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Published: 24/04/2008 - Filed under: News »

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Ramada Jarvis receives Green Tourism Business Scheme award

Ramada Jarvis Hotels has become the first national hotel group to achieve the Green Tourism Business Scheme (GTBS) award at bronze level or above at all of its 41 UK hotels.

Ramada says it has implemented various environmental practices across the business in order to meet the criteria laid down by GTBS. These include emplying a “green co-ordinator” at each hotel, reducing print paper and ink usage, encouraging staff to use public transport where possible, regionalising training, and implementing water-flow restriction technology.

For more information visit ramadajarvis.co.uk.

Finnair launches emissions calculator

Passengers can now calculate the fuel consumption and carbon emissions of their flights on Finnair’s website. However, the carrier has stopped short of promoting carbon-offset services to customers, saying that it is working instead on emissions reduction.

Kati Ihamaki, Finnair’s vice-president of sustainable development, says: “In our environmental work we have focused on the fact that Finnair carries the responsibility for its emissions itself. We do this by systematically renewing our fleet and offering short connections between Europe and Asia via Helsinki. We recently did a study among Finnish consumers asking them who is responsible for the emissions from a flight, the airline or the passenger – 54 per cent replied that the airline is responsible. This gives resounding support to our view.”

For more information visit finnair.com.

Kimpton Hotels offer green meeting incentives

US-based Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants has launched “Great Meetings, Great Causes”, a scheme offering environmentally and socially responsible incentives to meeting planners and clients.

When booking meetings with Kimpton, organisers can choose two incentives from a list including a complimentary upgrade to an “Earthcare” meetings package (with organic refreshments and recycled materials), a US$100 donation to a charity of the client’s choice, and a box of environmentally friendly goods such as energy-efficient light bulbs from greensender.com.

For more information visit kimptonhotels.com.

JAL launches “Eco Jet”

Japan Airlines has decorated one of its 777-200 aircraft with a green design to raise awareness of its “Sky Eco” action plan. The JAL Eco Jet sees the tailfin of the aircraft changing from the normal red colour scheme, with the words “Sky Eco” painted in both English and Japanese on the fuselage.

The carrier’s eco plan has been in place since 2002, and includes the aim of reducing fuel consumption by 20 per cent in the 20 years to 2010 – JAL says it has so far achieved a 15 per cent reduction on 1990 figures.

For more information visit jal.co.jp.

Novotel sets out green plans

Accor’s Novotel hotel brand carried out its first “e-press conference” last week, setting out the environmental aims for the chain. Among Novotel’s goals are for 100 per cent of its hotels to commit to the Green Globe environmental certification programme by 2010.

The chain currently has three certified hotels – the Novotel Sharm El Sheikh, Novotel Lyon Part Dieu, and Novotel London Tower Bridge, with the Novotel Shanghai Atlantis and Novotel Benoa Bali due to achieve the criteria soon. If all goes to plan this will rise to include all 400-plus properties in the Novotel portfolio, with hotels undergoing a two-step “benchmarking” and certification process.

For more information visit novotel.com.

Report by Mark Caswell

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