5 year celebration and award ceremony for Green Key Ukraine

On 30 March 2015, Ekologitschna Initsiativa, celebrated 5 years of Green Key in Ukraine. For the first time the Vice-Head of Kyiv Municipal Tourism Dept. attended the ceremony. Even in these difficult times there was a good atmosphere and a positive glance at the future.

During the ceremony the Green Key programme as well as the Blue Flag programme were discussed. There was an interesting discussion about a cooperation with companies producing LED lights and drones for the army. Minds were put together on how to use these products to make the tourism industry in Ukraine more sustainable. Military drones, for example, carry thermo-sensors (as well as many others types of sensors). So they have huge spectrum of applications – for example imaging thermal leaks from buildings. Hotels were very happy to see how this technology works and a first cooperation with one of the hotels was discussed to be launched.

At the ceremony Green Key certificates were granted to the Radisson-Kyiv and 3 Maison-Blanche eco-hotels as the traditional leaders.

The event was fully financed by Baccara Art hotel, another Green Key site in Ukraine.

Halting the loss of biodiversity – how sustainable tourism can contribute to the millennium goal

ECOTRANS provides a set of recommendations which highlight in detail how responsible tourism companies, destinations and tour operators can make a difference on their standards concerning biodiversity and thereby boosting their contribution to the promotion of species diversity. Green Key welcomes this initiative.

The indicator report 2014 of the Federal Statistical Office on “Sustainable Development in Germany” reveals that the topic of species diversity lags far behind targets, with an increase in recreational activities e.g. along coastal regions, aggravating the threat to ecosystems. The tourism sector in Germany has a range of opportunities to mitigate such threats and to contribute to the strengthening of biodiversity in coastal regions and mountainous areas, in the countryside as well as in urban environments. In this regard, standards on biodiversity in the more than 20 national and international certificates and awards for environmental responsible and sustainable tourism in Germany could make a difference.

The initiatives on biodiversity could include:

- clearly defined actions with regards to biodiversity
- strive to cover all fundamental aspects of biodiversity with the criteria
- follow the no-net-loss target
- determine their impacts on biodiversity
- offer training on biodiversity for certifiers and certified establishments

International Green Key director Finn Bolding Thomsen welcomes this initiative: “We will have new Green Key hotel criteria taking effect by mid-2016 and we will seek to include some CSR and biodiversity related criteria, add specifications in the explanatory notes to the new criteria and share best practice examples also related to biodiversity issues”. 

“Some of these best practice examples like the Areias do Seixo with their nature based offer in the central Oeste region in Portugal, the Hoeve De Schapenkop with their biodiversity teaching of children or the Botel Ophoven with their regional and organic food purchase in the Flanders region in Belgium, and also several hotels in Morocco with their staff training and local community activities show how well the Green Key programme and biodiversity go together”, says Herbert Hamele, director of Ecotrans. “We are looking forward to include such best practice examples from Green Key in our global Atlas of Excellence and in our Travel Green Germany Map on DestiNet.eu as valuable information sources for the growing list of committed tour operators, booking platforms and marketing organisations.  

Download PDF (700 KB): Biodiversity criteria in Tourism: Recommendations for standards,certificates and awards

Green Key entering a partnership with BookGreener

Green Key is happy to announce that it has entered a partnership with the online booking website, BookGreener.com.

For travellers looking for eco-experiences, BookGreener give access to the world’s green hotels - and for every booking made, BookGreener ensures the planting of a tree.

It was natural for Green Key International to team up with BookGreener, since both organisations aim at promoting hotels that are part of the solution not part of the problem, and that care about local communities and culture as well as wildlife conservation and the environment.

BookGreener is also growing a community-generated database of “hotSpots” – think spas, yoga retreats, health-food restaurants and children-friendly activities and destinations – all conveniently mapped so travellers know exactly what’s near their green hotel.

The BookGreener website is at an early stage and invite travelers to share hotspots they love and recommend sustainable hotels they have visited.

