The first carbon-neutral
hotel chain in Finland
GreenStar’s core principles include
Putting sustainability and the well-being of our customers first
when it comes to, for example, our breakfast selection and the materials used in our hotels.
Enabling our customers to live conveniently and ecologically by
for example, allowing them to bring their own food and snacks along – and offering services to support emission-free ways of getting around.
Partnerships with local businesses
that share our green and responsible values.
The first carbon-neutral hotel chain in Finland
At GreenStar we monitor, reduce, and offset our greenhouse gas emissions.
Ecological
Each one of our hotels is on its own unique, green journey. Since we favour local partners, some details of our offering vary from one location to another. You can read more on every hotel’s dedicated page.
Developing sustainability is work that will never be finished. Each of our hotels continues its unique green journey towards a feel-good, do-good accommodation service that doesn’t burden the environment but rather creates a positive impact on it. Our oldest hotels have already gone a long way down this path, while our newer additions are only just getting started.
One of our goals is to improve the way we communicate our sustainability. We want to be transparent and prove that our operations don’t just look green, they truly are green.
Carbon neutral
GreenStar is the first carbon-neutral hotel chain in Finland. In 2018, environmental engineer Matias Sivonen created a roadmap for us regarding how GreenStar could achieve carbon neutrality. Based on this, we commissioned Sweco to calculate the emissions created by our operations in 2019. Working towards reducing CO2 emissions has always been an integral part of our environmentally friendly business model, and we will continue working towards reducing our emissions in the future as well.
We offset the greenhouse gases we emit based on Sweco’s calculations. As recommended by Matias Sivonen, we selected the Finnish company CO2Esto as our offsetting provider. Through their service, customers can offset their emissions by preventing an equal amount of CO2 from being made in the EU that year.
Documents and certificates
- Environmental engineer Matias Sivonen’s roadmap for GreenStar to achieve carbon neutrality
- Emission calculations (in accordance with the GHG Protocol) from 2019: Joensuu, Jyväskylä, Lahti – the calculator was created for us by Sweco
- The environmental impacts of staying one night at GreenStar Hotel, Life Cycle Assessment by Finnish Environment Institute SYKE, 2017
- Certificate of origin of the electricity we use (Nordic Green Energy)
Our story
Although GreenStar is an independent concept and business idea, it is impossible to describe its birth without telling about the circumstances in which it was born.
Kristian Ikonen, CEO of GreenStar, is the son of Reijo Ikonen, a hotel and restaurant entrepreneur in Joensuu. Reijo Ikonen’s company began operations in the 1960s. In the past, the hotel and restaurant industry was often quite inefficient and wasteful, whether it was food waste, the condition of buildings, or work processes…
