Sustainable Hotels

Anyone staying in an ISO 9001 or ISO 14001 certified hotel benefits from high quality and sustainable standards. ISO 9001 certification guarantees that the hotel implements a reliable quality management system to ensure a pleasant and problem-free stay. At the same time, ISO 14001 certification focuses on proactive measures to reduce the ecological footprint and promote the conscious use of resources – so that guests can have a good feeling when they are traveling.

This Swiss seal of quality confirms that a hotel or accommodation has implemented sustainable practices and is continuously working on improving them. Depending on the level achieved, hotels are classified as bronze, silver, gold, or platinum, with the bronze label already requiring a high level of sustainability.

Green Key is a globally applied sustainability certificate from Denmark, which is awarded by the international Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE). The criteria catalog is publicly accessible and is regularly checked on site.

The EarthCheck certification, which originated in Australia, checks the sustainability of hotels in terms of their environmental, social, and economic impact using publicly accessible criteria recognized by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC).The audits are carried out on site by independent auditors. This ensures on-going compliance with the sustainability standards.

GreenSign also focuses on sustainable practices, but offers more flexible criteria and is particularly popular in Germany and neighboring countries. The requirements can be adapted to the size and circumstances of each hotel.

The American Green Globe is also an internationally recognized sustainability label. Besides mandatory criteria, it checks additional criteria that do not all have to be fulfilled from the outset. However, in the spirit of continual improvement, the proportion of the criteria met should increase from year to year.