SUSTAINABILITY

2021 — a year in review: Radisson Hotel Group’s responsible business milestones

Radisson Hotel Group looks back on a year of successful Responsible Business initiatives, including being the world’s first hotel group to make meetings and events carbon-negative across 400+ hotels in its EMEA portfolio, establishing and extending partnerships focused on health, safety and green energy, and the launch of the Global Sustainability Basics framework that will be implemented in 2022.

By Inge Huijbrechts, global senior vice president sustainability, security and corporate communications for Radisson Hotel Group.

Radisson Hotel Group remains committed to its corporate responsibility targets as outlined in the 2020 Responsible Business Report, including the reduction of the company’s carbon and water footprint by 30 per cent by 2025, aligning with science-based emissions reduction targets, removing single-use plastics, and continuing to drive best practices in responsible consumption behaviour. 2021 marked a year of key milestones and innovative initiatives in the three pillars of Think People, Think Community and Think Planet.

Carbon Negative and Neutral Meetings

Since 2019, Radisson Hotel Group has set the industry standard for carbonneutral meetings and has been the only hotel group that offsets the carbon footprint for every meeting and event at its hotels worldwide at no cost to delegates or organisers. In 2021, the group launched its Carbon Negative, Planet Positive initiative to make meetings and events across 400+ hotels in its EMEA portfolio carbon negative by offsetting double the CO2 emissions. Since 2019, the Group has offset over 30,300 tons of CO2 from meetings and events, at no cost to clients, equivalent to removing more than 6,500 fuel-driven cars off the road.

Responsible consumption and supply chain partnerships

In 2021, Radisson Hotel Group announced two ground-breaking e-mobility partnerships, establishing its position as a green mobility leader. The first partnership is with Allego, a leading pan-European provider with the aim of bringing EV charging solutions to all European Radisson Hotel Group properties by 2025, and a second partnership with Sunfuel in India, aiming to equip the 100+ Radisson Hotel Group properties in the country with EV charging stations.

As part of the Group’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, Radisson Hotel Group swiftly launched the Radisson Hotels Safety Protocol across all hotels, combined with the third-party validation by SGS, as 234 continued to achieve the additional Safehotels security label.

The group was also recognised as an EcoVadis silver level sustainable company and signed an agreement with EcoVadis to apply the Rating to its global supply chain. In 2021, Radisson Hotel Group partnered with innovative start-up Too Good To Go to reduce food waste and to redistribute surplus food from hotels across Europe.

Global sustainability basics

In a unique cooperation between the World Travel & Tourism Council, the Sustainable Hospitality Alliance, and leading hotel companies, the Basic Sustainability framework was launched at the end of 2021 as a non-competitive initiative to raise the global basic level of hotel sustainability. Radisson Hotel Group supports the launch of the Basic Sustainability framework which delivers a common beginning point for hotel sustainability accessible to all hotels worldwide — whether they are part of a large international group or independent. Providing hotels globally with these common measures will have a positive impact on the planet and will drive real change by stimulating the demand for responsible travel. The full framework is currently under development and will be released in March 2022.

Responsible Business Awards

In the past year, Radisson Hotel Group has received several accolades, including Spain’s first LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Hospitality Gold certification for Radisson Collection Hotel, Magdalena Plaza Sevilla which runs entirely on renewable energy and consumes 40 per cent less water than the reference building.

“Throughout the pandemic, customers continue to look for sustainable travel options. Since the COP26 summit, climate change mitigation has come even more to the forefront of business strategies and everyone’s mind. Sustainability is a top priority for our industry and our customers. At Radisson Hotel Group, we continue to work on our roadmap to Net Zero and are proud of the milestones we have realised in a challenging year for our industry. 2021 marked an opportunity to harness our focus on responsible business initiatives for both our Group and collectively for the hospitality industry. We look forward to another year of establishing strong strategic partnerships as we all work towards a responsible recovery and return of travel,” said Inge Huijbrechts, global senior vice president sustainability, security and corporate communications for Radisson Hotel Group.

South African resilience

Throughout 2021, Radisson Hotel Group hotels across South Africa continued to provide the highest quality of service while also lending a helping hand where it was most needed. This included Radisson Blu Gautrain, Johannesburg’s donation of linen packs to more than five hundred community members, staff and organisations such as Rays of Hope for Warmth, Orlando Children’s Home and Tembisa Child and Community Welfare, during the unrest in the country.

High levels of unemployment and poverty in South Africa have also resulted in an increase in hunger. Radisson Hotel & Convention Centre OR Tambo, Johannesburg worked with chefs to divert surplus food from waste and donate it to kitchens to be cooked and served to those in need. Similarly, the team at Radisson Blu Hotel Sandton worked around the clock for six days to increase their intended quota of one thousand litres of soup to fourteen thousand litres, which resulted in fifty-six thousand people in the south and east of Johannesburg receiving a warm meal.

In Cape Town, Radisson RED V&A Waterfront currently makes a monthly donation to Meals on Wheels South Africa to assist pensioners with meals. The Radisson Hotel Group Area Support Office has also donated R38,000 to the Radisson Hotel Group Training and Development Centre at the SOS Children’s Village in Cape Town. The Centre focuses on training and educating underprivileged youth and is now a fully functional training hub for staff and children.

More details of Radisson Hotel Group’s achievements and plan will be released in the 2021 Responsible Business Report in Q2 2022.