Zero Emissions by 2050: Radisson Hotel Group Dedicates Itself Towards a Sustainable Future

Green Key’s partner, the Radisson Hotel Group, is now amongst the companies setting its carbon reduction targets based on scientific recommendations.

Radisson Hotel Group (RHG) defines its zero-emissions commitment by 2050. To reach this goal, RHG will join the UNFCCC global campaign called Race to Zero, supporting the global goal of reaching Net Zero emissions. RHG will also become part of the Business Ambition campaign, which aims to hold global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Among other activities that RHG does to reduce its carbon footprint is its transition to renewable energy solutions. This transition has shown its results in 30% gains in energy efficiency. Moreover, compared to 2019, the Group has reduced its carbon emissions by 22% and water footprint by 23%. Radisson Hotel Group expects these numbers to increase in the future even more, as their number of green building certified hotels is rising. All the new or rebuilt Radisson Hotel Group properties follow the framework for healthy, efficient, carbon, and cost-saving green buildings and are aligned with sustainable building certifications such as LEED, BREAM, and EDGE.

Additionally to the sustainable building certifications, RHG has specified its own guidelines for sustainable buildings named “Build Planet“. These guidelines are used as a framework that encourages the efficient use of resources and sustainable materials, both when building new hotels and when renovating buildings.

Here is what the CEO of Radisson Hotel Group, Federico J. González, stated on the importance of sustainable actions: 

“Radisson Hotel Group has a strong, long-standing history of pioneering sustainability initiatives in the hospitality industry. Our Responsible Business pillars of Think People, Think Community, and Think Planet play an important part not only in our transformation plan, but also of what we see as our duty as hoteliers to establish a better tomorrow. We are taking clear action and affirming our commitment to be net-zero by 2050, not for our commercial gain but to create concrete change and encourage others to join us on the journey to net-zero, and eventually net positive.”

To learn more about how Radisson Hotel Group commits to decarbonize its business by 2050, click here.

Next FIFA World Cup to be climate neutral through cooperation with QGBC

The Qatar Green Building Council (QGBC), the Green Key National Operator in Qatar, is supporting the countries efforts in hosting the first climate-neutral FIFA World Cup. For that purpose, the QGBC is proactively working on transforming the hospitality industry of the country towards a more sustainable and environmentally-friendly future.

Photo: © Qatar Green Building Council

The Qatar Green Building Council, the Green Key National Operator in Qatar, highlighted the efforts done to support Qatar’s quest to deliver the world’s first climate neutral FIFA World Cup. The aim is to do so through transforming the hospitality sector to operate efficiently, be more sustainable and more environmentally friendly.

When Qatar received the confirmation to host the next FIFA World Cup in 2022, the country committed to putting all efforts into hosting a a carbon-neutral event. After setting this goal, the Qatar Green Building Council, a non-profit, membership-driven organisation providing leadership and encouraging collaboration in conducting environmentally sustainable practices for green building design and representative for a sustainable tourism industry, became one of the event’s biggest stakeholders.

In order to make the hospitality sector in Qatar more sustainable, the industry needs to proactively work on reducing food waste, invest in renewable energies, reduce the amount of energy-intensive systems and most importantly, develop new methods to make the use of the scare resource water more efficient.

Ruba Hinnawi, technical specialist at the Qatar Green Building Council explains:

We are expecting around 1.5 million visitors to come here, we can only imagine the stress that this will put on our infrastructure, our services, and our environment.

Due to the tremendous pressures that the upcoming FIFA World Cup will put on the ecosystems of the country, the Qatar Green Building Council further increased the promotion of the Green Key programme. The efforts undertaken should also strengthen a more sustainable hospitality industry in general, even after the World Cup. According to Ruba Hinnawi, a vast variety of hotels in Qatar advocate and positively respond to the criteria and measurements provided by Green Key. As a result, big hotels such as the Sheraton Grand Doha and Mandarin Oriental Doha, amongst others, have already been certified with the Green Key.

A video, produced by the Qatar Green Building Council, the BBC StoryWorks and the World Green Building Council Series should showcase the profound effect buildings have on the quality of people’s lives and the role the green buildings movement can play in tackling the climate emergency. This video can be rewatched under the following link.

At Grand Sirenis Punta Cana Resort, a new smart electricity system saves energy

Green Key-awarded Grand Sirenis Punta Cana Resort in the Dominican Republic re-opened its doors one year ago after a thorough renovation, including the installation of the latest technologies.

Since air-conditioning and lighting are main sources of electricity consumption in the resort, LED has been installed all over the establishment as the source of lighting during the renovation. Moreover, a smart presence sensor system controls the lighting and the air-conditioning in the guest rooms shutting off all lights and returning to a pre-set comfort temperature of the air-conditioning system when finding the room empty. The sensors replace the key card and register presence when guests are entering the room. When registering presence, all lights that were on upon de client leaving the room turn back on automatically. The sensors also register when guests are opening the balcony door and the air-conditioning is turned off to avoid waste of energy and condensation. 

“With a location in a tropical area, the use of the computer controlled smart sensor systems and LED lighting have meant a reduction in the electricity consumption of the establishment contributing to a lower environmental footprint. The system is at the same time easing the work of the staff at the establishment without compromising the comfort of the guests. This is a true win-win situation for the establishment, our clients’ comfort and for the planet.” Cyntia de Cayón, Resident Director at Grand Sirenis Punta Cana Resort

Talking Point: How can hotels switch employees on to energy saving?

