As a hotel chain, Bilderberg is eager to contribute to a sustainable world. Because creating memories is not only about preserving something from the past, but also about ensuring a bright future. Only if we treat our planet with care and respect, Bilderberg will remain a place where beautiful moments are created. 'Bewust Bilderberg' is an initiative to make strategic and operational choices that put the welfare of people, animals and the planet first. So that we can welcome our guests with open arms, not only now, but also in the future.
Our goals
We focus on three main themes: our employees, our guests, and our planet. These themes are divided into eight goals.
THEME 1: Our employees
We focus on good employer practices and social responsibility
1. Good employer practices
Our brand is built by great people. That's why our employees come first at Bilderberg. As dedicated hosts and hostesses, we know that our enthusiasm, passion, and personality make a difference for our guests. We believe that happy employees lead to happy guests.
Our ambition
Bilderberg aims to have happy employees. We believe it is important for our staff to look forward to going to work. Happy employees not only contribute to a positive work environment but also lead to a more sustainable and balanced life.
2. Community development
Bilderberg is a traditionally Dutch organisation, with hotels that have strong local connections. We feel a deep commitment to these local communities and have many initiatives and long-term collaborations. We are eager to use our knowledge, workforce, network, and facilities to contribute to a sustainable and socially responsible society. In the coming years, we aim to strengthen and expand our collaboration with national and local stakeholders.
Our ambition
By voluntarily offering our expertise, workforce, facilities, accommodations, and network in the local community, we support specific target groups or social causes. Through these investments in the local society, we contribute to a sustainable and socially responsible community.
THEME 2: Our guests
We focus on sustainable food and beverage practices and raising sustainability awareness
3. Food and beverage
We make forward-thinking choices, with enjoyment as the starting point. We maintain an open view of customer desires and technological developments. We are trendsetters in sustainable enjoyment and inspire our guests and employees to continuously improve. We also make this measurable. With nature as our compass, we ensure 'Bilderberg quality' on the plates.
Our ambition
By 2030, we aim to be the most sustainable hotel chain in the Netherlands when it comes to food and beverage. This is our ambition. This means we will choose plant-based, organic, seasonal, locally sourced, zero-waste, and healthy food for our guests. We will be transparent about our climate impact, measure our progress, and deliver on our promises.
4. Sustainability awareness among guests
At Bilderberg, we believe it's important for our guests to enjoy a clean and healthy environment. We make responsible choices and feel responsible for raising awareness among our guests. By positively and subtly informing them about what we do, a concept known as 'nudging,' we encourage them to make conscious and sustainable choices as well.
Our ambition
It is our ambition that everything during a guest's stay at our hotel contributes to both their well-being and the environment. We are transparent about what we do and don’t do in terms of sustainability, and we encourage our guests to make conscious choices during their stay.
Theme 3: Our planet
We focus on our partnerships, sustainable sourcing, waste, and CO2
5. Waste and recycling
In 2022 and 2023, our hotels collectively generated an average of 660,000 kilos of waste per year. This waste is delivered to our waste processor for separation as much as possible. However, this is not always possible, especially when the waste consists of different materials or when sorting has not been done correctly. We are increasingly noticing that waste is no longer just waste, but a raw material for new products.
Our ambition
Our ambition is to become a zero-waste company. We aim to achieve this by no longer producing residual waste, reducing plastic usage, and optimizing sorting for recycling. In the coming years, we will work closely with our suppliers and waste partners. Together, we want to gain more insight into the materials we purchase and how we can best separate them.
6. Responsible purchasing
A conscious purchasing policy is perhaps the prerequisite for achieving our objectives and ambitions in the field of sustainable business. In doing so, we look for an agreement that is beneficial to our planet, our suppliers, our guests and ourselves. We have had a sustainability policy in our purchasing conditions for a long time. For example, we ask our suppliers to sign a sustainability statement. By tightening our procurement policy, based on the ambitions in this report, we are going one step further.
Our ambition
Our goal is to make new agreements with our suppliers, so that our purchasing policy is beneficial to the planet, our suppliers, our guests and ourselves.
7. CO2 emissions
Climate change is one of the biggest challenges in the world. CO2 emissions are largely the cause of this. There are plenty of steps we can still take to reduce our CO2 emissions. Especially in the field of heat installations, electrical equipment and insulating our buildings. In addition, CO2 emissions will play a role with regard to our purchasing policy.
Our ambition
Bilderberg wants to create a path to a carbon-neutral stay. In the short term, we are implementing various quick solutions to save energy, and in the long term, we will replace installations.
8. Water use
On average, our hotels consumed 8,735 m3 of water per year in 2022 and 2023. Partly from Green Key, our focus has long been on reducing water consumption. In doing so, we distinguish between the water that our guests consume and the water used in the operation.
Our ambition
We are aiming for a 10% reduction per guest per night by 2025 compared to 2023. We achieve this partly by monitoring our water consumption 24/7 and steering accordingly. In addition, we focus on increasing awareness among guests and employees.
“Our secret is to pay attention to the world around us to ensure that our future is as rich as our history”