Two Properties of Villa Hotels and Resorts Receives 'Green Key Award'


Maldives
Travel
PUBLISHED March 23, 2022 | updated March 23, 2022 02:46

Villa Hotels and Resorts has announced that two of its properties have received the Green Key Award – Sun Island Resort and Spa (March 18, 2022) and Royal Island Resort and Spa (March 22, 2022).  

This award is considered a leading standard for excellence in environmental sustainability, focusing on tourism establishments adhering to high environmental standards; informing and involving visitors to develop specific actions concentrated on natural resources and awareness on environmentally friendly practices. The award was designed for the travel and tourism industry and has been in existence since the early 1990s.  

The resort chain prioritizes sustainability; managing its properties following the company's guiding principles, which are to adhere to environmentally friendly practices continuously. Following these principles, Villa Hotels works towards developing an ecologically friendly, sustainable, and responsible business, and considerable steps are put in place to minimize the impact of its operations on the environment. 

As such, the two Villa Hotels have measures in place to calculate carbon footprint annually, with targets to reduce carbon emissions and achieve carbon neutrality. Furthermore, environmental committees at the resorts help preserve nature and generate staff and guests' awareness on social, cultural, economic, quality, human rights, health, and safety issues. In addition, the resort teams are actively monitoring the use of water and energy with planned actions to reduce them considerably.  

Additionally, a variety of environmental events and activities are planned by the team to preserve nature and the surrounding underwater world to help further protect the environment. For example, both Villa Hotels have organized a #StopPlasticPollution cleanup dive on their house reefs. In addition, the dive centers are set to organize a beach and snorkeling cleanup of the resorts' lagoon.

Further, as the Maldives is one of the most vulnerable tourist destinations globally, environmental conservation and sustainability have always been a key element to the Villa Hotels and Resorts operations and integral in all that the resorts do. Since the establishment of Villa Hotels & Resorts in 1988, the resorts have worked to become more and more sustainable.  

To achieve the Green Key award, they maintained high environmental standards for the establishments through complex and rigorous documentation and frequent audits. Further, responsible teams have comprehensively worked through stringent certification criteria to assure the resorts adhered to them, considering various factors such as sustainability, behavioral changes in guests, staff, and suppliers, social and economic considerations, and environmental conservation.  

Sun Island Resort and Spa and Royal Island Resort and Spa are the first to receive Green Key awards in the Maldives. In addition, recently, Villa Hotels earned the WELL Health-Safety Rating seal for the resorts; Paradise Island Resort and Spa, Sun Island Resort and Spa and Royal Island Resort and Spa through the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI).  

Villa Hotels & Resorts currently operate five resorts in the Maldives and has been committed to sustainability since their foundation.

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