Tenerife's GF Hotels achieves environmental excellence
Grupo Fedola (GF) Hotels is the first hotel chain in Europe and third in the world to obtain the ISO 21401: 2019 certificate for meeting the environmental, social and economic requirements of this leading sustainability management system.
ISO certificates are the gold standard of environmental management. Hotels are businesses that struggle to be eco because they use daily large quantities of water, energy and food - so for the GF Group to have the ISO 21401: 2019 certificate is impressive. Since 2008 its annual CO2 emissions have fallen by 61 per cent, from 3,792 tonnes to 1,493 tonnes. *Your average Brit emits around 6 tonnes of CO2 a year, while an average American emits 16 tonnes. Compare that to your average person in central African countries including Chad who emits just 0.1 tonnes of CO2 a year.
It's not eco to fly there so go by solar-powered boat if possible...But once you get to Tenerife you can feel virtuous in a Grupo Fedola (GF) Hotel, since the company has achieved a certificate that guarantees its hotels function in accordance with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations.
Victoria López, president of GF Hotels, says the group has met an objective its been striving towards '...which reinforces the will and commitment to meet the objectives of sustainable development'. She says this is the path to follow in the tourism sector and that 'sustainability is an investment, yet it is also a profitable and necessary strategy'.
Sustainability is seen as a competitive priority, therefore the hotel chain feels responsible not only for its economic profitability, but also for the carbon footprint generated by its suppliers. GF Hotels plans to continue with sustainability drives and intends to cut out 20 tons of plastic from its operations by 2020. equivalent to 71 tons of CO2.
