Sustainable Meetings Next Eco-Initiative For Scandic

-- Hotels, 4/24/2008 9:03:00 AM

On May 1, sustainable meetings will be launched at Scandic’s 135 hotels. With Swan ecolabeled paper and whiteboard pens, greater waste sorting and no single-use disposable packages, the hotel chain wants to make the choice simple for meeting bookers by offering a saving of 185 kg* fossil carbon dioxide.

Demand for “green meetings” has increased internationally. Now that Scandic’s meeting product has received the IMEX Green Meetings Award at the IMEX fair in Frankfurt, in the absence of a clear Nordic certification system for meetings, the hotel chain is seizing the initiative and launching its own sustainable meetings.

“As the vast majority of our hotels are Swan ecolabeled, we feel it is time to take the next step and also offer sustainable meetings,” comments Jan Peter Bergkvist, vice president, sustainable business, and member of Scandic’s executive team. “Together with stringent environmental requirements, we are also looking at the broader picture, including accessibility, safety and health. It should be hard for conference bookers to resist our unique advantages when choosing a meeting venue.”

The hotels are built and refurbished in line with Scandic’s environmental construction standard, saving resources and cutting emissions of harmful substances. Nature’s resources also are saved by controlling energy and water consumption. The meetings themselves will be made more sustainable by only using ecolabeled materials such as Swan ecolabeled pens and notepads, washable board erasers, organic and fair-trade coffee and tap water instead of bottled water. In this way, Scandic aims to save up to 185 kg fossil carbon dioxide per meeting*.

The initiative chimes well with the hotel chain’s strategy to cut direct fossil carbon dioxide emissions to zero by 2025.

* Based on a meeting for 20 people staying at an average Scandic compared with a “worst case.”