The Radisson Blu Hotel, Kyiv Podil creates art with plastic straws

The Radisson Blu Hotel in Kyiv-Podil, Ukraine has found a creative way for reusing their unused plastic straws by creating a work of art.

Copyright: Radisson Blu Hotel, Kyiv-Podil

When implementing Radisson Hotel Group’s campaign #RefusetheStraw the hotel wondered what they could do with the unused plastic straws that they had left in stock.

Instead of throwing them in the recycling bin, they found a local artist who created a sculpture of a seabird out of the straws. The original piece of art is now displayed in the lobby of the hotel to raise awareness on plastic pollution.

Mostly birds and sea animals suffer from plastics - they perceive it as a food, eat it, and die in terrible agony. Moreover, many birds are already on the verge of extinction and are included in the red book. It is a symbol of freedom, hope, new life, which must be protected.

- The Radisson Blu Hotel, Kyiv-Podil

Copyright: Radisson Blu Hotel, Kyiv-Podil

Copyright: Radisson Blu Hotel, Kyiv-Podil

Miskin Manor – a historical hotel with a green twist

Miskin Manor Country Hotel in Wales has been awarded with the Green Key for its work on introducing high sustainability standards in a historical manor without compromising the exclusive feeling of the establishment.

Miskin Manor Country Hotel has a rich history stretching back to the 10th century. Since 1996, the place has been a carefully restored family-run hotel with attention to details in respect of the heritage of the building, surrounding garden and landscape. Today, Miskin Manor Country Hotel is a four-star hotel with 42 unique bedrooms, an award winning restaurant and 25 acres of beautiful garden surrounding the establishment.

Miskin Manor Country Hotel has recently been awarded with the Green Key as the first hotel in South East Wales due to its work with its sustainability performance. The light bulbs have been changed to LED light, the water flow in taps and showers are reduced, the restaurant has a focus on products that are locally produced and the environmental work is communicated to guests in an environmental corner by the lobby.

“As a family we have always worked towards helping our environment for now and the future. It is wonderful that we now have recognition for the effort we are making and we will strive to maintain and improve.  Amongst many things we grow some of our own produce on site, produce water from our own borehole, keep bees and produce honey on site, installed energy efficient lighting throughout the hotel and recycle our waste. It is hoped that other business owners will join us in achieving Green Key throughout Wales.” - Amanda Rosenberg, Managing Director at Miskin Manor.

Nick Ashby, Welsh Green Key coordinator says: “We are proud to have Miskin Manor Country Hotel awarded with Green Key for its balance between history, luxury and sustainability”.

For more information about Miskin Manor Country Hotel, please visit their website.

XL Green Key Cartoon makes visitors curious about sustainability

The interactive science centre Hidrodoe in Herentals, Belgium came up with a creative and fun way to inform their guests about sustainability and Green Key.

At Hidrodoe, visitors can learn everything about water - from Roman baths to water in space -in a fun and interactive way. The science centre is an initiative of the Flemish water company Pidpa to raise awareness about the importance and value of water. The centre has more than 150 interactive exhibits, covering indoor and outdoor activities.

One of their newest additions is an XL Cartoon that shows the centre with all it’s environmental initiatives, for example their bee hotel, the electric bike charging station and the fair trade café. A Green Key logo on each of the illustrations indicates that this is part of their environmental agenda. At the same time, visitors learn about Green Key and it’s requirements. The creators compare the comic with the well-known “Where’s Wally” children illustrations.

Due to its high environmental ambitions and creative ways to engage visitors in environmental issues, Hidrodoe won the Belgian Energy and Environment award for Sustainable Education in 2018. Moreover, Hidrodoe has been Green Key awarded for 7 years in a row.

The Green Key Best practice winner A Cozinha por António Loreiro restaurant received a prestigious Michelin award

Located in the city of Guimarães (Portugal), Green Key awarded and the Best Practice winner A Cozinha por António Loreiro restaurant has recently been recognized with Michelin award. Michelin is the most famous and influential guide for the best restaurants.

In September 2018, Green Key announced the Loreiro restaurant as the number one in the annual Green Key Best Practice Competition, where the restaurant stood out not only with its excellent sustainable practices, but also with its successful guests’ involvement into sustainability related topics through various activities and events. For local community and children, the chef António Loureiro organized several workshops oriented on the benefits of local food, weekly food planning etc.

On 21 November 2018 at the Michelin Guide Gala in Pavilhão Carlos Lopes in Lisbon the restaurant was  awarded with the first Michelin star. António Loreiro is known by its outstanding commitment to create masterpieces from local or regional food and his striving towards zero waste. More than once he has been recognized as a leader in his business by multiple awards.

BookDifferent.com has launched the SME Travel Tool

The online booking and travel agency, Bookdifferent.com, has recently established an online tool for small and medium enterprises to motivatebusiness travelers to give preference to green accommodation.

The new booking tool aims to increase eco-friendly choices among customers of small and medium enterprises. The platform integrates accommodations with verified and evidence based indicators at the best price. BookDifferent.com has more than 1.4 million accommodations available in 60,000 destinations.

