Despite increased and stringent requirements for achieving a Danish Green Key certification, a record breaking 64% of all hotel rooms in Copenhagen are now eco-certified. And the green hotel boom continues.
Copenhagen is a recognised pioneer when it comes to sustainable meetings, a status which is underlined by the fact that 64% of the city’s hotel rooms now hold official eco-certificates.
The most prominent eco-certification is the Green Key, which accounts for 48% of eco-certifications in Copenhagen. During the last quarter of 2011, the requirements for a Green Key were increased further as Mikal Holt Jensen, head of the Green Key Secretariat at HORESTA (the Danish trade association for the catering, hotel and hospitality industry), explains:
“Our demands have been optimised, for example in relation to reducing water use, the use of organic products, eco-friendly cleaning materials and focus on reducing the use of electricity and heat.”
Among the hotels which have recently received a Green Key are the FIRST Hotel Vesterbo, Bella Sky Comwell and Hotel Tiffany. First Hotel Vesterbro, with 400 rooms, has worked with sustainable hotel management for several years and is the first hotel within the FIRST hotel chain to receive a Green Key. The brand new Bella Sky Comwell, with 812 rooms, was built according to the latest environmentally friendly standards and technologies. Meanwhile, Hotel Tiffany, in the hip Vesterbro city quarter, also met the requirements for a Green Key certification.
Sustainable 2012 EU Presidency
During its presidency of the EU, which has just been ended, the Danish government ensured that all official hotels and venues used for the 110 meetings were eco-certified. As a result, the Danish EU Presidency was the first to receive the international ISO 20121 certification for sustainable event management. A month from now the London Olympics will be aiming to achieve the same standards in order to receive the same ISO 20121 certification.
The key to a Green Key
The Green Key is an eco-label awarded in more than 20 countries to hotels, hostels, conferences and campsite facilities.
To obtain a Green Key, the candidate must fulfil a list of environmental requirements. These requirements are feature in a number of criteria, formulating policies, action plans and educational programmes, as well as communication. As well as this, there is a list of environmental demands which must be met:
• Demands for minimizing the water use
• Demands for using organic products
• Demands for eco-friendly cleaning materials
• Demands for pre-sorting of waste
• Demands for minimising the use of electricity and heat
The increase in the number of eco-certified hotels in Copenhagen has been significant. In 2008, 8% of the hotel rooms in Copenhagen were certified; today 64% are eco-certified.
You can find a list of Copenhagen’s Green Key hotels here
