May 11, 2018 - Hotel "Carrubba" in Donja Lastva was presented the "Green Key" plaque today, making it the first hotel in Montenegro to carry this prestigious ecological label. The "Green Key" tag is awarded to hotels and hostels, restaurants, private accommodation and congress centres. With around 2900 facilities in 57 countries around the world, "Green Key" is the most widespread international ecological mark. The Green Key is one of five international environmental certifications and training programs, four of which are also implemented in Montenegro. Three programs are implemented by the NGO "Ecom", which are "Blue Flag", "Young Echoes" and "Green Key". The Eco School Program is implemented by the Montenegrin Education Institute.
Green Key International Representative Audrey Sabeth said this is not just a rendering of the hotel Carrubba, but also Tivat and the local community. "Thanks to the owners and manager of the Carrubba Hotel who believed in this process, and the fact that sustainable practice can be paid off for a long term, the hotel got this significant certificate, and Carrubba is the first hotel with this prestigious eco-rating not only in Tivat but also in Montenegro." Of the countries in the region, Croatia can be proud to have seven Green Key certified objects, while in Serbia there are two of them.
The Green Key plaque was presented to Hotel Director Stanislav Kožan by Audrey Sabeth. He pointed out that at the beginning it was difficult to go in the "green direction" because they had to meet a number of rules and requirements that prescribe this prestigious certification, but he was delighted to have succeeded in the end. He expressed hope that Carrubba would be an example for other hotels in Tivat and Montenegro.
Expressing the satisfaction that Tivat is the first town in Montenegro to boast of the Green Key Hotel, secretary of the Environment Protection and Energy Efficiency, Tatjana Jelic said that the Tivat Municipality already participates in the UNDP project "Development of Low Carbon Tourism", which brings us to the fact that at the end of the year, four Tivat hotels - Palma, Hellada, Magnolia and Astoria - would be certified and labeled with Eco-Label and Travellife eco marks. She said that the local government will also work in the future to support ecological certification projects because it is of particular interest to branding the destination.
The Green Key Environmental Certification preceded the Carrubba certification process, which implied that a large number of criteria were met, said President of NGO "ECOM" from Kotor, Saša Karajović, pointing out that Carrubba Hotel had passed international certification in Copenhagen in half a year because it had not yet formed a national commission.
The hotel was supposed to meet over a hundred criteria deployed in 13 categories, including eco-training of employees, ecological actions that they realized, finding new suppliers, who had to have the appropriate ecological certificates and many others.
Fulfilling the conditions and obtaining the "Green Key" label helps sustainable tourism development, contributes to the preservation of the environment and reduces the operating costs of the facility, and the tourist industry in Montenegro is expected to recognize the importance of this ecological mark.
