In 2011, we embarked on our journey of awareness, education and action to become a responsible citizen of this beloved city, country and planet that is our home. We have already brought about a change in our approach to managing resources and have put into place many actions that we are proud to say, have already started to have a positive impact in many areas.
Katrin Ludik, General Manager says “you will be surprised at the many things that can be done to conserve resources. Being mindful of the waste we produce and how we can easily reduce it by simply being more aware. It has been rewarding to know that we have a consciousness now of reducing waste and conservation. It is a new way of thinking. We are happy that we have made this investment, the rewards of which are material.
But perhaps more than that is the knowledge that we are doing the right thing and that we are doing our bit towards making our world a better place.”We set about our programme in a systematic way defining our actions and targets. We measure and report key indicators on a quarterly basis such as electricity usage, water usage, procurement, skills development and waste.
Our key achievements are:
Waste
Since November 2012, to get a better idea of the percentage of waste, we weigh all waste. We installed a hanging scale where we weigh all waste and report kg waste generated per bed night. For example, we had 58kg recycled waste and 13kg to landfill for 1 week!
We recycle our waste as follows:
- Organic waste: all raw and cooked food goes in our “GreenGenie”.
- We recycle all plastic, paper, glass, tins, cans to recycling.
- Batteries and cartridges recycled separately. We have a glass in the foyer where guests can drop empty batteries and which we dispose of in a responsible manner. We send our empty ink cartridges back to suppliers.
- We recycle paper in the office and use double sided printing.
- Juice containers and egg cartons go back to the supplier.
- We received a “Composter” in November 2012. It is a 400 l container which will take care of all the organic and food waste and makes compost within 8 weeks. This considerably reduces the amount of waste sent to the landfill.
- We have moved away from the 50ml guest amenities bottles. Shower gel, shampoo and body lotion are in 300 ml refillable bottle dispensers in the guest bathrooms. This reduces the waste of all the little soap bottles tremendously.
- Solar Jars are used for emergency lights.
- Our staff had an education trip to a recycling station.
