New Green Key page on LinkedIn

Green Key International is proud to present its new Green Key page on LinkedIn.

We have created a new page on LinkedIn for Green Key International where everyone has immediate access to all news and updates. The previous page was established as a closed group, but now we have made it easier for you to follow Green Key on an open page!

We invite everyone to follow Green Key International, where we will regularly post news and updates about the Green Key programme: https://www.linkedin.com/company-beta/25024635/. Follow us and stay connected! Here we will also post any job openings at Green Key International. We will soon no longer update the former Green Key group on LinkedIn. 

We would as well like to invite you to follow Green Key on our other social media: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Flickr. 

Why should hotels invest in efficient properties - the example of Radisson Blu Nairobi

There’s a need in hotel construction for a move to more efficient buildings – particularly in hotter regions where HVAC energy demands can be high, but need to be reduced. Simple but clever design features can make this easier, saving precious resources and reducing carbon footprint.

On 14 June 2017, Bench Events & AES Conferences held two regional briefings in Nairobi covering the upcoming investment conferences, the Africa Hotel Investment Forum (to be held in Kigali 10 – 12 October 2017) & SPACE - investing in efficient properties (to be held in Nairobi 13 – 14 March 2018).

The invitation-only briefings have attracted over 100 key owners, investors and financiers and feature discussions on:

• A review of key hotel performance indicators & pipeline with a focus on Kenya and East Africa.

• East African pipeline and tourism activity driving investment opportunities.

• JLL’s real time evidence on the return on investment for sustainable real estate projects.

• Review of financial performance of investing & building efficiently (ROI & payback periods)

In advance of the briefing, SPACE interviewed Inge Huijbrechts (IH), Global Vice President of Responsible Business at Radisson Hotel Group on financial performance, challenges, efficiencies gained and payback periods when investing and developing efficient properties.

SPACE: Outside of important social and environmental objectives and more from a financial point of view, why is adopting green standards so important to Radisson Hotels?

IH: Building and operating green hotels definitely has a clear business case. For example, we saved five million EURO in our leased properties by reducing our energy consumption by 24% over the last five years.

More importantly, green is durable – take LED lights – 95% longer lifespans so less maintenance is required.

Most importantly however, green investments are good for guest comfort. For example, if we install intelligent room controls for AC and ventilation in the rooms, we give clients the perfect tool to create a totally comfortable climate in the room and be very environmentally friendly.

We continue on our Think Planet journey to integrate energy and water saving innovations in our hotels and have committed to use EDGE for all our new hotel projects in emerging markets.

SPACE: What have been some of the efficiencies gained since developing the Radisson Blu in Nairobi hotel? Any pleasant surprises?

IH: The building is very efficient. According to the EDGE green buildings tool it is over 30% more efficient on energy and 50% on water.

Currently, about one year after the opening of the hotel, we continue to improve and fine tune its performance. We believe we can reduce the energy consumption by a further 10% by fine tuning the building management system and learning from operational data.

We are also going through a series of Energy kaizen programs in various hotels to ensure we use our existing hotel buildings in Africa in the most efficient way possible.

SPACE: Regarding payback periods, how would you compare your planned payback periods to existing ones? What has made the most significant financial difference?

IH: There’s a clear business case for building green – our successful Think Planet energy and water reduction programs have clearly shown that retrofitting is more expensive than building it in from the start. Retrofitting has longer payback times.

There’s a misconception of the extra costs required to design and build green. If it becomes part of the earliest stages of design and thinking of a building, building green can even be cheaper than building traditionally.

SPACE: How will the SPACE event in March assist Radisson Hotels and your plans for the future in Africa?

IH: SPACE brings together a community of developers, investors and green building solutions providers to make green buildings in Africa feasible. It can be done, we have proven it with the Radisson Blu Hotels in Accra, Kigali and Nairobi. SPACE will help accelerate the movement.

Special thanks to Inge Huijbrechts and Radisson Hotel Group for their contributions to this article and the SPACE event.

Register here (with the CODE KRBSPC) by June 16 and receive 40% discount off the booking fee.

Contact Stephanie Morley stephanie.morley@aesconferences.com for more details on SPACE – invest in efficient properties or visit the website: www.space-conference.com 

Source: Green Hotelier

Stanhope Hotel in Belgium organises sustainable breakfast buffet

After completing the renovation of the breakfast area at the Brighton Restaurant, the Stanhope Hotel decided to change the complete layout of the breakfast buffet.

The hotel removed the small individual portions and presented the breakfast buffet with large glass jars to limit the packaging and waste. Their guests serve themselves out of large jars of jams or cereals. As hygiene is of the utmost importance, all these new jars and pot have covers and adapted utensils are available for the guests to serve themselves without touching the food. These are also refrigerated whenever appropriate and protected by sneeze guards.

