Green Key

We are committed to a healthier, cleaner and safer world!
We believe that it is perfectly possible to combine hospitality with environmentally friendly business operations.

Green Key Gold
We are Green Key certified at the highest possible level; Gold. We apply a Sustainable Management Plan because we are aware of the influence of our business activities on the natural environment and society. A hotel is a large consumer and we believe that we should organize our business as responsibly as possible, so our environment is preserved and available for future generations.
In order to achieve this, we make conscious choices. We are constantly looking for feasible steps to shape the social responsibility within our company. For more information on Green Key, see the link www.GreenKey.nl.

Green Label Service is our consultancy agency, an expert on sustainability within hotels. They support us in achieving the Green Key certification and also help us to stay actively informed of CSR developments. To ensure that our sustainability policy is considered during daily working operations, Park Plaza Vondelpark has set up a “Green Team”. This team is responsible for investigating and addressing sustainability opportunities within the hotel. Maaike Slok is the hotelmanager and Green Team coördinator and will do an annual review to check whether the Green Team is still up to date.

People, Planet & Profit
In our business operations, we pay attention to the three P’s: Profit, Planet and People. For us, a sustainable business means that besides the pursuit of profit (Profit), we think of the impact of our activities on the environment (Planet) and also we want to have a positive influence on the people inside and outside our company (People). A well maintained balance between these three P’s, means a more sustainable result for us as well for the society.

People

• Respect for different cultures, religions and point of views
• Ensure the safety and health of our guests and employees
• Ensure the satisfaction of our guests, suppliers, employees and partners
• Contribute to local, economic and social development

Planet

• Minimizing our impact on the environment

Profit

• Long-term investments such as training and development opportunities for our employees
• Using a Sustainable Purchasing Policy
• Generate revenue/profit, a company that ceases to exist is by definition not sustainable

Social Involvement
We try to include our neighbors, as well as our guests, employees and suppliers, in our sustainability goals. We do this by raising the awareness amongst all of them and by being socially involved in our community.

Raising awareness of our guests:

• We meet the needs of our guests and inspire them to work with us to create better world. Because our guests can make a contribution during their stay by making conscious choices.
• We prefer electronic communication for all our external communication (e-mail, electronic brochures, newsletters, quotes, invoices).
• Changing towels in the hotel rooms is on request of our guests
• Changing linen in the hotel rooms is done after two nights or at the guest’s request. We started the SAVE TOMORROW TODAY! campaign, in which we ask attention for the usage of energy, water, detergents and supporting charity.
• We encourage our guests to use transportation that causes little or no pollution; public transport, cycling, walking, etc. We offer guests the opportunity to rent bicycles and we sell public transport tickets at the reception.

Raising awareness of our employees:

• To increase our employees’ sense of environmental responsibility, we apply learning methods that enable them to achieve our goals. By using working instructions (such as reporting leaking faucets to the maintenance department and separating waste for housekeeping), our employees are reminded to pursue an environmentally friendly policy.
• To continuously improve our Sustainable Management Plan, employees are encouraged to share their ideas on possible improvements.

Raising awareness of our suppliers:

• We strive to purchase sustainably and we do this by entering active partnerships with responsible suppliers. We encourage our suppliers to reduce their negative impact (number of deliveries, weight reduction, recyclability of packaging, etc.) and we challenge them to expand their range of environmentally friendly products and services. We use a Sustainable Purchasing Policy and communicate this with our suppliers.

Our local community:

We also feel responsible for supporting the development of our local community. That is why Park Plaza Vondelpark supports various initiatives that promote the social and economic growth of our neighborhood. For example, we do this by:

• By supporting more greenery in our neighborhood. For example, we have installed a green roof and added various plants to the facade of our hotel.
• The design of our garden was created by the local landscape architect Jelle Koot.
• Every year we participate in the Dam-tot-Damloop (run) in Amsterdam to collect funds for KIKA.
• We also collect ink cartridges, toners and telephones and donate the proceeds to KIKA and Stichting De Opkikker.
• In addition, the activities in which we participate with our employees and the charities we support may differ each year.

Environment

As part of our ongoing efforts to make the world a healthier place to live, work and do business. Park Plaza Vondelpark will seek first to purchase products that are fair-trade, eco-certified, recyclable, recycled, re-usable, returnable, or locally produced. With every purchase we consider the impact of the decision on the environment and where possible, we include more sustainable alternatives in our purchasing considerations. We ask our suppliers to offer us support in achieving this. As a hotel, we prefer local, certified suppliers or suppliers who act as responsibly as possible and making use of local suppliers (within a radius of 50km) can substantially lower transportation costs and CO2 emissions. We also ask our suppliers to handle their deliveries as efficiently as possible.

We will not consume, sell, or display any endangered species, products thereof, or items stemming from unsustainable practices. Meaning “foie gras”, battery eggs and endangered fish such as eel and bluefin tuna cannot be included in the preparation of our menu and are therefore not purchased by Park Plaza Vondelpark.

• ‘Take-back’ packaging policies. Suppliers are asked to provide and take back reusable packaging and containers/pallets and work with deposits on bottles and boxes.
• Where available, we choose consumable goods that are re-usable, returnable and recycled or recyclable.
• To reduce packaging waste by using as many bulk products as possible. In addition, we try not to buy products that are mono-packed. A list of all mono-packaged items used within the hotel is available and we actively look for more sustainable alternatives.
• From 2021, disposable plastic is no longer permitted by law. Meaning a ban on selected single-use products made of plastic for which alternatives exist on the market: cotton bud sticks, cutlery, plates, straws, stirrers, sticks for balloons, as well as cups, food and beverage containers made of expanded polystyrene and on all products made of oxo-degradable plastic. We almost never used single-use plastic and will never purchase these kinds products again. If we make use of disposable items, we will always purchase sustainable alternatives.
• We separate our waste.

We use water, energy and cleaning products as economically as possible. Where possible, we also ensure that our systems operate as economically as possible. Examples are:

• Every year Park Plaza Vondelpark takes part in the Earth Hour NL – WWF campaign: by turning off all lights for one hour to draw attention to the impact of climate change.
• We only use low energy consuming lamps, such as LED
• Our computers, screens and printers are energy efficient and have the EnergyStar label
• We use motion sensors for lighting
• We use a building management system to control heating and cooling of various rooms within the hotel
• We have high efficiency boilers
• No more than 9 liters of water per minute from our showers and no more than 6 liters of water per minute from our faucets.
• We have a system that collects the condensation from the air conditioner and we reuse this water to flush the toilets.
• There is a towel and linen program in place this saves water, energy and detergents.
• Use of microfiber cloths because these clothes are sustainable and by using them we reduce our use of cleaning products.
• We also use a dilution control system for your cleaning products, this way we make sure we never use too much product.
• Etc.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask. We would also like to hear from you if you have any tips!