The Radisson Hotel Group has become the world’s first hotel group to make all meetings and events across its 400+ hotels in its EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) portfolio carbon negative.
For every event taking place at its participating hotels, Radisson Hotel Group will offset double the carbon footprint to ensure that each meeting has a positive impact on the environment.
Meetings booked between the 18th of October 2021 and the 31st of January 2022 – and taking place before the 31st of March 2022 – the ‘Carbon Negative. Planet Positive’ will set a new sustainability standard in the global hospitality industry, allowing clients to host meetings in a sustainable way by offsetting double the CO2 emissions from meetings and events, free of charge to the client, making meetings that take place during this period at participating hotels carbon negative.
‘Carbon Negative. Planet Positive’ has reinforced the group’s 100% carbon neutral meetings offering at 1 600 of its hotels worldwide since 2019. The initiative forms part of Radisson’s wider ‘responsible business’ program which targets reducing the group’s carbon footprint by 30%, and which aims to set science-based targets. Since the launch of the 100% Carbon Neutral Meetings program, the group has offset over 30 300 tons of CO2 at no costs to its clients which is the equivalent to removing more than 6 500 fuel driven cars1 off the road.
‘Carbon Negative. Planet Positive’ meetings complement the group’s hybrid meetings solutions which launched in 2020 and offer owners and guests the flexibility and space optimization to better meet the rapid lifestyle changes of today’s travellers. The hybrid meetings are available across more than 100 of Radisson’s hotels in EMEA and contribute to a lighter scope 3 footprint for the client.
“The upcoming COP26 conference will see the world leaders come together to discuss climate change which needs all our attention” said Eric de Neef, Executive Vice President, Global Chief Branding & Commercial Officer for the Radisson Hotel Group.
“At Radisson Hotel Group, we are constantly reviewing how we, as a global business, can influence positive climate action, and how we can encourage the hospitality industry to push the boundaries on green meetings and events. We are proud to be pioneering this initiative and trust that meeting organizers around the globe recognise the positive impact they can have on the environments as face-to-face meetings increase”.
“Carbon Negative. Planet Positive allows you to make your meetings carbon negative and your impact planet positive. With the return of business travel, now is the time to have a positive impact. For Radisson Hotel Group, it is important that we offset carbon emissions according to the highest quality standards and in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This is why we select offsetting projects that are not only good for the environment, but also socially relevant. This initiative plays a key role in helping us achieve our ‘responsible business’ targets to protect people, the planet, and community” commented Inge Huiibrechts, Global Senior Vice President Sustainability, Security, and Corporate Communications.
For each meeting, the carbon footprint is calculated using the HCMI methodology2 and then offset through projects which are Gold Standard or Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) recognised. These projects combat climate change and contribute to sustainable development in line with the UN’s SDGs and include: a clean cooking and safe water program in Kenya, wind farm projects in Turkey, India, and the US to generate green electricity, a forest protection program in Peru to reduce deforestation sustainability, and a biogas project in rural China. In addition, members of Radisson’s Radisson Rewards loyalty program can also choose to redeem their loyalty points to offset their stay.
1 US Environmental Protection Agency.
2 Calculated with the industry standard tool, Hotel Carbon Measurement Initiative.