In addition, the hotel limited the food available, preferring to reassert the buffet little by little instead of spoiling products such as sausage, smoked salmon or cheese that cannot be reused if they have not been consumed.

This policy of limiting waste while offering a buffet always varied and high quality is also used for the conference buffets and major events. The hotel put forward the limited waste buffets by proposing a wide choice to their customers with particular attention to the quantities presented and by completing following necessity.

Salads and other dishes are now presented in large glass jars, on trays and mirrors, thus limiting the packaging.

From beverage cartons to the real sustainability of EcoNatural

Green Key's partner, Lucart Professional continues to promote sustainable innovation, completing the beverage container recovery cycle introduced with the exclusive EcoNatural line of tissue products, by making it possible to recycle all the materials they contain: cellulose fibres, aluminium and polyethylene.

Lucart uses a physical and mechanical process to separate beverage containers into their constituent elements and obtain two new raw materials, Fiberpack® and Al.Pe.®.

Fiberpack® is the exclusive raw material obtained by recycling the cellulose fibres in beverage containers. It is used by Lucart to produce a comprehensive range of tissue products for the Away From Home market (towels, toilet paper, medical examination bed sheets, tissue paper, paper tissues, kitchen and DIY paper rolls, multi-purpose towels and napkins in various formats), which satisfy the highest strength, absorbency and softness standards set by the market. EcoNatural tissue products had been awarded during Pulire 2017 as most innovative and sustainable product by Ecolabel Award, a further acknowledgment of Lucart Professional sustainability

Al.Pe.® is the innovative raw material made from aluminium and polyethylenerecycled from beverage cartons. Lucart uses this raw material to produce a full range of dispensers for washroom areas, combining the concept of sustainability with market demand for easy handling, fine design and reliability.

EcoNatural has therefore become the new PAPER+DISPENSER line that introduces a circular economy model, with the transformation of used beverage cartons into two new raw materials.

These two innovative raw materials are used to make two product ranges that form part of the same system, transferring the sustainability championed by the Lucart Professional brand to the everyday business activities of customers in the Away From Home market.

EcoNatural is innovative and sustainable, so choosing it represents a way for customers to show end users how committed they are to the environment.

Lucart Professional intends to certify and promote this choice:

• through a certificate of environmental saving, stating the beverage containers recycled, trees saved and CO2 emissions reduced with your and your customers’ help
• through a dispenser with printed information to tell end users about your commitment to the environment.

Lucart Professional once again confirms its position as the brand that delivers real sustainability for its customers’ businesses through intelligent solutions that redefine the standards of innovation.

Radisson Blu Resort Bukovel integrates the surrounding nature in its work with sustainability

During the recent Green Key visit to Radisson Blu Resort Bukovel, a ski and nature resort surrounded by forests in the Carpathian Mountains in the Ukraine, the auditor was impressed with the integration of the surrounding area in the sustainability work of the hotel

Waste sorting and environmental education by Radisson Blu Resort Bukovel

As the hotel is surrounded by beautiful nature, Radisson Blu Resort Bukovel is planning to increase the environmental education of its guests, e.g. through bringing attention to storks and other birds.

The hotel is integrating local cuisine and using local food products in its restaurant.

At part of the commitment to Green Key, Radisson Blu Resort Bukovel is planning to speed up the replacement of light bulbs to LED lighting. The local municipality is supporting the efforts of the hotel by having implemented a waste management system. 

Green Key audit at Radisson Blu Resort Bukovel

Radisson Blu launches Blu Planet for meetings

Radisson Blu, the iconic hotel brand driven by innovation and design, is launching Blu Planet for Meetings, making meetings carbon-free at Radisson Blu hotels worldwide by the end of the year. The selected First Climate carbon offsetting projects contribute to fighting global warming and support the UN Sustainable Development goals. 

“Since the COP21 climate accord, an increasing number of corporations are concerned about fighting climate change and about reducing their carbon footprints, also when they plan meetings,” says Inge Huijbrechts, Vice President of Responsible Business for Radisson Hotel Group. “We know that face-to-face meetings are crucial to business success. Research has shown they boost profitability. With Blu Planet for Meetings, we help our guests have successful Experience Meetings and help protect our environment by reducing their overall carbon footprint.”

All sustainable companies calculate and report their company’s carbon footprint based on their own energy consumption, purchased energy and their supply chain footprint, which includes business travel. For each meeting or event held at a Radisson Blu hotel, the carbon footprint will be calculated and offset through Gold Standard carbon offsetting projects in Guatemala, Malawi and India, linked to water sustainability.

“Water sustainability is an important commitment from Radisson Blu, and we are delighted to partner with First Climate on dedicated water projects that will have a positive impact on communities as we help provide safe drinking water,” says Huijbrechts.

