The Green Key National Operator Meeting was held from November 4 to 7, 2025, in Marseille, France, organized by Teragir, the national operator of the Green Key program in France. It was an opportunity to hear about new certification processes, including an overview, status, and next steps, as well as the engagement of Auditors, and to exchange information about the setup of FEE’s Certification Body. The main interest was in the expectation about the roles of National Operators in the new certification system.

The new criteria are under final development, so one session was dedicated to Criteria revision (status and next steps, definition of category, scope, national adaptation, etc.). Online application/audit tool and FEE’s engagement within Tourism Sustainability Certifications Alliance (TSCA) are also presented and discussed. Presentation of various online application/audit tools was done in break-out groups, so participants were informed about the Phases tool (done by Helen from Belgium), BeCause tool (done by Louise from England) and Dutch tool (done by Laska from the Netherlands).

International hotel chain and tour operator partners to the Green Key: Accor Hotels, BWH Hotels, Radisson Hotel Group and Jet2holidays had the opportunity to present their work on sustainability and to receive proposals for possible improvement.

In four parallel sessions with National Operators, participants chose the theme of their interest  and discussed:

1. Preparing the work for future sustainability in the hospitality industry: vocational training about sustainability in hospitality schools, and how can we make hotel chains advertise for these skills? Exchange of experiences about the cooperation with hospitality schools.
2. Green Key in a new country, about the experiences of starting the Green Key programme in a new country. Exchange of experiences among new National Operators.
3. Green Key communication: how to successfully communicate about Green Key in the media to increase awareness about Green Key. Exchange of experiences about successful Green Key communication.
4. National seminars: how to hold Green Key seminars and how to make them successful. Exchange of experiences on organising Green Key seminars.

Corporate partners also had the opportunity to present their work: Beirholm, Benerg, Divello, Diversey, Ecolab, Semaphore, Werner-Mertz.

Before the evaluation and closing, a discussion was held in five breakout groups regarding the types of tools we need, how we can share materials, and what you expect from Green Key International-GKI.

The meeting concluded with high expectations for 2026, including new criteria, a new certification system, and the hope for new establishments that recognize sustainability does not begin tomorrow, but rather from today.