Huge Effort Boosts Scenic Circle Hotel Group’s Environmental Compliance

Things are a lot more environmentally friendly in the 16 hotels in the Scenic Circle Hotel group these days.

In fact in the last eight months a massive team effort has seen the group’s compliance with environmental policies increase from a meagre 37 percent in September of last year to an impressive 70 percent currently.

Graeme Horsley, chairperson of the group’s environmental committee, says the effort was spurred on partly by the introduction of an environmental measurement in the Qualmark rating system. Qualmark is the official grading and endorsement system for New Zealand tourism operators and recently has included Enviro Bronze, Silver and Gold ratings relating to the level of environmentally compliant practices.

“As a group we have committed to a short term goal of attaining Enviro-Silver ratings for our hotels with the long term goal of a group gold rating,” says Graeme.

To assist in the goal the committee produced a set of minimum standards for the hotels and various documentation and tools to help them achieve those standards.

“We have just surveyed the hotels again and have been delighted to find that staff from every part of the hotel’s operation have got right behind the effort and helped us achieve a group wide 70 percent compliance.” Efforts have ranged from everything from recycling of plastic, paper, glass and aluminium through to energy saving in the form of low wattage light bulbs and seasonally adjusted lighting and heating to purchasing from suppliers with sustainable environmental policies of their own and support for conservation projects.

“While the process has certainly focused us on things we weren’t doing it has also revealed quite a lot of initiatives that we were already undertaking without giving them any real recognition,” says Graeme.

In today’s market, he says it is vital that the hotel industry plays its part in adopting environmentally friendly practices.

“New Zealand, particularly in the hotel industry, has been lagging a bit behind the rest of the world but with increasing expectations from guests and New Zealand’s marketing stance as a clean, green nation it is absolutely vital that we get on board quickly.

“Aside from that we believe that we all have a social responsibility to protect the environment and at Scenic Circle Hotels we certainly see ourselves as a responsible hotel group.” Scenic Circle Hotels’ Dunedin City Hotel has recently been awarded an Enviro-Silver rating and others are expected to follow as they come up for Qualmark assessment. Meanwhile the newest hotel in the group, the five star Te Waionui Forest Retreat in Franz Josef has been built incorporating environmentally sustainable practices from the outset of its design right through every phase of its soon to be completed construction.