Green Key is recognised in a Memorandum of Understanding with the Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Association

Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Association (CHTA) recognises and supports the Blue Flag and Green Key programmes of FEE

CHTA and FEE have signed a Memorandum of Understanding recognising FEE’s Green Key and Blue Flag programmes in the Caribbean as well as CHTA’s sustainability initiatives. The document was signed on 29 January 2015 during the Caribbean Travel Marketplace. The Memorandum of Understanding between CHTA and FEE has been entered to recognise the hospitality and tourism sustainability initiatives in the Caribbean brought forward by FEE through the Green Key and Blue Flag programmes and by CHTA through the Caribbean Alliance for Sustainable Tourism (CAST) and programmes such as the Caribbean Hotel Energy Efficient Action (CHENACT) programme.

The Memorandum of Understanding provides a framework of cooperation with a view to contributing to more effective attainment of common objectives of both CHTA and FEE. Both organisations have agreed to a long-term cooperative relationship for the purpose of identifying and developing programmes and activities such as the Blue Flag and Green Key programmes as well as the initiatives developed by CHTA and CAST to attain common objectives on sustainable tourism and environmental education. This will include joint projects and activities on a regional level as well as local destination levels across the Caribbean.

The Memorandum of Understanding recognises CAST as the main resource for Caribbean enterprises to obtain training, education and implementation guidance of sustainable tourism best practises specific to the Caribbean region with the following three strategic focus areas: advocacy, environmental management and sustainable tourism support. As part of the agreement, CHTA recognises FEE and its programmes for inclusion in its sustainable tourism initiatives such as the Blue Flag programme for beaches and marinas and the Green Key programmes for hotels and other tourism facilities. The agreement will also be used to identify future cooperation between the two organisations promoting sustainable tourism projects and raising environmental awareness.

“By signing this cooperative agreement with FEE, CHTA reaffirms its commitment to sustainable development”, said Emil Lee, President of CHTA. “Certainly protecting our environment and being a responsible industry are important reasons to support sustainable development”, he said, adding: “However, there are even more profound reasons to integrate green policies into everything we do. The Caribbean is our home. Additionally, being efficient is good for our environment, but being efficient is also good for profitability, which translates into stronger economies, better infrastructure and more jobs. The partnership gives CHTA members an excellent road map for our members to follow. We welcome cooperation with an organisation like FEE with its programmes to further strengthen the sustainability agenda in the tourism and hospitality sector in the Caribbean region.”

Jan Eriksen, President of FEE, adds: “We already have a history of successful cooperation with CHTA/CAST in connection with the implementation of the Blue Flag programme in the Caribbean starting 15 years ago and we are happy now to formalise it and extend it to also include our fast growing Green Key programme.”

Park Inn Hotel in Sofia innovates with smart paint and ”Green Key” key cards”

In addition to the full compliance with the Green Key criteria Park Inn by Radisson Hotel – Sofia tries to introduce innovative and modern practices, which could successfully be copied by other hotels in the world.

The hotel has a busy conference program, often hosting eco events and meetings of environmental organizations. To respond accordingly to Green Key’s requirement for less paper in the conference rooms, the management of the hotel searched for ways to minimize the usage of flipchart pads. They found an interesting solution to that issue by painting walls with the so called Smart Paint. Now a wall can be used unlimited times as a writing board which can easily be wiped clean and used again.

As a courtesy and commitment to the Green Key Program the Park In by Radisson Hotel- Sofia changed all its key cards for the hotel rooms with specially produced Green Key branded cards.

Le Méridien Piccadilly in London shows the UK how it's done

Le Méridien Piccadilly in London, the first hotel in the UK to be awarded with the Green Key award, presents a very impressive list of actions they have set up to become more sustainable.

At Le Méridien Piccadilly, we aim to operate as sustainably as possible, confirming our commitment towards protecting the environment.  Our sustainability initiatives include introducing LED lighting throughout the hotel, putting in Passive Infrared Sensors in public areas so that lights automatically go out when not in use, introducing low flow filters on taps and shower heads and offering guests Starwood’s ‘Make a Green Choice’ programme, allowing them to opt out of housekeeping services in return for a £5 voucher to spend in our food and beverage outlets. We also have a Green Council within the hotel and organise an annual “Green Day” for our associates.

