The President of KMVK (Stichting voor Keurmerk, Milieu, Veiligheid en Kwaliteit), Derk Jan Verstand, welcomed the 200 participants to this yearly event and thanked everyone for the efforts they make every day to create a more sustainable business, even in these economical difficult times. He emphasized the work that is being done on communication and the website within Green Key Netherlands and the revision of the criteria in 2015. He also proudly announced that the first corporate restaurant was certified last week and talked about the great potential in this area. He finished with the number of Green Key awarded hotels which has reached up to 603.
George Stander, the proud manager of Conference Centre Bovendonk talked about the history of the building which used to be a monastery and seminary to train new priests. The Conference centre has recently earned their first bronze award and they are very motivated to earn the golden award in the near future.
Finn Bolding Thomson, the international Green Key director, thanked all the Green Key sites owners for their hard work and gave an update on the new international development on an international level through a video message.
Erik Van Dijk, Green Key national operator in the Netherlands, informed the site owners about the tool on the national website to calculate and immediately compare the ecological footprint of their enterprise with those of other Green Key holders. Further on he also went through the calendar of sharing and learning events for the next year.
In the afternoon the participants could sign up for two workshops concerning different related subjects such as waste management, Green Key criteria, tourism in future, etc. All through the day, the break time moments were open to share ideas and knowledge on an info market where different businesses and organisations presented their products or projects. An ecological quiz was held between different session to test the knowledge of the site owners and to lighting up the mood.
As icing on the cake, Maurits Groen, Sustainable entrepreneur, gave a fantastic lecture about the Waka-Waka project. Afterwards he handed over the official Green Key certificate 2015 to all the awarded sites owners present.