The FINANCIAL — “This year Radisson Blu Iveria Hotel managed to reduce its electricity consumption by 20% compared to last year. The Hotel plans to continue this trend over the next few years. Responsible business is one of the main parts of the Hotel’s corporate strategy, I am very proud to say that our hotel was elected as Regional Responsible Business Champion which means that we are leading hotels not only in Georgia but also in Turkey and Kazakhstan ” said Ekaterine Lomidze, HR Manager of Radisson Blu Iveria. The Hotel received the eco label Green Key in August this year.
The FINANCIAL — “This year Radisson Blu Iveria Hotel managed to reduce its electricity consumption by 20% compared to last year. The Hotel plans to continue this trend over the next few years. Responsible business is one of the main parts of the Hotel’s corporate strategy, I am very proud to say that our hotel was elected as Regional Responsible Business Champion which means that we are leading hotels not only in Georgia but also in Turkey and Kazakhstan ” said Ekaterine Lomidze, HR Manager of Radisson Blu Iveria. The Hotel received the eco label Green Key in August this year.
“Eco Label indicates that Hotel’s impact on environment is minimal. We are required to control our electricity, water and gas consumption; use ecologically clean as well as local products and chemicals which does not contain harmful substances” Lomidze said.
“Rezidor Group has a very ambitious plan – the programme “Think Planet”. Rezidor’s aim is to reduce the use of electricity in all of its hotels by 25% by 2015. We have managed to decrease use of electricity by 39% this year. We started the programme in May, so we have had really quite a good result all things considered. Within the frames of Think Planet we will replace most of light bulbs in the Hotel. Rezidor Group has signed an agreement with Philips, which most likely will be supplying us with energy efficient bulbs. We have already started changing the light bulbs in guest rooms,” Lomidze said.
“Different scenarios were created by our technical department in order to regulate temperature at the Hotel. We decreased the water pressure and installed sensors in the back of the house areas. While cleaning the rooms our housekeepers are closing the curtains which helps us to saves warmth in winter and doesn’t let in the heat during summer,” Lomidze stated.
“We have special green recycle bins for paper. Unfortunately we haven’t found any companies in Georgia which recycle plastic bottles or glass. We hope that this problem will be solved soon in Georgia.” Lomidze said.
According to Lomidze Radisson employees periodically present lectures on environment care and energy saving to children at different schools.
“We have special signs in the bathrooms which inform guests about our policy regarding the towels. Our guests have the choice of whether to change their towels every day or keep them. At the moment we are working on offering people the choice of changing their bed linen every day or keeping it. The majority of our guests take part in the CSR activities,” Lomidze said.
“We have a special group at the Hotel working on the direction of CSR. The group is very active and are currently working on creating the CSR plan for 2013,” Lomidze said.
“In our corporate sales presentations we use ethical, environmental and social responsibility. The social responsibility programme supports the company a great deal. Unfortunately there is still a lack of information about CSR among Georgian companies,” Lomidze said.
“Employees play the biggest part in the development of CSR. Companies should realize that without staff business can’t be developed properly. Employers should create a healthy working environment for them. There should be much information about how big an impact we might have on the environment. In most cases people do something without knowing how harmful it actually is. For example the use of polyethylene harms the environment very much. There should be more information available in schools on the subject as well,” Lomidze said.
“CSR is one of the main philosophies of our hotel. We have a special, CSR business programme, implemented at Rezidor Group since the year 2001. The programme has been very successful since its inception. It’s an award winning programme. We are working in two directions, social and ethical responsibility then environmental responsibility. In Social and Ethical Responsibility we mean responsibility towards our guests, employees and society,” Lomidze said.
“We have a special code of Business Ethics. It’s how we represent business in an ethical way. Everybody in our Company fallows it. All of our employees are very aware of this core value, hence we treat them correspondingly. We respect Law, never discriminate anybody; We act fairly, we are open and transparent and we take care of earth. “Lomidze said.
“We have created quite a comfortable environment for disabled people at the Hotel. The Hotel offers special rooms for them. Our aim is to return to society what it gives us. Whenever our company brand enters a country, the local society is our number one priority. We always try to support society,” Lomidze said.
According to Lomidze, in terms of CSR, Radisson Blu Iveria is involved in different charity actions during the year. Company employees constantly visit schools and teach children how important it is to care for the environment.
“This year we are supporting two programmes. Both of them are set by the American Friends of Georgia Organization. We have constructed a Ginger Bread House in the lobby of the Hotel. Last Saturday and Sunday anyone could visit the hotel and bring their children to decorate the Ginger Bread House as long as they left toys for charity. When it’s over we will present the collected toys to children of a kindergarten in the Varketili district who are from very poor and internally displaced families,” Lomidze said.
“From Monday to Friday we hosted pupils from different schools who brought in many useful products for the elderly. The programme is called Hospice and Nursing Care for the Most Needed Elderly in Georgia. Children brought some special items including cotton wool, soup, shampoo and many other things that elderly people need most. This campaign has been ongoing since 2009,” Lomidze said.
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