Reducing our use of resources
We manage our efforts using the Travelife principles, which form the basis of our overall sustainability work in this division. We incorporate innovative, data-driven solutions to measure reductions and work to enhance sustainability awareness among staff and guests during our daily operations.
REDUCING USE OF SINGLE-USE PLASTIC
Our goal is to remove all single-use plastic from our own operated hotels and airline by 2025. We continue to work across the organisation to identify new ways of replacing single-use plastic with more sustainable
alternatives, ideally with biodegradable materials or, if necessary, recycled plastic or metal.
In 2023, for example, we introduced a new meal concept on Sunclass Airlines, which reduced the amount of single-use plastic packaging by 99% for inflight meals. We have also begun a project at our own hotels to replace traditional single-use plastic water bottles in and around our hotels with water fountains in the hotel corridors and reusable plastic-free bottles – provided free of charge to both employees and customers. As a result of this work, our hotels in Spain and Greece used 280,000 fewer singleuse plastic water bottles in 2024 compared to 2023.
During the coming year, we will continue to focus on eliminating the remaining single-use plastic across our operations.
REDUCING WATER CONSUMPTION
Water consumption remains high in our business, primarily in our hotel division. In 2024, our water consumption increased slightly by 4% compared to last year, mainly due to the increased number of rooms with swim-up pools in our newly renovated hotels. Water remains central to our customers' daily needs when staying at our hotels, for both personal consumption and enjoyment, such as in swimming pools. Therefore, we’re constantly looking for new ways to reduce and make consumption more effective.
We also continuously work to reduce water consumption in our hotels when doing major renovations. In 2024 we renovated two of our hotels in Spain and Greece, installing low-flow fixtures, water aerators, and advanced systems for greywater reuse, desalination and reverse osmosis to reduce our water consumption.
In our guest rooms, we have installed signage to encourage water-saving behaviour, as well as advanced plumbing fixtures, such as dual-flush toilets, to further reduce consumption. The kitchens have also been renovated, and we have optimised our use of both energy and water.
We are also looking into reducing water consumption by optimising pool water filtration and backflushing in both existing and newly constructed pools. Our hotel gardens are irrigated with recycled water from pools and reverse osmosis systems, while irrigation timing and duration are carefully managed to avoid unnecessary use. We use desalinated water where possible to reduce pressure on natural freshwater resources.
In Cyprus, for example, all municipality freshwater supplies are extracted from seawater and our own operated hotels in Greece (one in Kallithea, Rhodes and two in Makrigialos, Crete) use a mix of municipal water from the grid and water from own borehole. In 2024, consumption of borehole water at these three hotels represented more than 50% of their total water consumption.
REDUCING WASTE
We have worked with waste segregation since 2003 and have efficient waste segregation systems in place on board our aircraft. Last year, we implemented waste segregation across all our own operated hotels, and this year, we started to instal solutions in our guest rooms as well. We also work closely with our service partners and local municipalities to try to ensure that the waste we sort is handled in a sustainable way.
Food waste is an increasingly important focus area around the globe. Starting from 2025, we will be putting special efforts into reducing food waste in our own hotel operations. We will begin by implementing food waste measuring facilities in all our hotels. This will enable us to extract data on current waste levels so we can plan initiatives and set targets effectively. We always aim to include sustainability measures in our procurement processes. In 2024, for example, we continued our collaboration with Reused & Remade, which turns our discarded linen and terry materials into new products, such as bags, headbands, sleeping masks and reusable beauty cloths. As well as reducing waste, this lowers water and energy consumption, as recycled fabrics have a climate impact that is around 64% lower than new fabrics. In 2024, we sent 17 tonnes of fabric from our hotels to Reused & Remade so it can be given a new life.
DID YOU KNOW
Our Airshoppen customers can now buy tote bags produced by Waste2Wear. Made of plastic from old household appliances, each bag features a unique QR code that customers can use to see the bag’s journey – for example, from discarded refrigerator to finished tote.