In recognition of our sustainability efforts, we became the first hotel in the UK to receive the Green Key Eco Label accreditation. Le Méridien Piccadilly is special as our associates recognise the impact that they can each make through seemingly small actions and understand that our guests want to know that we are doing everything we can to reduce the environmental impact of their hotel stay.

Food wasting strategy at Hilton Copenhagen Airport

At Hilton Copenhagen Airport they wanted to put the focus on food waste, as they found too much food was being wasted.

First of all they decided to measure the food being wasted during one week. The team measured the food waste in the team member restaurant for 1 normal week. The next week they arranged a “Food Reduction Week” in which special attention was given to food waste. They increased the awareness about food waste by arranging a separate large garbage bin just for food, making signs for awareness and focusing on how much food is being prepared. Just by doing these simple things, they managed to reduce the food waste by almost 60kg per week! This small effort has encouraged the whole team to keep up the good work.

A microfiber cleaning system - The future for a sustainable hotel housekeeping

The Artemis Palace Hotel in Rethymnon Crete, one of the first Green Key awarded hotels in Greece, applies a microfiber cleaning system to reduce the use of cleaning products. All national operators had the chance to see how the system works during the control visit they conducted at the national operators meeting 2014 and confirmed the results of the cleaning procedure.

One of the many environmental goals of Green Key is to lead hotel managers to a more environmentally friendly approach in terms of hotel housekeeping, which, in many cases, represents more than 40% of the total operating costs.

One of the proposed cleaning systems, applied in Theartemis Palace Hotel, Rethymnon Crete, is based on the use of microfiber cloths. In that case, the use of detergents is reduced to the absolute minimum and only used in places where disinfection is needed (e.g. toilet seats). All the other surfaces can be cleaned with using just water and a fiber cloth. More than 99% of surface pathogens, grease and dirt are captured in the fibers. The absorption capacity of the cloth is very high due to the fact that one fiber consists of 1056, really thin, microfibers.

Apart from the absorption and cleaning capacity, microfiber cloths lead to great water, detergent and time saving. Based on real data, collected from hotels that apply the system in Greece, the average water and detergent consumption is reduced 68% compared to classic cleaning systems, while the time needed is reduced more than 15%.

One of the “hidden” aspects of the use of this particular system is that there is no need of storing many different detergents. That actually means that the detergent-chemicals storage space is reduced to minimum, the dilutions are easy to be done and only for one detergent. The detergents are environmentally friendly and biodegradable and are not dangerous for human health.

HSPN is working really hard on promoting this technology to all awarded sites, because it is simply the application of the Green Key basic idea that saving is the environmentally way to act. HSPN keeps on trying to inform hotel managers about microfiber cleaning systems. After all, the key issue of the promotion of innovative and efficient technologies and products is education.

To see how Vikan Microfiber is used https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEfCFY1cZCM

BookDifferent.com has high expectations for 2015

Lonneke de Kort, Director Business Development and Sales at BookDifferent.com states that 2015 could be the tipping point for eco-tourism around the world. Her statement is supported by the Hospitality 2015 report issued by Deloitte.

In this report a team of experts of Deloitte analysed the Hospitality Industry with a special interest in the sustainable development of this sector towards 2020. Consumers are increasingly environmentally aware, and this will present great challenges for the industry. The year 2015 will be the tipping point on regulatory, economic and stakeholder level. It will begin to shape new expectations for both leisure and business consumers.  

This means that (business) travellers expect the sector to take their responsibility and integrate going green in their mission. The good news is that this is backed up with a growing number of consumers that are willing to take their responsibility too. Not necessarily by paying a premium for green hotels but by choosing a sustainable alternative when values-plus-value is offered.

And that is great news! 2015 promises to be a year with great opportunities ahead of us. BookDifferent will continue developing the platform that makes it easy for consumers to travel green and social. A great thanks goes out to Green Key and all her members who do the real work!