Green Skills in Action: Sustainability Trainings for Hotel Teams

Project Objectives

• Sensibilisierung für Nachhaltigkeitsthemen im Hotelbetrieb

• Vermittlung konkreter Werkzeuge und umsetzbarer Maßnahmen für mehr Ressourcenschutz

• Unterstützung auf dem Weg zur Nachhaltigkeitszertifizierung

• Aufzeigen der wirtschaftlichen Vorteile nachhaltigeren Handelns

• Motivation und Stärkung der Eigenverantwortung der Mitarbeitenden

• Vorstellung bewährter Futouris-Tools für die operative Umsetzung

Training for Transformation: Implementing Sustainability in Hotel Operations

From an Extra to a Success Factor

Sustainability is often perceived as an additional task in everyday hotel operations – yet it offers great potential for more efficient processes, lower costs and a better guest experience. In practice, however, there is often a lack of training, systematic approaches and motivating incentives.

The training courses run by Hotelplan Group and Futouris in collaboration with partners close this gap. They impart knowledge, practical examples and concrete tools to empower employees – and whet their appetite for sustainability. The focus is on hotel-relevant areas of sustainability with high impact potential, such as saving water, avoiding single-use plastics and reducing food waste. The aim is to make sustainability understandable, practical and feasible – for all employees, in every area of the hotel.

Digital Water Management Toolkit: Getting started with resource-efficient practices

As part of the targeted preparation for the training courses, the project further developed the content of the existing Futouris Water Management Manual and converted it into a digital, user-friendly toolkit. The toolkit helps hotels to systematically analyse their water consumption and reduce it through targeted measures. With best practices, checklists, practical tips and facts, it helps to establish a sound and effective water strategy in the business. It complements the existing Futouris toolkits on sustainable food and plastic waste reduction – together they form an ideal, practical basis for implementing comprehensive sustainability concepts in the hotel industry.

Project Activities

• Development and implementation of interactive training modules for hotel teams

• Conducting training courses in Turkey (2023) and Egypt (2025)

• Integration of Futouris tools, practical methods and locally adapted best practice examples

• Provision of a digital Futouris Water Management Toolkit for the industry

Training courses in Turkey – Working together to combat food waste and single-use plastics

The first training courses were held in Belek and Side in 2023, attended by around 150 sustainability and quality managers from Hotelplan Group partner hotels. The courses were led by Futouris experts Tatjana Peters and Prof. Dr Dagmar Lund-Durlacher.

The training courses focused on:

• More sustainable nutrition and avoiding food waste

• Strategies for avoiding single-use plastics and alternatives in hotel operations

• Successful practical examples from the industry

Background: With the support of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC), the Turkish government is pursuing the goal of ensuring that all hotels meet a variety of sustainability criteria by 2030. The training courses made an important contribution to the practical implementation of this target.

Training in Egypt – Implementing sustainability in hotel operations

Another sustainability workshop will take place in the Hurghada region in November 2025. The training courses are aimed at employees from various hotel departments and deliberately address typical challenges encountered in everyday hotel operations. The aim is to provide hotel teams with practical support in implementing sustainable measures in their day-to-day operations – with tangible tools, concrete strategies and the opportunity for open exchange.

Training content:

• Concrete ways to save water and energy

• Strategies for waste reduction

• Authentic involvement of employees and guests

The aim is to provide practical, realistic solutions that can be immediately integrated into everyday work – regardless of whether a hotel is just starting out with sustainability or is already well on its way.