Six Azorean hotels were awarded the Green Key diploma (diploma Chave Verde) this year, an international environmental quality programme which “aims to include in its network all the hotels that are concerned with a better environment.”
The Confort INN Hotel in Ponta Delgada, and the rural tourism accommodation units A Abegoaria (municipality of S. Roque do Pico), Casas d’Arramada (Horta), Casa da Torre (Lajes do Pico), Quinta das Buganvílias (Horta) and Quinta do Martelo (Angra do Heroísmo) are among the 23 units awarded at a National level.
The delivery ceremony for the prizes, which distinguish accommodation units in the Centro Region (7), Azores (6), Alentejo (5), North Region (4) and in Lisbon (1), will be held at the Almada Negreiros auditorium, at the Gare Marítima de Alcântara, in Lisbon next Tuesday.
This prize recognises the performance and the continuous commitment concerning the Good Practices of Environmental Management and Education at accommodation units (hotels, rural tourism and hostels).
Implemented in Portugal by the Blue Flag of Europe Association (ABAE), this project, which was created in Denmark in 1984, intends to raise “the awareness and the training for the development of initiatives that involve participation and an individual and collective commitment through Environmental Education towards a Sustainable Development, thus reconciling the environmental protection with economic development and social cohesion.”
The Green Key Programme is promoted in the Azores by the Regional Secretariat for the Environment and the Sea, an ABAE’s partner entity, in collaboration with the Regional Network of Ecotecas (Environmental Awareness Raising Centres) and with the Regional Directorate for Tourism, with this programme having this year its second consecutive edition in the Archipelago.
The accommodation units distinguished with the Green Key diploma will now join an international network of tourist undertakings implemented in countries such as Denmark, France, Belgium, Holland, Estonia, Lithuania, Sweeden, Greenland, Cyprus, Italy, Morocco, Tunisia and Jordan.