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		Green Hotel of the Year
Scarlet Hotel Radisson Chateau Mcely Boutique Hotel The Regent Castello Dal Pozzo Park Inn Hotel Rafayel

The Scarlet is a beautiful, 37-bedroom hotel built to the highest ecological standards in Cornwall, UK, boasting delicious locally sourced food and the best Ayurvedic-inspired spa you can imagine. It is an escape for grown-ups to eat, dream and play in peace. The challenge was to be luxurious without costing the planet. The hotel is very proud of the painstaking efforts it has made to harmonise with the environment, showing how great design can go hand in hand with sustainability. Every room combines local art, natural decoration and low-energy design in a way that is very different to the excessive consumption of conventional luxury hotels. The hotel's team is different; staff are chosen for their caring nature and zest for life. The Scarlet has informal staff roles, no reception desk and is all about making guests feel at home. The essence of the hotel is life's simple pleasures: the spa is about long term well-being; the food is about putting a smile on guests' faces and a warm feeling in their bellies. Success is guests sharing laughter and joy.

All the initiatives at the Boutiquehotel Stadthalle, Vienna, have the same aim: to contribute to the conservation of nature. The hotel uses rain water for toilet flushes, dispenses with air conditioning by using ground water to cool the building, and warms up fresh air in the winter with heat from solar buffer storage systems.

Guests are invited to live ecologically and sensitively, even if it is for only two days. They are asked to separate their plastic or glass bottles or any kind of paper. Staff have learned to separate waste items, to save energy by closing the windows after housekeeping services in the room, to save detergents by using lemon juice or taking special cleaning tissues.

Rain water is used for flushing the toilets and for watering the garden, and the rooms under the lavender roof are cooled in summer and warm in winter. The whole project is an innovation, as it is the first urban hotel in the world with zero-energy-balance.

Hotel Rafayel on the Left Bank is one of the world’s first luxury green hotels conceptualised on environmental-conscious principles by its visionary developer Ike Latif. The 65-room boutique hotel is part of Battersea’s award-winning Falcon Wharf development.

The hotel collaborates with energy-efficient technology suppliers, like Philips for LED lighting, Hypnos for bed disposal and recycling, Vivreau for energy-saving bottling, Daikin for an air conditioning system with heat recovery, and VDA for a room automation system that allows the hotel to micro-manage the energy usage in every guest room, public area and back office space.

All the hotel’s luxurious fountains and landscaping zones are irrigated through a system served by harvested rain water. The rain water is collected through the large open terraces across the 17 storey building, and stored in large capacity tanks in the basement.

The hotel strictly adheres to a no-plastic policy that includes organic bath, body and beauty products from NEOM provided in refillable bottles and wall dispensers. All NEOM products contain a minimum of 70% soil association certified organic ingredients.

Chateau Mcely was recognised by the prestigious 2008 World Travel Awards in the Green Hotel category as The World's Leading Green Hotel. Prior to this award, in a recent announcement by the European Union, Chateau Mcely was designated the first five-star "Green" and Eco Chic Hotel in the Czech Republic, and only the second one in the entire EU. Chateau Mcely was picked by travel agents and guests from around the world in competition with hotels from all of the major continents. This award to Chateau Mcely demonstrates that five-star luxury service need not be mutually exclusive of respect for the environment and energy efficiency. In fact, Chateau Mcely has found that, though its investments in this area and by educating its staff to participate in and support this effort, being green can be financially profitable.

The Regent Berlin proves that it is possible to be a luxury grand hotel and an eco-conscious one at the same time, where guests can enjoy their stay in guiltless bliss, knowing that their carbon footprint is kept to a minimum and awareness co-exists with a five-star superior service. The hotel runs an environmental management system certified by ISO 14001. To receive this label, a hotel must meet numerous requirements, such as reducing the hotel's energy consumption and using renewable energy sources. The Regent Berlin takes its environmental responsibility seriously throughout the hotel. Fair trade coffee and organic food as well as locally grown fruit and vegetables are being served in the restaurant. The 195 guest rooms and suites are outfitted with water saving low flow shower heads and the guests are being encouraged to make use of a towel and bed linen reuse programme and not to have their linen changed every day. Water consumption is lowered by up to 40%, contributing towards the conservation of a precious natural resource. Energy efficient lighting in all back of house areas has been implemented as well as motion sensors in low occupancy areas.

In 2007, the Radisson Blu Hotel & Spa Cork committed to reducing its impact on the environment by employing a chief engineer with a background in environmental management who implemented an award winning, easily replicable, no cost, environmental management programme which, while driven by an appointed environmental manager, derives its success from the commitment and participation of staff at all levels within the organisation. A monitoring and recording programme was put in place which was to be the foundation of the overall programme. Reduction targets were set and the environmental management programme began in earnest. A new waste, water and energy management training schedule was put in place with all staff introduced to the new regime. These programmes were reinforced with environmental awareness campaigns. Bearing in mind that the hotel has a wider impact on the local community it has instigated clean-ups in the local area as well as work with charities locally and nationally.

Park Inn Nice is a hotel built on sustainability. It has been Green Key certified in 2009 and 2010. Here are some of the green principles it puts into operation on a daily basis:

• Regular checking and adjustment of air conditioning and heating of guestrooms and public areas according to outside weather
• Use of indigenous Mediterranean plants which require less water
• Water pressure reduction on all taps, toilets and showers
• Lighting movement detectors front and back of house
• Key card controlled power in guest rooms
• Public green maintenance is performed by a company employing people with disabilities
• Recycling of papers (34,000 litres in 2009), recycling of plastic (68,000 litres in 2009), recycling of glass (34,000 litres in 2009), recycling of used oil, batteries and bulbs.
• Bikes for rental throughout the year with no charge on car-free day in September
• 100% of staff trained in Responsible Business

During the reconstruction of the ancient Palazzo Visconti, one of the main goals of Castello Dal Pozzo in Italy was to pursue was the eco-sustainability of the entire project. Learning from the their ancestors, who built the neo-Gothic castle completely independent and self sustaining with water, electricity and heating supply, the Dal Pozzo family developed a hydro electric production site and incorporated technologies such as cogeneration (hot water production and electricity together), solar panels and highly efficient heating systems.

At the same time, the hotel has put a great deal of attention into waste reduction, elevating the insulation standards to the maximum possible level and controlling the heating/cooling system through special software that cuts the use when not demanded. The hotel saves and recycles all rain water for use in irrigation and, through a dedicated pipeline, for flushing in every toilet.