Holiday Inn Helsinki City Center is the world’s first Swan-labeled Holiday Inn® hotel

On Thursday, December 8, 2022, the Holiday Inn Helsinki City Center hotel was awarded the well-known and respected Nordic Swan ecolabel. There are more than 4,200 Holiday Inn® and Holiday Inn Express® hotels worldwide – Holiday Inn Helsinki City Center is now the first among them to have the Nordic Swan Ecolabel. The hotel closely monitors its energy consumption and especially invests in reducing food waste. Thanks to its central location, it sells several waste rations onward every day with the help of the ResQ Club service.

In Finland, the Holiday Inn®, Hotel Indigo® and Crowne Plaza® hotels of the IHG hotel family are operated by Scandic Hotels Oy. Scandic has chosen the Nordic Swan Ecolabel as its environmental label, because its strict criteria challenge a holistic approach in environmental work. The Nordic Swan Ecolabel guarantees that, among other things, the hotel offers plenty of vegetarian dishes and organic products, favors eco-labeled products and services, keeps energy and water consumption low, and sorts and reduces the amount of waste. Scandic’s goal is to apply for the Nordic Swan Ecolabel for all its hotels by the end of 2023.

“IHG’s own Journey to Tomorrow and Green Engage programs support Scandic’s goals and the criteria of the Nordic Swan Ecolabel very well. We have already set our own goals for energy consumption and reducing food waste before applying for the Nordic Swan Ecolabel. We will invest heavily in these issues in the future as well and we will monitor, for example, water consumption and possible leaks in real time. These are everyday things to do in our hotel,” says Mari Salonen, General Manager of Holiday Inn Helsinki City Centre.

Holiday Inn Helsinki City Center participates in the fight against food waste by using the ResQ service. Thanks to its central location, it sells daily, for example, unsold high-quality food from its lunch services as take-away portions for dinner at home or as a snack at work.

“We have also reduced wastage by carefully thought out presentation, timely serving and by optimizing the size of the serving containers”, Salonen adds.

Nordic Swan Ecolabel criteria now even stricter

The criteria for Nordic Swan Ecolabel’s hotel and accommodation services were renewed last year, as a result of which the criteria have been tightened and completely new requirements have been introduced. According to a recent Nordic Swan Ecolabel consumer survey, 94 percent of Finns recognize the brand.

“It’s great to have Holiday Inn Helsinki City Center join the Nordic Swan Ecolabel family. The application process went smoothly and as an inspector, it was great to notice that the programs and systems support Scandic’s goals and the criteria of the Nordic Swan Ecolabel very well,” says Nordic Swan Ecolabel expert Annika Hämäläinen.