Think Planet, think bike - Rezidor

Cape Town's Radisson Blu Hotel Waterfront was announced as the winning hotel in the Think Planet campaign at the Rezidor Hotel Group's annual business conference held in Riga, Latvia, earlier this year.

Reducing the carbon footprint

With over 430 hotels in 70 countries, the Rezidor Hotel Group is one of the fastest growing hotel companies in the world. However, according to Inge Huijbrechts, Rezidor's vice president of responsible business, "The rapid expansion of the group's operational footprint can only be considered a success if we can proactively reduce our carbon footprint and energy requirements at the same rate or faster."

Using this ecological sensitivity as the guiding principle, the Rezidor Hotel Group launched the Think Planet initiative. The group set themselves an ambitious goal of reducing their total energy consumption by 25% across their entire portfolio by 2016. As an incentive, Rezidor offered a Hoptown B-Twin foldable bicycle for each staff member of the individual hotel which effected the highest energy savings in 2012.

"Our staff qualified for this prize by completely obliterating the 5% target set for year one, and in doing so, set a challenge to the other hotels by achieving the highest overall reduction in energy - a remarkable 28% or 1 million kilowatthours (equivalent to 20,000 LED bulbs lit for one year)," comments Michael Rathgeb, general manager at Radisson Blu Hotel Waterfront. "I am very proud of how the whole hotel championed this noble cause, and for the valuable part each staff member played in reducing overall energy consumption," says Rathgeb.

Engaging staff

A Think Planet committee, comprised of staff members from different departments and seniority levels, was established within the Radisson Blu Hotel Waterfront. Headed by chief engineer, Alan Petersen, the committee played a crucial part in achieving the overall objective by implementing initiatives which included the installation of LED lighting and lighting motion sensors, refurbishment of the HVAC system and cooling towers, and education of the guests and fellow staff members.

Inge Huijbrechts from Rezidor's head office in Brussels, Belgium, will be attending the prizegiving ceremony at the Radisson Blu Hotel Waterfront on 29 May to hand over the 230 bicycles to all the staff. "A crucial factor in our Think Planet energy-saving initiative is staff engagement," comments Huijbrechts. "We achieve this through the 'Go for Gold' bicycle incentive and with Lumi the firefly, a clever little mascot that makes energy saving fun. The Radisson Blu Hotel Waterfront's fantastic achievements demonstrate that we are considerably reducing our environmental footprint and confirm Rezidor as one of the industry leaders in terms of sustainability."

Minimise energy consumption, maximise profits - Neumann

"Globally we are currently faced with rising energy costs and government carbon taxation in an increasing number of countries. Think Planet focuses on key actions and energy-saving investments that will have the biggest impact in reducing our energy consumption. Moving forward, reducing our energy consumption will also contribute to maximising our profits," comments Wolfgang M. Neumann, executive vice president and chief operating officer at Rezidor.