The world's first 100% carbon neutral hotel chain is located in Copenhagen, the charming capital of Denmark. Brøchner Hotels is a small family run enterprise which owns and operates four small hotels that are located in Copenhagen's city center. These four hotels specialize in business stays, weekend breaks and other short stays.

The four hotels belonging to the Brøchner group are:-

Hotel Kong Arthur

This four star hotel is located in the heart of the city and overlooks Copenhagen's network of canals and waterways. Hotel Kong Arthur is also conveniently located close to city's main Nørreport Station and the long pedestrian shopping street of Strøget.

Hotel Danmark

This three star hotel is located close to Copenhagen's foremost tourist attraction, the historic and magical amusement park called the Tivoli Gardens.

Ibsens Hotel

Ibsens hotel is another three star property belonging to the group which is located in the enchanting section of the city called Nanensensgade, which is close to Copenhagen's lakes and attractions like the Rosenborg Palace and the amusement park of the Tivoli Gardens.

Hotel Fox

Located in central Copenhagen, Hotel Fox is a creative lifestyle showpiece. Each one of its sixty one guest rooms have been conceptualized by various artists. Every room has its own individual décor which is inspired by various styles like street art or the Japanese art of Manga.

The rationale behind the initiative

Kristen Brøchner, the group's managing director and co-owner believes that her hotel chain is in fact the world's first chain to have actually achieved this goal of carbon neutrality though many other hotel chains the world over are adapting their operational procedures in order to achieve this goal.  She states that the motivation behind the group's climate change initiative is the wish to be personally responsible for the world's climate problems. The group acknowledges that Global warming which is caused by the emission of green house gases poses a grave threat to the environment and believes that we all have a role to play in controlling these emissions. This task of controlling emissions should not be limited only to the governments and other authorities but everybody, both individuals and the business community have vital a role to play in this effort.

When the Brøchner group set out to achieve this goal they realized that since their hotels are all located in the urban city center it would be next to impossible to find an alternative natural source of energy for their operational activities. They then decided to achieve their objective of carbon neutrality by buying carbon credits in the European Union's quota system which is also popularly known as the cap and trade system.  This is not really an effective way of achieving the goal of carbon neutrality but it is better than doing nothing for climate change. The group was really motivated to be personally involved in the control of emissions and went about creating a five point plan to achieve their goal.

The Method

• The group has set up a working group which is working to reduce the emission of green houses gasses in all four of the group's hotel properties .This group is also working to create a standard of environmental compliance for all of the group's  suppliers as well.

• The Brøchner group is committed to purchasing CO2 quotas which are equivalent to the total C02 emissions that are realized from the group's various operational activities so that the entire hotel group is CO2 neutral in its energy consumption. In order to arrive at this carbon neutrality, the group first  calculated their total emission of CO2 for 2007 and then they purchased an amount of CO2 quotas  which were equivalent  to their  CO2 emissions hence they achieved the goal of carbon neutrality in 2007 itself. The group is forward thinking and concerned about the environment and has purchased CO2 quotas on future estimations of CO2 emissions as well.

• The group also offers its guests the chance to take part in this effort. This offer consists of offering guests the option of having a carbon neutral stay during which they have a chance to purchase a CO2 quota in connection with their stay in the hotel.

• The Brøchner group is really committed to this cause and has even set up a separate website which offers other hotels the opportunity to take part in this environmental initiative and thus share the responsibility for climate change as well. The guidelines to participate in this initiative are listed on the website specially set up for the purpose.

• The group wishes to further this initiative by entering into other climate friendly alliances and it has already begun to collaborate with the Danish Ministry of Climate and Energy's  '1 ton less' campaign. Further it has also formed an alliance with a new climate friendly clean Energy Company called Modstrøm.

Brøchner Hotels City Break with Carbon Credit

The Brøchner  chain of hotels  also offers its  guests a chance to go carbon neutral with a specially designed package called "City Break with Carbon Credit" weekend. During this weekend break, you forgo the normal bottle of champagne that is included in this weekend break and the cost of champagne is then exchanged for carbon credits which cover your CO2 emissions during your stay. The cost of the weekend break depends on your choice of hotel at the Hotel Kong Arthur which  is the most expensive hotel of the chain the nightly rates for the package start from DKK 887(US$180) per person per night, while at the Hotel Danmark the rates are DKK 536 (US$110) per person per night.

 
Images of Copenhagen originally posted on http://www.flickr.com by just.in,admean, BdR76 and crys.