The booking tool promotes various CSR principles such as fairness and equality, respect for nature and environment, respect for local traditions and local economy. All accommodations that are eco-certified and socially repsonsible receive the “staygreencheck” mark that allows companies to select the greenest choice, and Green Key is among the ecolabels with the highest extent of the “staygreencheck” compliance.

Another way to check accommodations’ sustainability at Bookdifferent.com is to see their calculated carbon footprint, done through a statistical formula is based on the actual output of direct electricity consumption of accommodations and the country-specific energy production.

The SME Travel Tool can be used as part of the CSR policy for businesses suggesting them to include green travel scores to their yearly reporting.

Green Key is actively cooperating with Bookdifferent.com, and Green Key encourages all companies to use this tool in order to contribute towards more sustainable world.  

Growing interest for Green Key in Northern Ireland

Green Key Northern Ireland organised a “breakfast briefing” in Belfast with the participation of hotels and various tourism industry stakeholders to inform about the Green Key programme

The Green Key programme was launched in Northern Ireland earlier in 2018. To respond to the interest for the scheme from establishments and tourism industry stakeholders, Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful (the organisation managing Green Key in Northern Ireland) organised a “breakfast briefing” in Belfast on 8 November 2018.

At the event, the International Director of Green Key, Finn Bolding Thomsen, presented the programme in general, the criteria and application process, promotion and best practice examples from other establishments around the world having implemented Green Key.

The CEO of Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful, Ian Humphreys, explained that the launch of the Green Key programme is closely connected with the growing tourism in the country, and it is important that the growth is managed in a sustainable way.

Please visit www.keepnorthernirelandbeautiful.org for more information.

Ocean Baskets want to make plastic straws history

Seafood restaurant chain Ocean Basket has launched ‘The Last Straw’ a national campaign in Cyprus.

The pollution of our oceans due to plastic waste has become a major topic in the media and in political discussions. Only recently, the EU banned the use of certain single-use plastic products to help the oceans recover from decades of plastic pollution.

Some businesses, like the Green Key awarded Ocean Baskets in Cyprus, are already one step ahead of the game. Since May 2018, plastic straws have been banned from all nine restaurants on the island. The restaurant chain is the first in Cyprus to launch a campaign against plastic straws. Guests are informed about the campaign though signs on the tables and posters. If a guest does not want to skip the straw, they are offered an eco-friendly alternative upon request.

Ocean Basket’s great initiative to reduce the use of plastic doesn’t stop here. All their restaurants have replaced plastic bottles with glass bottles and the styrofoam takeaway boxes have been replaced by paper boxes. Their ambition is to stop providing anything made out of plastic to their customers.

Furthermore, Ocean Basket participates in several initiatives to raise awareness about marine litter and plastic pollution. In cooperation with the Cypriot organisation running Green Key (CYMEPA) they organise beach cleanups around Cyprus with the involvement of hundreds of young students and their staff members.

In addition, together with CYMEPA, Ocean Basket have designed the “My Responsible Ocean Citizen Little Blue Book” for schools to engage children in the protection of the oceans.

Green Key's application process explained step by step in our new video!

Ever wondered how the Green Key application process works? Watch our second video and find out!

Click on the image to open the video in a new browser window

In this video, Green Key explains the application and award process step by step. You’ll learn more about the on-site and off-site audits, the decision making process as well as the award itself.

If you have missed our introductory video about Green Key, you can watch it here

Don’t want to miss any of our new videos? Then sign up to our YouTube channel Green Key International

From farm to table at Castelli Hotel

The Castelli Hotel in Zakynthos, Greece offers their guests much more than a bed to sleep in. The hotel has its own farm just aside the building which is not only a perfect place to relax but which also offers a great variety of homegrown products for the hotel’s restaurant.

Copyright Castelli Hotel

The Green Key awarded Castelli Hotel in Zakynthos is bridging the “boutique feel” with sustainable practices through various initiatives. One of them is their own farm of almost 15,000 square metres right next to the hotel. On this farm they keep a small number of chickens, sheep, turkeys, pigs and rabbits and also maintain several herb and vegetable beds which are all organically grown. The organic waste that is produced in the hotel is composted in their own composting unit and just as fertilizer for the hotel’s farm and garden.

Furthermore, the hotel is surrounded by olive trees that are grown using organic methods. The olive oil produced from the hotel’s own trees is used for baking the breakfast homemade marble cake, for seasoning and for cooking.

Guests can taste the hotel’s homegrown products at the buffet and also in their award winning A La Carte restaurant “Eucalyptos”. The restaurant has dedicated its menu to old traditional recipes and the offered wines are all local. In addition, half of the pasta offered is produced by a local women’s cooperative and all dairy products are local specialties.

Castelli Hotel furthermore offers their guests the opportunity to explore and enjoy their farm at their weekly farm tour. Each October, guests are also invited to participate in the olive harvest picking activities where they learn about Zakynthos’ olive oil and get a taste of it as well.

The olive tree garden is also used for relaxing yoga classes and other outdoor activities to connect guests with nature.

Copyright Castelli Hotel