The Hotel Britomart, New Zealand’s first 5 Green Star hotel, won another award and released its first sustainability report this week.
The report, which will be published annually, sets out the hotel’s sustainability goals and details its commitment to sustainable operations. Meanwhile Hotel Britomart’s sustainable seafood restaurant, kingi was recently awarded two hats in the Cuisine Good Food Awards and Best Restaurant in this week’s Hospitality New Zealand Awards.
“It was a huge effort to build and open the country’s first 5 Green Star hotel,” says Clinton Farley, The Hotel Britomart’s general manager. “Now we’re committed to operating the hotel sustainably every day. Environmental and community impact is a key business consideration for the entire team, and our sustainability report is an important way of setting goals and holding ourselves accountable.”
The Hotel Britomart is located in Auckland’s waterfront Britomart precinct. It opened in October 2020, with its design and build certified with 5 Green Star ratings from the NZ Green Building Council. Since then, it has been recognised with a Gold Sustainable Tourism Award from Qualmark, New Zealand tourism’s official quality assurance organisation, the Best Sustainable Business award at the NZ Hospitality Awards, and was runner up in National Geographic magazine’s international Good Egg award for the most sustainable hotel.
The Hotel Britomart team has an intense focus on sustainable operations. This year, the hotel has embarked on a process to become a Toitū Carbonreduce organisation to enable it to track and reduce its operational emissions. It has also introduced a plastic-free policy which asks all products supplied to the hotel be delivered in fully home compostable, biodegradable, recyclable or reusable packaging. So far, it has achieved 95 percent compliance from its suppliers.
Sustainability commitments extend into the hotel’s procurement policy: 80 percent of all goods procured by the hotel are New Zealand-made, localising the supply chain and reducing emissions. Local suppliers include Nelson-based uniform designer Tamzin Hawkins, who ensures all the hotel’s uniforms are New Zealand-made from compostable fabrics, the Chatham Island Food Co, which supplies sustainably harvested seafood to kingi, the hotel’s restaurant, and local ceramicists Rachel Carter and Elena Renker, whose work features in each guest room in the hotel.
“All these efforts show that we’re not just saying we’re a sustainble hotel – we’re doing the work to prove it,” Clinton Farley says. “We’re also looking to continuously improve, so our sustainability report helps set a benchmark for ourselves, and offers transparency to our guests as well.”
Stay Green
Guests can book The Hotel Britomart’s Stay Green package and contribute to offsetting their carbon footprint. For every booking received, the hotel plants a native tree at its sister property, The Landing, in the Bay of Islands. The package includes an overnight stay and a leisurely lunch in kingi, The Hotel Britomart’s restaurant with a focus on sustainably sourced ingredients. Each booking also receives a gift that celebrates the talents of local artisans such as pottery by Rachel Carter, 100 percent zero-waste blankets from Mavis and Osborn and much more.
The Hotel Britomart’s Sustainability Report 2022 can be accessed at this link.
Find out more at thehotelbritomart.com.
