Communicating Sustainability to Guests

If you have some great environmental or social initiatives at your hotel, you may well want to tell people about them. But how to do that? A challenge which all of our Green Key sites face on a daily basis. Green Hotelier published a Know How Guide with useful tips to help you get your message to your guests more effectively.

A few tips.

-         Don’t just list what you do. So you do stuff, so what? What difference does it make? Why should anyone care? Answering the ‘so what’ is key, in particular for the guests who care about these issues. Environmental initiatives are often just a list of details, but if you want to engage your guest, tell them what you are doing to reduce your impact and then invite them to help support that effort. Don’t make the guest feel guilty or that all responsibility lies with them.

-         When communicating about your carbon footprint, or citing other figures, bear in mind who your audience is - 31kg CO2e means nothing to most people. We love this communication from Westin where guests can really appreciate the difference they and the hotel are making. It also shows you have done your homework and know what you are talking about

-         Make it visual or relate facts and figures to something tangible, e.g. the equivalent number of trees planted, the number of cars taken off the road, 5 Olympic-sized swimming pools, etc.

-         And always remember that if you want to be credible, no numbers without stories, no stories without numbers…

-         You need to place your messages where the people you are wanting to engage are most likely to read them. You also need to think about which communication platform is best suited to each message and how best to present that message. When will guests realistically have time to read lots of info, when would an image be more powerful and where are infographics most hard hitting?

Read the full Guide here.

Green Key Manager Survey 2015

In 2015 Green Key conducted a survey amongst Green Key site managers to learn more about why they choose the Green Key label and their view on the programme. With a response rate of over 30% of all the Green Key sites, the results give a representative understanding of why site managers choose the Green Key label, the impact it has on their business and also entails a small evaluation of the programme.

Some interesting findings of the survey:

•          The main reasons for joining Green Key was to get support to comply with national legislation, increase sales and increase customer binding.

•          The main outcome of joining Green Key was the improvement of environmental performance followed by the improvement of the image of the establishment and increased employee engagement.

•          Around 92% of all managers indicate that Green Key has helped increase the sustainability at the establishment.

•          The strengths of the Green Key programme are the criteria, the onsite audits and the focus on environmental education.

•          Around 35% of the respondents answered the question on what is missing in the programme, and with especially visibility/marketing as the main working point. Something Green Key will invest time and money in during the next years.

•          The managers find it manageable to comply with the criteria. The most challenging criteria section is “food & beverage” (17% finding it hard to comply).

The full report can be read here. 

Sheraton Zürich Hotel offers a green table to their guests

On 26 November 2015, the Sheraton Zürich Hotel became the first Starwood hotel to be awarded the Green Key in Switzerland.  Although only joined the Green Key programme so recently, they already have some very impressive sustainable actions in place. 

Minergie

Aside from the newly achieved Green Key certification, the Sheraton Zürich is also certified by Minergie. Minergie is a Swiss construction standard and quality label for new and modernized buildings. By following the Minergie standards buildings provide more comfort, reduce energy costs and are more sustainable.

Restaurant Route 26

Prior to the opening of the hotel restaurant, the Kitchen Chef went on a journey through the 26 Swiss Cantons to find the best suppliers and products of Switzerland. Most of the products are locally produced and the restaurant takes time to check certificates of for example the fishing practices of the fish suppliers, to track the meat or visit the suppliers before a steak lands at the grill. To promote local products among the guests, a different Swiss canton was put in the spotlight every month in 2015. This month, the guests can go on a culinary journey to the canton Zug and try a typical local fish dish – of course prepared with fish from Lake Zug.

When ordering from suppliers, the hotel restaurant places high emphasis on how the food is delivered and use the good relations to the suppliers to request on how they package it. Separately packaged broccoli is just as a no-go for us as is Styrofoam.  To minimize CO2 emissions and costs the hotel restaurant limits the number of times they order from a supplier to about 1-2 times a week. This requires good calculation which is also reflected in the low amount of food waste the hotel has. In addition to carefully calculating and estimating the amount of food, certain dishes like scrambled eggs in the morning are prepared on demand at the live-cooking station.

The employees enjoy the opportunity to eat at the employee canteen – which is also integrated in the planning process as each day they use the same ingredients in the canteen and restaurant. 

Green Key hotels recommended at COP21

The official COP21 booking system, used to accommodate delegates and participants of the Climate Conference in Paris, encourages eco-certified accommodations, with Green Key on top of the list.  

The UNFCCC secretariat has committed itself to a series of actions to reduce the carbon footprint of the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP 21 which is being held in December 2015 in Paris. One of those actions is focused on the accommodations of delegates and participants of the conference.

On the official COP21 booking system, guests can choose their accommodations out of a list of eco-certified hotels. And Green Key is on the very top of that list!

The Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE) and Green Key International commends this statement and hopes all participants will support these actions.

You can find more information on the UNFCCC actions here.

Green Key keeps growing in Russia

In the very beginning of November 2015, the hotel Radisson Resort, Zavidovo, has been certified with the Green Key. Radisson Resort, Zavidovo is the first Green Key hotel in the Tver Region of Russia.

Both top management and staff take environmental performance of the hotel very seriously. In addition to meeting mandatory criteria the hotel meets 25 optional criteria mainly within the fields of water saving and energy efficiency.

