Four years after becoming the first hotel in Australasia to achieve carboNZero certification, Sudima Auckland Airport will this month be joined by its sister hotel, Sudima Christchurch Airport. Having measured its greenhouse gas emissions, committed to managing and reducing emissions, and neutralised any remaining unavoidable emissions, Sudima Christchurch Airport is this month being awarded as the second carboNZero certified hotel in the country.
For Sudima Auckland Airport which became carboNZero certified in 2013, the hotel is celebrating 2017 as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism with massive reductions in Scope 1 and 2 emissions (electricity and emission they have direct control over) by 57. 81 tCO2e.
Technical account manager for Enviro-Mark Solutions, Shannon Ball, says total emissions have decreased from 481.49 to 414.02 – a 67.47 tCO2e reduction overall.
“This means the hotel has reduced LPG use by 67%. Natural Gas is down 14% and they have reduced waste by 24%.”
The savings are equivalent to:
- Eight times the average household emissions per year
- Driving from Auckland to Wellington in an average size car 447 times
- 70 times the average electricity use of one home per year
- 19 times the average emissions of one vehicle per year
Sudima Auckland Airport hotel manager Riza A. Suryo says the philosophy of the owners, management and staff sees that reducing emissions is the right thing to do. The certification and acknowledgement they have received is an added bonus.
“The staff will be pleased,” said Suryo. “We have a committee which puts forward ideas about how we can be more sustainable. One such idea came from the chefs for an organic herb garden. We now have our own organic herb garden at the back.
“The owners must also be acknowledged for setting out on this goal from the beginning when they built the hotel. Everything about the design and build is geared towards being as sustainable as possible.”
Not one to rest on their laurels, Sudima Auckland Airport has recently installed two electrical vehicle charging bays for hotel guests.
“Car rental companies and corporate companies are already shifting towards electric vehicle fleets, so it’s important that we get ahead of the curve from both a sustainable and competitive perspective.”
Not only has Sudima Auckland Airport achieved these milestones in a year designated by the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) as International Year of Sustainable Tourism, but the results follow hot on the heels of Booking.com’s global Sustainable Travel Report 2017 [i].
The report revealed that 65% of global travellers said they intend to stay in eco-friendly accommodation, compared to 34% previously.
68% of travellers confirmed they are more likely to favour accommodation knowing it was eco-friendly, including 93% of Chinese surveyed. 94% of those surveyed said they would be willing to stay in accommodation that used energy saving lightbulbs.
Sudima Auckland Airport was built 2011 in a North-South orientation to harness maximum energy from the sun and was outfitted with green technologies which include:
- A 25,000-litre tank for rain harvesting
- Refrigerator free in the majority of guest rooms
- 100% energy saving LED light bulbs in the property
- Chilled Beam air-conditioning, which is unique to Sudima in the South Pacific (the system uses hot and cold water to maximise energy efficiency and double the fresh air of any comparable system)
- Rainwater harvesting (the rainwater is filtered and recycled for non-potable use)
Sudesh Jhunjhnuwala, CEO of Sudima Hotels & Resorts says that striving to leave the planet in a better position than we found it has been a key factor in our sustainability initiatives.
“Initiatives that have resulted from this ethos include the use of non-hazardous chemicals to clean the hotel. Each improvement we make should positively affect our overall commitment to the environment and morale of the staff at the property.
“By making socially and environmentally responsible decisions, the built environment as well as the atmosphere within the building has been excellent.”
To achieve its carbon neutral status, Sudima Auckland Airport measured all goods and products from more than 20 suppliers over a six-month period, including assessing natural gas and electricity usage, the quantities and disposal of waste and tracking air and car travel by hotel staff.
Once emissions were determined, the equivalent carbon credits were purchased by the hotel, along with which came the requirement to change practices and features where necessary to reduce and mitigate its emissions year-on-year.
The group intends to achieve certification for its other properties, in Hamilton and Rotorua.
Enviro-Mark Solutions, a subsidiary of Landcare Research, owns and manages the carbonNZero certification programme, which is internationally accredited in accordance with the ISO standard for reporting greenhouse gas emissions and removals.
The Sudima Auckland Airport has a Qualmark rating of 4.5 and consistently operates near full capacity.
