From December 7-18 the hopes of the planet will be focused on discussions being held in Copenhagen, as up to 12-15,000 people from around the world gather to attempt to reach a new global climate agreement at the UN Convention on Climate Change, COP 15.
Copenhagen offers numerous environmentally-labelled hotels and green-orientated convention centres, which makes the Danish capital an obvious choice for this globally anticipated climate summit.
The conference will be held at Bella Center, one of Europe’s leading convention centres, with a capacity of 20,000. Bella Center is constantly seeking ways to minimise its environmental impact, and will have reduced its Co2 emissions by 20% compared with 2007 numbers, before COP 15.
Green hotels – a reality for years
Copenhagen is well known as an environmentally friendly city thanks to its eco-labelled hotels; the highest consumption of organic foods per capita of its residents; and environmentally friendly transport options. As the rest of the world begins to discuss climate issues in earnest, sustainability has been a watchword of the city’s hotels for years.
The fact that COP 15 will be held in Copenhagen has prompted even more of the city’s hotels to get their environmental policies in order and optimise their efforts to become even more environmentally friendly. Today, close to 50% of its hotels are certified with an official environmental label, such as the EU Flower, the Nordic Swan Label, the Green Key or others.
Organic food
Sustainability is one of the main focal points when it comes to providing adequate and satisfactory catering at the COP15 and Denmark has chosen to guarantee a minimum of 65% organic food and beverages including fair-trade products such as coffee and tea.
It has also been decided that top rude materials, food and packaging has to comply with the standard requirements for acknowledged marking arrangements such as Max Havelaar, the European Union Eco Lable and the Nordic Swan -or equivalent. Furthermore, the food production will be characterized by low energy consumption and environmentally waste disposal.
Water
The ground water quality in Denmark is very high, therefore all potable water at the conference venue will be tap-water. This implies a considerable energy saving advantage because production, transportation and disposal of water bottles will be avoided.
Optimal Transport Logistics
The PCO MCI Copenhagen has established a database to handle all the hotel bookings. In the case of most bookings, the Danish Foreign Ministry will use the database to plan the optimal transport logistics to and from the Bella Center in order to minimise Co2 emissions from vehicles as much as possible.
Around 10-12,000 delegates and up to 3,000 journalists are expected to attend COP 15 in the Danish capital.
