Nordic Choice Hotels launches climate fund to accelerate their sustainability work

The fund, which will be launched in April, is intended to finance the development of climate-friendly solutions for the hotel industry with the aim of creating a greener future. In connection with the launch of the fund, Nordic Choice Hotels offers its guests to contribute by pass on room cleaning during their stay at the hotels under a concept called Green Stay.

Refraining from cleaning has a double positive effect, partly because the guest donates money to the climate fund and partly because the cleaning itself generates an environmental impact. On average across all Nordic Choice Hotels, each room cleaned generates 23 liters of water, energy consumption of 1 kwh and 6 ml of chemicals, in addition to the climate impact from dry cleaning of sheets and towels. By renouncing cleaning, guests therefore contribute in two steps to a more sustainable world.

- Our guests want to travel and meet in the future. It is therefore our goal to ensure that this can be done in the most climate-friendly way possible. We want to drive the transformation towards a climate-neutral tourism industry and by making our own company a greener one, but also by investing in green solutions for the tourism industry. Now that we are launching our climate fund, we can continue to drive sustainability in the hospitality industry forward, says Harald Bjugstad-Holm, Sustainability Director at Nordic Choice Hotels.

Green Stay will be launched at the chain's hotels under the Clarion Hotel, Quality Hotel and Clarion Collection Hotel brands in April. At Quality and Clarion Collection, the guests need to notify the front desk to get their room cleaned and at Clarion they need to hang a door hanger on the door to renounce cleaning. As a result, Nordic Choice Hotels donates a sum of money to the fund, which will partly serve as a basis for future climate projects within Nordic Choice Hotels and partly through investments in companies that develop sustainable solutions for the tourism industry.

- We want to help our guests make smart and sustainable choices when it comes to the environment and sustainability. We want to lead the way, be a rebel and a challenger in the industry and not wait for the EU to come up with new climate measures, we want to drive the development of these instead. The launch of a climate fund and continued focus on sustainability is just right for us, says Katalin Paldeak, Chief Operating Officer at Nordic Choice Hotels.

A clear trend and standard in the industry after the pandemic is that the guest can choose how often they want their room cleaned. Nordic Choice Hotels wants to adapt to the guest's needs and through that do a good thing and contribute to our journey towards a more climate-friendly company.

As part of their sustainability work, Nordic Choice Hotels has, among other things, saved over 1,750 tonnes of CO2 earlier this year by updating its entire computer fleet to Google's Operating System instead of Windows and thereby extending the life of the computers.