Pollution

Pandox actively works to minimize the environmental impact of its services. We are aware of the challenges posed by refrigerants and cleaning agents and continuously strive to find eco-friendly alternatives. Local sourcing and chemical-free cleaning are part of this effort.

Pandox has a strategy for sustainable purchasing in Own Operations, both to reduce climate impact and also for assurance of social factors such as animal welfare and working conditions in the supply chain. The strategy is broken down into internal guidelines that will result in an external policy in 2025. The purpose is to provide clear guidance to the hotels, suppliers and central sourcing partners regarding requirements and objectives within important purchasing categories such as food. For example, all coffee and 90 percent of fish must be certified to an internationally approved standard. 

Further, Pandox’s ambition for the hotels it operates is to switch from synthetic refrigerants to natural ones, such as carbon dioxide or propane, wherever possible. This is to reduce the
environmental and greenhouse gas impact caused by the leakage of refrigerants during the operation of cold rooms, freezer rooms, air conditioning systems and heat pumps.

Use of chemicals

The main use of chemicals at hotels is in cleaning and disinfection, and when laundering sheets, towels and workwear. During the year Pandox continued to focus on reducing the amount of chemicals used in hotel cleaning at Pandoxoperated hotels in order to reduce negative health effects on employees and negative environmental impacts. In addition,
Pandox has conducted a review of its dry cleaning suppliers above a set amount from a human rights and environmental perspective. Pandox’s new Sustainable Purchasing Policy contains minimum standards for purchases of cleaning products. The most widely used system is Enozo, which involves a reusable spray bottle containing an electrolytic cell that converts tap water into aqueous ozone for use in cleaning and disinfecting. This avoids both chemical use and plastic bottle waste. The target is for the percentage of certified eco-labelled products and chemical-free cleaning products to reach 80 percent, which was achieved in 2024. The ambition is for all hotels to use chemical-free cleaning.

Refrigerants

Refrigerants are used in refrigerators, freezers, air conditioning units and heat pumps. An inventory of refrigeration units at 62 properties in the Nordic region has been conducted in order to be able to plan for future legal requirements relating to the phase-out of fluorinated greenhouse gases in 2032 and a possible regulation on PFAS. This inventory will also include the remaining Pandox properties in the Nordics and in Europe. The action plan for Scope 1 and 2 in Own Operations takes into consideration the choice of refrigerants in heat pumps when gas is phased out. A pilot study will therefore be conducted in which a CO2 heat pump is installed at a hotel in order to investigate the benefits and possible challenges of this new technology.

In 2024 there were 351 metric tons of emissions from 150 kg of refrigerant replenishment at hotels operated by Pandox.