Radisson Blu Hotels Work on Water

Radisson Blu Hotels won the first IMEX-EIC Innovation in Sustainability Award in 2017 with their Water Stewardship initiative.

Events Industry Council Sustainability Committee Member, Chance Thompson, connected with Inge Huijbrechts, Global Vice President, Responsible Business for Radisson Hotels, to learn more about their industry changing water initiatives.

CT: Tell us more about the Radisson Blu Hotels’ initiative on water?

IH: Our 300 Radisson Blu Hotels around the world take many actions related to water mindfulness and stewardship, both in guest interactions and hotel operations. For example, with our towel reuse program, we connect the water saved in our own operations to bringing safe drinking water to water-stressed locations in other parts of the world. Water stress occurs when the demand for water exceeds the available supply during a certain period or when poor quality restricts its use.

We’ve also reduced our water usage by 30 percent on average over the past 10 years, with various water efficiency technologies in the guestrooms, public washrooms, hotel kitchens and cooling installations.

Every morning, our guests enjoy our water-light breakfast menu. This menu has a 22 percent lower footprint than previous menus.

In addition, we make all meetings and events in Radisson Blu hotels carbon free in partnership with First Climate. We do this by buying carbon offsets from projects that are linked to safe drinking water. These projects are active in restoring boreholes in Africa and providing clean-cooking technologies in India.

CT: How does this link to a country’s economic development?

IH: Radisson Blu wants to be known as the hotel brand that cares about water in its broadest sense. Water scarcity is a global issue and the number of locations that are exposed to absolute water stress is increasing, including the areas where we’re growing as a company. We want to be known for the legacy we leave in these communities by helping to provide the life changing necessities of drinking water, sanitation and hygiene.

It’s not just about drinking water, it’s also about the time spent, often by women and children, to go and fetch water, and the physical impact this has on them. It’s also a starting point for girls spending more time in school, for healthier communities and greater opportunities for work and income for women. This is the indirect and very essential impact of UN SDG 6 – ‘Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all’.

CT: We can all take simple actions to be more water mindful, what would you recommend in our everyday lives?

IH: We can reduce our water footprint by eating vegetarian from time to time. Even if you’re not a vegetarian every day, enjoying vegetarian meals can have a massive impact. People typically do not realize that to get 1 kg of steak on your plate, 15,400 liters of water is needed.

Another great way to be water mindful and save ocean life, is to ban PET (plastic made from polyethylene terephthalate) water bottles. Every 1 liter of drinking water in a PET bottle takes 3 liters of water to produce.

CT: How do we make change and raise awareness around this issue in our industry?

IH: Let’s make it a habit to ask questions about the sustainability of your meeting or event. When you ask questions, you not only trigger the awareness in your company, but also spark the recognition of local challenges in the destination where your event is taking place.

In Radisson Blu Hotels, you can be assured that your meeting or event is sustainable: we always offer great vegetarian and local dishes as part of Brain Food for Meetings; we aim to offer only glass bottled water in meetings & events and your meeting’s carbon footprint is automatically offset.

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