After discussing eco-friendly travel, green catering and waste reduction, it is time to have a look at the accomodations for your meeting delegates.

Hotels are not particularly famous for being sustainable. Most of them consume huge amounts of resources and produce tons of waste in return.

Luckily, more and more hotels are joining the green movement and started to reduce their environmental impact. In Holland many hotels have achieved Green Key status which means that they have taken effective measures to save energy and water and to reduce waste production.

Hopefully these 3 great example inspire you to do the same!.

3. Mercure Hotels

After receiving the Green Key Award for all its hotels, the Mercure chain was also the first one in Holland that offered CO2-neutral meetings.

This means that Mercure compensates the CO2 emission of its hosted meetings by investing into sustainability projects of the Climate Neutral Group. Since 2011 the money is donated to the biggest windmill park in Taiwan.

2. Inntel Hotels

All hotels of the chain Inntel have received the Green Key Award in 2011 with a score of 37 points. This makes Inntel one of the most sustainable hotel chain in Holland.

The  accomodations in  Amsterdam, Zaandam, Rotterdam and Zutphen applied a very eco-friendly buying policy. They only use eco-labelled, recyclable or fair-trade products and purchase them in bulk to avoid unnecessary packaging material. Waste is carefully sorted and in a large part recycled or composted.

1. Green Meet*s Resort

One of my personal role models for sustainable hotels is the Green Meet*s Resort in Erica (Drenthe). Green Meet*s aims to have the most eco-friendly alternative for all daily practices.

The resort has installed underground heat pumps that supply the accomodation with earth heat in the winter. During the summer, they have a cooling effect.

Waste water is cleaned by a helophyte filter and is reused to sprinkle the gardens and golf courses. The roof of the building is covered with solar cells. The hotel has plans to become fully self-sustaining in energy.

The impact of hotels

The environmental impact of hotels lies in three key factors: energy, water and waste. Most hotels possess energy- and water-intensive facilities for lightening, heating and amenities which emit more CO2 than an average household.

Additionally, the average hotel guest is not likely to treat his hotel room with the same economical concerns as his own houshold – it would not change his bill after all.

It is estimated that hotels produce one kilogram of waste per guest per day. Managing this waste is an environmental and financial problem. Therefore green hotels are looking for waste preventing solutions and alternatives to the landfills.

Choose green

When you plan a green meeting, your should also take a careful look at the hotel you select. You can find a list of sustainable hotels in Holland on the official website. Which hotel would you recommend for green meetings?