Blu Planet for Meetings unique carbon offsetting, combined with a series of sustainable features, ensures Radisson Blu is “as committed as you are” to making your meeting green and safe. These characteristics are:

• Advanced technology in rooms and meeting rooms, reducing paper use

• Brain Food for Meetings – an innovative food offering that keeps the delegates’ attention span constant

• A water-light Super Breakfast

• Eco-labelled venues with labels like Green Key, GreenLeaders or Earthcheck

• Waste recycling in all hotels

• Safehotels Alliance certification at 160+ hotels worldwide

• Blu Planet towel reuse program combining the environmental benefits with bringing safe drinking water to communities in need

• #BluRoutes – running and cycling routes to connect to your destination

• ‘This Works’ all natural amenities

“We’re also encouraging meeting planners to make sustainability come alive as part of their meeting, whether it’s through a city bicycle tour, local tree planting or a zero-carbon picnic in the park. For sustainability minded and environment friendly companies, Radisson Blu should be the brand of choice for all meetings and events, as we jointly create opportunities to promote our shared values,” said Huijbrechts.

“By offsetting carbon emissions from meetings and events taking place at Radisson Blu Hotels and Resorts, Radisson Hotel Group demonstrates its commitment to a low carbon economy and makes a valuable contribution to climate change mitigation,” says Sascha Lafeld, CEO of First Climate Markets, the service provider that assists Radisson Hotel Group in carbon emissions management. “By choosing to offset carbon emissions using high-quality Gold-Standard projects, Radisson Hotels also contributes to the generation of multiple co-benefits in the project regions that support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.”

La Grange d'Ychippe: Willingness to educate

Raising environmental awareness among the guests at La Grange d'Ychippe led to a significant changes in the environmental standards at the guesthouse.

The compost in the garden of La Grange d'Ychippe (Picture by E. Uskokovic)

The owner of the cottage located in the magnificent Condroz region near Ciney (Belgium Wallonia) tells: "When I started the accommodation, I could see the guests leave the rooms with the windows open and the heating turned on. I had always tons of garbage, and I could see that my business was not sustainable and that if I continued like this I could not hold on.”

Since then, La Grange d'Ychippe became Green Key awarded and the guesthouse actually made enormous progress to save water and energy and to reduce its waste. That is also made possible by educating customers. By leaving small information signs about environmentally friendly gestures, like the best use of water, or which waste go to the compost. This environmental education is for the kids and especially for the parents. The owner is always on the lookout on news ideas to improve its Green Key action plan. There is already various educational materials and games on the environment, and the owner would like to set up teaching panels for children, about the various issues related to biodiversity.

In the garden, there is a pond, different shelters for fauna and flora, a flowery meadow, and the establishment uses principles of differentiated management in their garden. The owner is currently building an insect house and she had already made a shelter for hedgehogs. The green space of the guesthouse is a true oasis for biodiversity, a place of relaxation for parents and discoveries for children.

It is a voluntary approach to do the actions in favour of the nature but after the owner has been engaging with Green key, this approach continues to develop: "We adopt this philosophy in favour of the environment not only for our guesthouse but everywhere around us ".

The pond in the garden of La Grange d'Ychippe (Picture by E. Uskokovic)

First Green Key awarded establishment in Hungary!

Green Key is proud to announce that Landal Residence Duna is the first Green Key awarded establishment in Hungary. 

The Landal Residence Duna is located on the countryside outside of Budapest, surrounded by vineyards, hills and woods. The holiday park has 102 4-6 room apartments, an indoor and open-air swimming pool as well as its own restaurant. Due to its location on the countryside, the park uses mainly local products and services, which not only reduces transportation costs, but also benefits the environment. 

On top of complying with Green Key's programme criteria in all areas, the park built a rainwater channel that directs the rain water to a collecting basin in the nearby village where the water is treated and reused.

With the Landal Residence Duna being awarded in Hungary, the number of countries running the Green Key programme rises to 56. 

Hormuz Grand Hotel is the first Green Key awarded property from the Quorvus Collection

The Hormuz Grand Hotel in Muscat, Oman is the first hotel in Radisson Hotels' Quorvus Collection to receive the Green Key award. 

Muscat’s premier hotel provides a new gateway for the contemporary traveller. The hotel’s central location is just a short drive from Muscat International Airport, and is the ideal base to sightsee from.

The establishment received the prestigious Green Key award due to its excellent environmental performance, which was confirmed during the Green Key on-site audit. 

To name a few of Hormuz Grand Hotel's outstanding environmental and social activities; the hotel is working in close cooperation with small-scale suppliers that produce local products such as halwa, dates and honey. One key objective for 2017 is to organise a clean up day in the adjacent valley. In addition, the hotel is a loyal supporter of Earth Hour, which takes place every year in March and encourages people to switch off non-essential electric lights for one hour to save energy. 

The Quorvus Collection is a luxury brand of the Radisson Hotel Group which focuses on a distinguished guest experience that is enriched with characteristic elements of the local culture of each property. 

You can read more about the Hormuz Grand Hotel here.