InterContinental Genève: United Teamwork Key to Sustainability
Since 1964, InterContinental Genève has welcomed guests and VIPs from around the world including diplomats, heads of state, eminent artists and celebrated athletes, and has long been the trusted caretaker for global summits and diplomatic meetings. This landmark hotel is located at the heart of the United Nations district, overlooking Lake Geneva while enjoying panoramic views of Mont Blanc and the Jura mountains.
In 2014, on its 50th anniversary, InterContinental Genève established its internal Green Committee and began its sustainability journey with Green Globe. The hotel has since earned Gold status for its continuous commitment to the environment and society, and this year was certified by Green Globe for its 8th year of independently verified sustainable operations and management.
Sustainability has become the cornerstone of InterContinental Genève business strategy, with the hotel’s environmental and societal actions supporting the United Nations objectives and applied daily in all departments, thanks to the strong commitment of the hotel’s colleagues. According to Camille Montagne, InterContinental Genève’s Training & Sustainability Manager, the key to the hotel’s success is both teamwork and creativity.
"At InterContinental Genève, we always try to find new ideas and new ways to reduce our impact on the environment and to impact positively our community. We are lucky to have a very creative and engaged Green Committee, happy to explore new paths to satisfy our guests and take care of the planet,” says Camille.
Most recently Camille’s colleagues at InterContinental Genève focused on the well-being of, and support for the less fortunate people in their community. Camille explains, “As part of InterContinental’s Giving for Good Month, we decided to multiply our engagement with associations by organizing a clothing drive that collected 61.5 kg of clothes for the Red Cross, while we also collected and distributed excess food from our hotel brunches to the local association assisting homeless people.”
Giving for Good Month is promoted throughout IHG (InterContinental Hotel Group) and encourages their colleagues to make contributions to local communities, including donating blood, delivering food parcels, and raising funds for local charities. Since the program’s inception over 27,000 IHG colleagues have contributed and had a positive impact in the lives of more than 312,000 people around the world
Environmentally, IHG was the first hotel group to announce the worldwide elimination of small plastic bottles of shower soap, shampoo and moisturizer in favor of refillable dispensers. At InterContinental Genève this elimination of single use plastics is also supported by a concerted recycling campaign, which most recently include the safe recycling of facemasks that were generated in large amounts during the recent pandemic.
As one the world’s leading hotels for events and meetings, InterContinental Genève has also committed since 2020 to offset the carbon footprint of all events at no additional cost to their customers. This action is made possible thanks to a partnership with climatmundi and their tools able to calculate emissions and offsets for events taking place in the hotel’s 2000 m2 of conference space.
At InterContinental Genève there is no end to the creative actions that the hotel and its colleagues undertake to display their care for the planet. Training & Sustainability Manager Camille Montagne concludes with a typical example, “In Genève, World Bee Day is well recognized and here at the hotel our pastry chef created a honey-based dessert to raise awareness among guests of the importance of bees which are crucial for sustainable agriculture and global food supply.”
Celebrating the work of bees, with honey inspired dessert on World Bee Day.
For those who may not know, the pollination that bees provide is responsible for the creation of every third spoonful of food in the world today, and every year each of these little creatures will fly 40,000 kilometres to get this job done. Like the busy bees, it’s the many efforts and creativity of InterContinental Genève, and their IHG colleagues globally, that are making a world of difference every day.
Contacts:
Camille Montagne
Training & Sustainability Manager
IHG Hotels & Resorts®
InterContinental Genève
7-9 Chemin du Petit Saconnex, 1209,
Genève, Suisse
Phone: +41 (0) 22 919 37 09
camille.montagne@ihg.com
IHG
Bradley Cox
Director Communications
Green Globe Certification
1223 Wilshire Blvd. Suite 925
Santa Monica, CA 90403 / U.S.A.
Phone: +1-310-337-3000 ext. 105
Skype Direct +1 760 536 6581
Mobile +61 400 848 746
bcox@greenglobe.com
https://www.greenglobe.com/
About Green Globe Certification
Green Globe Certification is the worldwide sustainability system based on internationally accepted criteria for sustainable operation and management of travel and tourism businesses. Operating under a worldwide license, Green Globe is based in California, USA and is represented in over 83 countries. Green Globe is an Affiliate Member of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO). For information, please visit https://www.greenglobe.com/
