With Earth Hour coming up, Scandic Hotels is going beyond manifestation and shows real results. Since 2007, the Nordic hotel chain has been working towards the goal of being completely carbon dioxide neutral by 2025. Now, four years later, Scandic has managed to halve their emissions and have thereby reached its sub target. What made this possible is the fact that Scandic now is using solely renewable energy from wind and water for electricity in all the Nordic countries.

The reason Scandic Hotels managed to reach its sub target is that renewable sources for electricity are now used in all the Nordic countries. As of recently it was only used in Sweden and Norway.

We’re very proud of having reached our highly set goals by looking over our consumption and energy contracts, says Inger Mattsson, Manager Sustainable Business at Scandic. Environmental work is an integrated part of our operation and our strategy has been to actively work with looking at new ways to minimize our effect on the environment. This latest step, of solely using water- and wind-powered electricity in all our hotels over the Nordics, is something we’re very proud of.

The final steps down towards carbon dioxide neutral by 2025
Every month, Scandic monitors its energy consumption in order to improve and always keep it at a low level. Since the measurement began in 1996, Scandic has lowered its energy consumption by 35% and the carbon dioxide emissions by 64%, from 4,4 kg to 1,6 kg carbon dioxide/guest and night.

In Sweden the carbon dioxide emissions has been reduced by 92% to 0,3 kg carbon dioxide/guest and night. In Norway the emissions has been reduced by 79% to 0,3 kg carbon dioxide/guest and night since 1996 and in Denmark the emissions has been reduced by 69% in just one year, from 2010 to 2011. For the same period the emissions in Finland has been reduced by 40% down to 4,7 kg carbon dioxide/guest and night.

Now we have emissions of 1,6 kilos that need to go down to zero and it is the final part that represents the biggest challenge, says Inger Mattsson, Manager Sustainable Business at Scandic. The district heating, which is out of our control, must become fossil free. We can try to influence by presenting our wishes to politicians and providers of district heating. In our work towards reaching Zero we also take into consideration our business trips and we’re going to develop a tougher travelling policy that aims for increased train travel and lowered emissions from our company cars. Another part is the gas used in our kitchens. We have introduced a standard which means that the gas stoves are replaced, often with induction, when we renovate.

Scandic is industry leading when it comes to sustainability work and was this year voted most sustainable hotel chain by Swedish consumers. In 1993, the hotel chain began developing what is seen as the industry’s leading sustainability program, meaning that healthy environmental, economical and social aspects should impregnate the decisions in the daily operation.