Much attention is paid to healthy lifestyle promotion which is an integral part of sustainable development. For example, the hotel provides its staff with the free access to an outdoor sport area.

The Danish hospitality sector goes green

In Denmark, an increasing number of hotels and conference facilities become eco-labelled and most establishments choose the Green Key label.

In connection with the international climate conference, COP15, in Copenhagen in 2009, many hotels and conference facilities were certified with an eco-label. This development has continued since then, so that Denmark today has 138 eco-labelled hotel compared with 52 hotels in 2008. This means that 26% of the hotels and conference facilities in Denmark now are eco-labelled. Both the Danish and the International hotel business has embraced the Green Key programme, which was in fact invented in Denmark in the mid-1990s.

One of the partners that assisted in starting the development was the Copenhagen hotel chain, Arp-Hansen. Managing Director from Arp-Hansen, Malene Friis, says: “Arp-Hansen chose to join Green Key ahead of the COP15 event in Copenhagen where environmentally labelled hotels were preferred. Since then, we have experienced an increasing request for a green profile of our hotels”. 

Claus Hansen from the hotel and conference centre, Nyborg Strand, says: “As a centrally located place for business meetings in Denmark, Green Key makes a difference for us. We use the certification to attract new customers and as an active part of our PR activities. At the same time, it is our aim to show our customers that we take responsibility in relation to sustainability issues.

In Denmark, an increasing number of larger companies (e.g. Maersk, Danisco, Novozymes and Nykredit) are looking for the green profile when choosing hotel and meeting facilities. Maersk had 88,000 overnight stays in Denmark in 2013, and the company has focus on e.g. environmental and working conditions of the hotels and conference centres that used by checking the correlation with their Responsible Procurement Programme.

Source: Kursuslex.

Top bed and breakfast on Pembrokeshire’s iconic coast in Wales gains Green Key accreditation

Katherine Henderson Bowen of Manorbier Bed and Breakfast

Manorbier Bed and Breakfast in Pembrokeshire has received national acclaim in Wales for its spectacular garden. Following on from this acclaim the Bed and Breakfast, which takes in spectacular views of Manorbier Castle and beach, has now achieved international recognition for implementing environmentally sustainable methods within the business.

Katherine Henderson Bowen, owner of Manorbier Bed and Breakfast has always been interested in operating sustainably, paying particular attention to carefully sourcing local products, introducing the use of solar energy to generate hot water and electricity, as well as maintaining a beautiful garden which provides a rich and diverse habitat for a range of wildlife. Katherine said:

‘I have recently been included in Alistair Sawday’s Ethical Collections and I wanted to follow this recognition by achieving a Welsh accreditation which has the environment and sustainability at the heart of its ethos. As Green Key is run in Wales by leading environmental charity Keep Wales Tidy, I knew that I was supporting the charity as well as gaining an internationally recognised environmental accreditation’.

Green key Assessor, Simon Preddy said:

‘It is great to find environmentally innovative processes in place within an independent B&B. Katherine has been operating in an environmentally responsible manner for some time now, but she is also open to new ideas on how she can make further, positive environmental changes.’

Green Key accreditation guides hospitality providers through the process of making their businesses more sustainable, ultimately making commercial as well as environmental savings. Areas of focus for the accreditation include energy, water, waste, green activities and guest engagement.

For more information about Green Key in Wales contact greenkey@keepwalestidy.org.uk or www.greenkey.org.uk @GreenKeyWales.

Green Key Hotels in Madeira support reforestation initiative

The Four Views Hotels Group and the Madeira Natural Park together with students from Caniço School joined hands and set up a reforestation project.

3 November 2015 was marked by an Environmental initiative, the Reforestation in Cais do Sardinha, an area set in the protected zone of the Natural Park in Ponta de São Lourenço, the area more to the east of our island of Madeira, Portugal.

It was a joint activity between the Four Views Hotels Group and the Madeira Natural Park, with the partnership of students of Caniço School and with the special support of Hotel Quinta do Lorde, which provided an area to organise a barbecue offered to those involved in this initiative.  The Travel agency Mbtravel, provide the entire transportation logistics to the site of Reforestation.

This was undoubtedly an activity marked by noble sentiment of everyone wanting to contribute with something positive to the ecosystem of the Island and it engaged young people to take responsibility to protect what belongs to us and what surrounds us ... Nature!

The success of this activity increased the desire between the organisations involved, to engage in more initiatives for the sake of the good ecological health and nature of the Island.

First Green Key award in Chelyabinsk, Russia

On 5 November 2015, Radisson Blu Hotel Chelyabinsk passed the certification procedure and received the Green Key Award.

The certificate demonstrates a high social and environmental responsibility of the hotel. During the Green Key audit, special attention was paid to various aspects including the use of environmentally friendly cleaning products, energy-saving technologies, rational use of water, eco-trainings for staff. 

The Green Key audit revealed an impressive level of activities done by the hotel in involving the general public and the hotel guests in environmental protection activities, such as Сlean-up days, Earth Hour, Blu Planet, etc.

Radisson Blu Hotel Chelyabinsk is very proud to be the first and the only hotel in Chelyabinsk awarded this prestigious environmental certificate.