STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN—Scandic has been working with sustainability issues since the mid-1990s. Water, energy, waste and carbon dioxide emissions are some of the areas monitored by the Group every month, to ensure continuous improvement with respect to sustainability. Now the company is focusing on its restaurants, and has decided to replace palm oil with rapeseed and sunflower oil. Scandic’s restaurants use about 75 thousand liters of oil every year just for deep-frying. The use of palm oil has already ceased in Norway, Denmark and Finland.
“Accepting our environmental and social responsibilities has always been important to us,” says Inger Mattsson, sustainability manager at Scandic. “A good example of this is that we have been serving only Fairtrade or UTZ coffee for several years now. By using rapeseed and sunflower oil exclusively for deep frying, we are taking a stand on the protection of wildlife and the preservation of forest.”
The cultivation of palm oil has tripled over the past 30 years. Palm oil is grown in areas which were previously covered by tropical rain forests—forests which are regarded as the most diverse eco systems in the world. Malaysia and Indonesia are responsible for 87 percent of the world’s production of palm oil.
Sweden imports an estimated 44,000 tons of palm oil every year. This is equivalent to every Swede “borrowing” 11 square meters of land to cover his or her consumption of palm oil.
For more information on Scandic’s approach to sustainability, visit www.scandichotels.com/betterworld.
