Nordic Sea Hotel and Nordic Light Hotel, with a total of 542 rooms at Vasaplan in Stockholm city, are complementing their environmental certification with the ISO 14001 international environmental standard. The hotels have been certified to the Nordic Ecolabel (“Svanen label”) since 2007. ISO 14001 allows the hotels to integrate their environmental work further, taking it up to the next level.
“We have taken a major integrated step in our environmental work in order to reduce our environmental impact as far as possible. ISO 14001 means that our environmental work is now really well thought-out on the basis of a long-term perspective, engaging all our staff and involving the whole company. Our program of continuous education and information for our employees ensures that everyone understands their individual role and takes part in the environmental work. Our aim is to minimise the environmental impact of our hotel operations as much as possible without losing out on quality and service”, says Satu Andersson, CEO of Nordic Sea Hotel and Nordic Light Hotel.
The ISO 14001 environmental management system stipulates that the company monitors its own environmental impact and that its environmental work is pursued on the basis of its own targets and action plans in order to assure sustainable development of its operations over time.
“ISO 14001 and Nordic Ecolabel complement each other. Our work with the Nordic Ecolabel put the bar in place whereas ISO is the post that helps us leap over the bar and jump even higher. ISO makes higher demands on aspects such as energy consumption, use of chemicals and handling of waste. So it continuously helps us to leap even higher and become even better”, says Sergio Duarte, Environmental Manager at Nordic Light Hotel and Nordic Sea Hotel.
“One of our largest environmental projects was to replace the halogen lamps in the common areas of Nordic Light Hotel by LEDs, thus reducing our energy consumption by about 90,000 kWh every year. We also decided to keep our own laundry. The resulting savings in terms of transport relieve the environment by 50 tonnes of carbon dioxide annually”, adds Sergio.
In 2001, Nordic Hotels opened these two establishments: Nordic Sea Hotel – with 367 rooms and the ICEBAR STOCKHOLM by ICEHOTEL, and Nordic Light Hotel – a member of Design Hotels, with 175 rooms on Vasagatan in Stockholm.
This year the Nordic Light Hotel was named Sweden’s leading boutique hotel for the third successive year by World Travel Awards 2010. Over the years the hotel has excelled with its lighting design and has become an arena for a series of different design events in Stockholm. The lobby features several different guest installations over the course of a year, with everything from established designers to those completely new on the scene, all of whom work closely with the hotel’s own design team. www.nordiclighthotel.se
Nordic Sea Hotel offers 367 hotel rooms, 11 conference rooms, a bar and restaurant at Vasaplan in Stockholm city centre. It was the first hotel in the world to offer a permanent ice bar all year round. Since its opening in 2002, ICEBAR STOCKHOLM has offered spectacular ice design and a constant indoor temperature of minus five.
The hotels are part of the Nordic Hotels & Resorts group, which currently unites eight unique brands under one umbrella organisation. These include Yasuragi Hasseludden, Aronsborg, Selma Spa, Stenungsbaden Yacht Club, Copperhill Mountain Lodge and Farris Bad in Norway. www.nordichotels.se
Sergio Duarte, Environmental Manager Tel: +46 8 50 56 35 68E-mail: sergio.duarte@nordichotels.se