also shows that there is still a large portion of travellers that hesitate to travel more sustainably, with the biggest reason being: not knowing that sustainable properties were an option (31%) and not knowing where to search for them (29%).

The report also shows that 54% of travellers want to filter their options when booking accommodation to select those with a sustainable certification.

In recent years, Booking.com has created a “Travel Sustainable Properties” filter to help travellers find certified accommodations. To know if an establishment is for example Green Key certified on Booking.com, you can use the filter, and then click on the property that you are interested in. Under the pricing list, you will find the “Travel Sustainable Property” information that the establishment is taking significant steps towards sustainability. Finally, by clicking “read more”, it is possible to confirm whether the accommodation is certified with FEE’s Green Key.


To read the full Booking.com report, click here.

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.