The Rezidor Hotel Group has been awarded the Travel Industry Club?s Best Practice Award 2013 for its Group-wide energy-saving initiative ?Think Planet?. The hotel group, with more than 430 hotels and 95,000 rooms in 70 countries, took first place for its innovative and forward-looking actions with regard to economy, ecology and social responsibility.
The Travel Industry Club uses its Best Practice Award to honour a company in the tourism, travel and hospitality industry which differentiates itself from its competitors through particularly successful products or processes. The Club comprises decision makers from across the whole leisure and business travel industry. The prize winners are chosen by a jury of 33 experts from business, trend analysis and the media. The award was presented at the Award Night 2013 on the evening before the ITB Berlin trade fair.
The ambitious and proactive Think Planet programme aims to reduce energy consumption by 25 per cent over five years. ?Think Planet focuses on implementing intelligent ways of using energy when managing the hotels. Significant investment is being put into achieving completely energy-efficient lighting in all our hotels, installing adjustable extraction units in the kitchens, and improving the building management systems through installing heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems,? explained Inge Huijbrechts, Vice President Responsible Business at Rezidor. All energy-saving results are monitored and checked via key environmental figures in monthly reports.
[quote]?Whether you are an employee or a guest – everyone in the hotel makes a variety of decisions each day which influence whether our environment is protected or scarce resources are saved,? said Willem van der Zee when accepting the Best Practice Award 2013. Rezidor Hotel Group?s Vice President Central Europe is responsible for the Radisson Blu and Park Inn by Radisson hotel brands. ?As an international hotel group, we started taking responsibility for the environment decades ago. We are proud to have developed a sustainable model solution in Think Planet, which will prepare us for the future. This award is recognition of the commitment, efforts and passion of our employees to turn this into reality on a daily basis.?[/quote]
The climax of the Award Night 2013 was when Kurt Ritter was presented with the Travel Industry Club?s Lifetime Award 2013 for his tremendous services to the international hotel industry. The passionate hotelier was President and CEO of the Rezidor Hotel Group from 1989 to the end of last year. Under his leadership, the company grew from having 29 hotels into a Group that operates worldwide and currently has 430 hotels.