Responsible Business - Let's take responsibility

Taking responsibility for the environment and local community has been an important part of Rezidor's broader commitment to sustainable development for many years. In 2001, this commitment was fortified and placed within the scope of a programme called Responsible Business (RB). Each hotel has a unique RB Action Plan covering such areas as community outreach, environmental improvement, employee well-being and health and safety. To read more about the RB program, visit Responsible Business. Rezidor's hotels are engaged with both local and international charity groups.

The Radisson Blu Hotel Lietuva Vilnius is also taking part in the Rezidor RB programme by taking responsibility for the health and safety of employees and customers; by respecting social and ethical issues in the company, as well as in the community and by reducing negative impact on the environment. The Radisson Blu Hotel Lietuva Vilnius RB policy includes the following:

• The hotel shall educate and facilitate employees on making a conscious decision in favour of environmental, ethical and social issues in their private and work lives.
• The hotel shall inform guests and provide them access to RB related activities at the hotel.
• The hotel shall work together with property owners to find innovative solutions that satisfy mutual economic, environmental and social objectives.
• The hotel shall provide shareholders and investors with timely, accurate and transparent information on RB related risks and opportunities.
• The hotel shall strive to purchase products that have a reduced environmental impact during their life cycle. These products shall be purchased from suppliers that demonstrate environmental and social responsibility.
• The hotel shall require its managers to abide by local and international legislation, especially regarding labour laws, health and safety, human rights and the environment.
• The hotel shall take an active role in the international RB community and contribute to local communities.
• The hotel shall do its best to improve its performance in the areas of energy, water, chemicals and resource consumption and waste generation in order to reduce the hotel's negative impact on the environment.

Here are some of the RB activities and achievements of this hotel:

• Earth Hour 2011 – the hotel dimmed the lights in the Lobby Bar and Sky Bar for an hour and switched off the lights in the Riverside Restaurant, where guests ate a candlelit dinner.
• Lithuanian Environmental cleaning action DAROM 2011. Hotel personnel joined with children from the children's home Atsigręžk į vaikus to gather trash from one of the World Heritage Unesco sights – Bekeso hill in Vilnius.
• Employees of Radisson Blu Hotel Lietuva took part in Velomarathon 2011 (Lithuania's largest cycling event) by riding bicycles for the initiative, encouraging employees to choose bicycles for commuting.
• The hotel supports children’s home Atsigręžk į vaikus by hosting the annual Christmas party and visiting the children’s home with Christmas gifts and cake.
• The hotel collects and donates old and unused mobile phones to organisation Greenfone, which recycles them.
• Hotel staff donated blood for Lithuanian hospitals through the Lithuanian Blood Centre.

Radisson Blu Hotel Lietuva in Vilnius has maintained its Green Key Hotel status since 2004. For more information visit Green Key.

Created to raise awareness in the tourism and leisure trade about how to run an environmentally responsible business, the Green Key requires that each hotel fulfill a long list of environmental requirements. Apart from purely environmental demands, the criteria also include requirements on policy and action plans.

The Radisson Blu Hotel Lietuva, Vilnius initially became involved by saving water by washing laundry less often and installing water saving devices. The hotel also aimed to save heat and electricity by using low-energy light bulbs, installing equipment with a standby function and installing programmable thermostats. Rubbish is now pre-sorted so that a large amount of it is recycled. In addition, the hotel started using such eco-friendly materials and products as non-chlorine bleaches and phosphate-free detergents.

Finally, the hotel made other changes such as sourcing local food, providing on-going training for staff about the environmental activities of the company, informing the public and guests about the environmental activities of the company and improving the air quality in the hotels.

As a result of these efforts, guests now receive locally grown food, fresher indoor air and a cleaner environment. Guests interested in becoming involved in the process are able to pre-sort their own rubbish or use towels for an extra day.