Claire Maugham, Director of Policy and Communications at Smart Energy GB says employees are a crucial resource in good energy management at any hotel and keeping them switched on to sustainability is really important. In today’s Talking Point she describes some ways to keep employees fully engaged on the energy front.

Many of the small changes required to save energy in hotels across the globe are the same as those in the home – even if they are sometimes on a larger scale.

Whether it’s turning down the heating and air conditioning, turning lighting and other appliances off, or trying to save hot water, there is a plethora of ways to tap into the behaviours that employees and guests are already aware of. Drawing on experience in the home and topical sustainability events can be a great way to encourage behaviour change and get employees thinking about energy – at work as well as at home.

For example, in Great Britain, the rollout of energy smart meters to every home is providing an opportunity for hospitality employers to engage with their staff on sustainability issues like never before. Some hotel staff are likely to already have smart meters in their homes and others will be offered the opportunity to upgrade shortly.

Smart meters are installed by energy suppliers, and they show consumers how much energy they are using in pounds and pence, in near real time. The new technology is encouraging people across Britain to change the way they use energy, with eight in ten people with smart meters taking steps to reduce energy waste at home.

The national rollout presents the perfect opportunity to inspire energy behaviour change in workplaces. Simply put, behaviour change in the home is vital to make consumers and employees smarter and greener at work too.

Smart Energy GB worked with Hilton Worldwide's Energy and Environment Manager, to coordinate a session at Hilton’s head office to share information about smart meters with their staff. Encouraging employees at all levels to understand the concept of smart energy helps receptiveness for further smart energy initiatives.

A guide for employers

How to engage employees with energy saving is a challenge that the International Tourism Partnership has been working on with the Carbon Trust.

They have produced this easy to use guide for employers. The guide explains how to design and run an energy efficiency awareness campaign in the workplace, including giving practical advice to employees on how they can benefit from getting a smart meter and saving energy at home. You can download a copy at smartenergyGB.org/employers, or get started with the tips below.

Tips for kick-starting engagement with energy efficiency

• To engage employees you need to be creative

Homes, personal experiences and saving money, are topics that can help make a campaign relevant to your employees.

Creative campaigns can provide information on sustainability options outside the office, such as transport or energy saving at home, to make a connection with workplace behaviour.

User-generated content is always popular and effective at bringing campaigns to life – ask your employees for their views and stories to really engage them in the subject.

• Make data visual

People respond well to visual data. If you have smart/half-hourly metering in the workplace you could use the data it provides to help employees feel more connected to their energy use at home and at work.

• Tap in to a range of motivations

Look at people’s existing values and motivations and build specific behaviour change campaigns around those. For example, a campaign around productivity gains from planning and daily routine changes are more relevant to staff than a campaign addressing costs and carbon.

Source: Green Hotelier

The Hotel sector must cut Carbon Footprint by 90% to meet 2-degree climate threshold

The Hotel Global Decarbonisation Report by the International Tourism Partnership (ITP) states that the hotel sector must reduce its carbon footprint by 90% by 2050 in order to keep global warming below the 2-degree threshold agreed upon in the Paris Agreement.  

The Report by Greenview, commissioned by ITP, was published earlier in November, just before the start of COP23 (the 23rd session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Climate Change) taking place in Bonn, Germany, where the convening parties will further discuss how to meet the Paris Climate Agreement agreed upon at COP21.  The Report reveals the huge contribution hotels must make to help in the fight against climate change.

In order to manage the global increase in tourism over the coming decades, the hotel industry must reduce its absolute carbon emissions by 66% by 2030 and 90% by 2050, the Report states. The Hotel Global Decarbonisation Report was published to complement the September launch of ITP’s 4 Goals for 2030, which align the hotel sector’s sustainable activity with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also called the Global Goals. The ITP Goals focus on Carbon, Water, Youth Employment and Human Rights, which are core sustainability issues impacting responsible hospitality providers globally, and the goals are a carefully constructed and practically achievable response to these issues.

The threshold of 2 degrees is a quantifiable “science-based target”, which forms the basis of ITP’s Goal on Carbon:

To drive sustainable growth for the future, ITP members embrace the ambition of science-based targets* and encourage the wider industry to join their collaboration to develop carbon reductions at scale.

Fran Hughes, the Director of ITP, said at the announcement of the Report: “These figures are significant, but we believe they are achievable. They are representative of the level of reduction the whole hotel sector needs to make in order to decouple its growth, from growth in emissions. The reductions individual companies need to make may vary, dependent on where they are located and their infrastructure. That’s why we’re encouraging hotels to develop their own science-based target.

“The technology exists today to fully decarbonise the sector. Solving the issue of climate change becomes how to accelerate the solutions which are currently available. To do so, hotel industry leaders will need to support an evolution of thought and approach to make it happen through carbon pricing and how projects are financed.

“ITP’s members support our vision and our four ITP Goals which tackle carbon, water, youth unemployment and human rights. We are supporting our members with research and best practice sharing to build their capacity to develop science-based targets. Going forward we want to explore opportunities to collaborate where we can deliver carbon reductions at scale.”

Green Key awarded Radisson Blu Frankfurt is mentioned as a case study in the Report. 

Founder of Greenview, Eric Ricaurte, added:

“We all share one planetary KPI: 2-degree temperature rise or less. Now translating that to each industry and company, we can shift focus toward the opportunities to decarbonise while protecting what travellers value. No other sector like tourism will play a role in literally shaping the future of our world.”

* A Science-Based Target is one adopted by a company to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and is considered “science-based” if it is in line with the level of decarbonisation required to keep global temperature increase below 2°C. It is based in scientific research and evidence.

Source and Pictures: International Tourism Partnership