Corporate Social Responsibility has been an important theme at Hotel Ridderkerk since the beginning. The design of Hotel Ridderkerk was based on three basic ideas: hospitality, sustainability and efficiency. These three key words are expressed in a product with a maximum experience for our guests and a minimum impact on the environment.

When possible, we choose options that make our hotel, restaurant and meeting rooms more sustainable. Here, the comfort of the guest always comes first. We are convinced that hospitality goes hand in hand with sustainable business operations.

Read more about our sustainable activities:

We see it as our duty to play an active role in the sustainable development of our field. We do this by:

• Making an active contribution to the development of our field and to bring our knowledge to others who want to learn within this field.
• Making an active contribution to the sustainable awareness of our guests:
  • We only replace towels and bed sheets in hotel rooms on request of our guests.
  • We inform our guests about the opportunities to use less polluting transport, such as the 100% electric e-choppers, bicycles and public transport.
  • We promote cycling and walking routes in the area of our hotel.
  • Guests can make use of charging points for electric cars on our parking lot.
  • We buy local products as much as possible and where we can, we choose biological and/or FairTrade products.
  • Our menus contain both vegetarian and vegan dishes.
  • We are using SuitePads (tablets) in our hotel rooms. Guests can find hotel information here, order room service and contact our reception.
  • We choose digital external communication when possible (e-mail, digital brochures, newsletters, quotes and invoices).

• Making an active contribution to the sustainable awareness of our staff: 
  • We encourage our staff to adopt an active lifestyle. With our team, we participate in various sport events and help colleagues who want to quit smoking.
  • We teach our staff to act responsibly and with the environmental impact of our hotel as a starting point in the daily work in our hotel.
  • Our staff receives a sustainability instruction before they start working in our hotel. For example how to use washing machines efficiently, reuse water and separate waste.

• Making an active contribution to the sustainable awareness of our suppliers:
  • We opt for cooperation with responsible suppliers as much as possible.
  • We strive to purchase as many products and services with an environmental and/or social quality mark.
  • We encourage our suppliers to minimize their negative impact on the environment. For example, by limiting the number of deliveries. But also by using recyclable packaging material.

• Informing our working relationships about our corporate social responsibility.
• Making transparent appointments with guests, clients and suppliers about the quality of our services and monitoring the quality we deliver.
• Determine the social impact of our services and limit the negative impact as much as possible.
• Monitoring both the continuity of our company and the future prospects of our employees. We take care of provisions in case we are faced with loss of income.
• Voluntarily contributing to social causes through donations, sponsorships and volunteer work.
• Continually working to reduce the environmental impact of our company.

Reducing the environmental impact of our company

Hotel Ridderkerk not only meets the current requirements in the field of CO2 emissions. The emissions are even 40% lower than hotels with a comparable accommodation size. Four hundred tons less of harmful substances is emitted in the hotel every year. A saving that is comparable to driving 2.5 million kilometers. The CO2 impact of our company is also calculated and analyzed on a regular basis.

We make several efforts to reduce CO2 emissions:

• We use products from local suppliers as much as possible, so that fewer kilometers have to be driven.
• We replaced our gas ovens by electric ovens and cook fully electrically on the basis of 100% green energy.
• We use a waste press to reduce the volume of waste, so our waste has to be collected less often.
• We encourage less environmentally polluting transport. For example, guests can charge their electric car at one of our charging stations.

Reducing our energy consumption

• We use heat and cold storage in the ground. This is a technique whereby groundwater is pumped up 180 meters below the surface, which is used in the summer to cool the hotel and where excess heat is stored to use in the winter to heat the building.
• We use a cogeneration unit to generate electricity and use excess heat for heating water in the entire hotel.
• For the extra electricity we need, we buy 100% green electricity generated from hydropower, wind and solar energy.
• We use a heat recovery system: a ventilation system that reuses the heat of exhaust air to heat the incoming air: an extremely efficient form of heat recovery.
• We use energy-saving equipment in all hotel rooms. Lighting, heating and/or cooling can only be switched on when the room is in use.
• We use energy-saving LED lighting in the whole hotel.
• We have high-efficiency central heating boilers that are only used at peak times.
• Lighting in our hotel and restaurant is dimmed in a sustainable way during the night.
• We buy 100% green electricity and gas.

Reducing waste

We try to reduce the amount of waste in our hotel as much as possible. We do this by:

• Using reusable or recyclable packaging or packaging that can be returned to the supplier as much as possible.
• We buy efficiently. More than 90% of what we buy reaches our guest. We throw away relatively few food products.
• We use as little packaging material as possible on buffets, unless this is necessary for hygienic reasons.
• We collect as many types of waste separately as possible. This includes batteries, lamps, construction waste, bread, food leftovers, hazardous waste, glass, cardboard, paper, plastic, residual, waste and fats.
• Most of our waste is recycled.
• Biofuel is made from the food leftovers or organic waste.

Reducing harmful emissions

Many harmful substances end up in the ground, water and air. Some of these substances come from cleaning products. In our hotel, we only use cleaning products that have been tested against environmental standards. And we always try to use the right products and the right dosage when cleaning in our hotel. We also use microfibre cloths to clean as efficiently and with as little detergent and water as possible.

Reducing of water consumption

We register our water use every month and have taken a number of measures to minimize use as much as possible:

• We change towels and bed linen in the hotel rooms only on request of the guest.
• We have sensors for the taps in our public toilet areas.
• We filter 70% of the water that is used in the rinsing machines and use it again in the next rinse.
• We use water-saving taps (not more than 6 liters per minute) and shower heads (not more than 9 liters per minute).
• The sinks of the toilets use no more than 6 liters of water per flush.
• We have installed a separate sewage system for our roof water. This ends up in hearby ditches.

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• Hotel Ridderkerk
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• Official wedding location