Plastic
Plastic is not a friend of the environment. Despite this, many products today are made of plastic. Every minute 15 tons of plastic end up in oceans all over the world. To lessen our impact Nordic Choice Hotels (of which Vox Hotel is a part) participated in an initiative together with Hurtigruten and WWF in 2019 where the goal was to eliminate all unnecessary plastic products. Plastic Relay project?
Thanks to this initiative we no longer use:
- Plastic lids for take away cups. These are now degradable.
- Plastic cutlery for take away.
- Plastic boxes for take away.
- Plastic disposable cups.
- Plastic straws.
- Plastic stirrers.
- Plastic water bottles in hotel rooms.
And the journey has just begun…
Water
The water that is used at the hotel comes from nearby lake Vättern and runs through Häggebergs treatment plant just outside the city before it reaches our hotel. These short distances make it a climate efficient system. The water is “soft” (3,8 °dH) and therefore very low dosages of detergents are sufficient. When the water comes from the treatment plant its temperature varies with the seasons in order to save unnecessary regulatory resources. The water is delivered by Jönköping municipality.
We work continuously to reduce our water usage. Amongst other things we do not purchase bottled water, and we try to reduce our and our guests’ usage by spreading knowledge. Our guests have the opportunity to help us save water when staying more than one night by accepting that we do not clean the room during the stay. If a guest wants their room cleaned anyway, they must hang a sign on the door. Thanks to measuring systems we can view exactly how much cold and warm water we use at the hotel.
Waste
No matter how sustainable our products are there will always be some amount of waste from the daily operations. But there is a lot we can do to incorporate sustainable thinking in this area as well. Our goal is to recycle 99 % of the waste. To reach this goal we are working with a circular mindset, sorting waste, purchasing renewable products and educating our staff. We work with systems for weighing, measuring and reporting, which makes us able to observe as well as discover areas for improvement. In addition we have initiated “No waste breakfast” – an initiative you can read more about here (link to Food Revolution).
Chemicals
A hotel has many areas in need of maintenance. This often results in usage of chemicals harmful to animals and nature. At Vox Hotel we are constantly working to reduce our usage of such chemicals. With a classification system where chemicals are labeled red, yellow or green we are able to measure and improve in this area. The goal is to reduce our total usage to 12 grams per guest night. When Vox Hotel became part of Nordic Choice Hotels in 2017 we made a comprehensive update of all our chemicals. Furthermore, this is an area where our purchase department is continuously looking for the best options.
Energy
The building where Vox Hotel is situated runs on electricity and district heating from Jönköping Energi and Bixia, using local productions in Torsvik just outside of Jönköping and from individuals with water mills or wind mills in their courtyard. District heating is a successful way to utilize energy that otherwise would be wasted. Renewable sources such as wind, water and forest industry waste are used in the production of our energy. Heat and electricity are produced together, which is more efficient and climate friendly than separate productions. Cooling for the hotel is also produced locally by making use of the cold water from lake Vättern.
We always try to reduce the necessary amount of energy. We turn out the lights in hotels rooms and other areas when they are not used, we adjust our operating procedures efficiently, we programme blinds to keep back unnecessary temperature changes, and more. As we measure all our energy use carefully, we are able to clearly track our actions.
Transportation
Transportation contributes to harmful emissions which are harmful to animals and nature. As part of Nordic Choice Hotels we are an important player in a mission of reducing the number of transportations and striving to offset 100 % of the still necessary transportations. Some examples on how we work to reach this goal are that we have adapted our purchase routines and the frequency of transportations to and from the hotel. Another part of this is our system that guests must hang a sign on the door if they want their room cleaned when they stay for more than one night. Thanks to this we are saving resources and transportations. Furthermore, we always have the environment in mind when we travel for work. Many meetings are held digitally to avoid travelling and those travels that still are necessary are carried through as climate efficiently as possible and accounted for in our internal monitoring system.
