Identify the greenest hotels in the world with GreenHotelWorld

Source: GreenHotelWorld website.

Through a recent partnership with TripAdvisor, GreenHotelWorld has integrated green hotels included in the TripAdvisor GreenLeaders Program to claim the largest collection of certified, verified green hotels on one hotel platform.

GreenHotelWorld filters more than 8,000 green hotels worldwide based on their certified and verified green practices. GreenHotelWorld has systemised the standards introduced by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) to determine its green practices categorisation. The GSTC serves as the international body for establishing and managing standards for sustainable tourism and is recognised as the accreditation body for green hotel certification labels.

“There are many green hotel certification labels with different focus, quality and credibility out there,” said Robert Boer, founder of GreenHotelWorld. “Our Green Rating algorithm helps.. to search and filter through these labels and select hotels based on their certified and verified green practices.”

In addition, the platform proposes 124,000+ low cost guarantee non-green hotels that are rendered carbon neutral for travellers through a free integrated service that offsets CO2 emissions created by hotel stays*. GreenHotelWorld commits to offsetting 26.6kg of C02 emissions for overnight hotel stays.

GreenHotelWorld has partnered with myclimate, one of the world’s leading providers of voluntary carbon offsetting measures, to calculate and offset the CO2 emissions of user bookings. “At the end of each year, myclimate will audit our bookings and determine if we have compensated sufficiently based on our estimated average of 26.6 kg per overnight stay,” said Boer. “We are really happy with the projects myclimate has selected for us in India, Kenya and Nicaragua because they combine CO2 offset with poverty alleviation.”

At GreenHotelWorld.com, companies can filter search results by a hotel’s verified green practices such as the protection of the environment, social responsibility, support for local economy and/or preservation of cultural heritage. Free CSR reporting for businesses is provided along with customised pages online for special events and conferences for attendees, in which carbon neutral hotels are proposed and tracked for CSR reporting.

“We aim to educate and empower our customers to be part of the transition to a sustainable economic model. Why should the consumer pay to offset the carbon emissions of a service sold to them by a travel company?” said Willem Blom, co-founder and Head, Business Development and Partnerships, GreenHotelWorld.

“Our goal is to make green travelling the new status quo and that next to location, price and availability, the hotel’s green practices become as important,” added Jonas Casanova, who leads the technology team at GreenHotelWorld. “We want to appeal to all eco-conscious business and private travellers in the world to become our ambassadors, fans, followers and customers to make this green impact together.”

*One overnight hotel stay produces an estimated 20.6kg of CO2 emissions in “non-green” hotels. This is called a CO2 footprint (United Nations World Tourism Organization). 

Environmentally friendly GROHE smart water system growing in popularity in Asia

Source: GROHE. The GROHE Blue system in action.

The GROHE Blue smart water system has seen significant takeup in Asia since a May 2014 study* which found that its carbon footprint is smaller than that of bottled mineral water. 

Estimated greenhouse gas emissions were 17.96 g CO2-eq/litre for the GROHE Blue system against emissions of 70 to 600 g CO2-eq/litre for bottled mineral water, depending on the type of packaging and the place of origin. The values achieved by GROHE Blue are also lower than those of conventional water dispensers, which range from about 35 to 50 g CO2-eq/litre. This means that GROHE Blue allows users to save greenhouse gas emissions of at least 25 to 50% over other alternatives. 

The system supplies filtered and chilled water in three different variants - sparkling, medium and still - directly from the same custom kitchen faucet, allowing different users in an organisation to enjoy their preferred type of water at any time. Unlike typical office potable water arrangements, no bottles have to be filled, transported or recycled in order to obtain the three types of water from a GROHE Blue system, which adds to its environmental friendliness.

Dorit Grueber, GROHE’s Vice President (Marketing), Asia, noted that Asian businesses are becoming more green and are attracted to GROHE Blue especially in matured markets, where their employees are more time-strapped.

There is definitely an increasing trend as consumers become more environmentally conscious," she said, naming Vodafone and Miele as customers of the product. "Since the publication of the study, we’ve seen a significant increase in orders that have been recorded, especially in the B2B sector. The main attraction for GROHE Blue for businesses would be the convenience of getting filtered water straight from the faucet, and an outstanding design which combines pure drinking water and washing water in a single faucet."

*The May 2014 study was carried out by the Production and Logistics Chair of GeorgAugust University in Göttingen in cooperation with Grohe. Between July and November 2013, the scientists of Göttingen University compared the carbon footprint of one litre of water tapped from the GROHE Blue system with the footprint of one litre of bottled water. The scenario was based on the assumption of 30 users per day who drink one litre of bottled water on 220 days of the year over a period of five years. The calculation of the carbon footprint covered all five lifecycles of GROHE Blue and of bottled mineral water, which range from production and transport of the raw materials as well as transport of the finished product to consumption and disposal.