Our Commitment to Sustainability
Key Sustainability Goals
- To continue as a Carbon Zero certified business
- To create action that moves us towards a Zero waste position
- To commit to authentic community engagement and support
- To increase visibility and education around sustainable issues and solutions
- To enhance the overall visitor experience
- To ensure that our supply chain has responsible social and environmental policies
- To further lower pest numbers across the park
Waste Reduction
Waste makes up about 1/5 of our carbon emissions. By 2030 we want to have halved the number of kilograms of waste we send to landfill.
This year is our audit year. We are going dumpster diving and trying to uncover the opportunities we have to reduce waste within our business.
Keep an eye out on our social media and blog page for some of our waste reduction initiatives.
Native Tree Planting
Over the past 2 years we have planted 371 native trees.
We are planning for this number to increase steadily over the next few years with a both wetlands and riparian planting projects happening soon.
At the Buried Village we have a large stand of trees that are approximately 50 years old that we are in the process of getting a stand measurement for so we can calculate how much carbon they are already sequestering (storing inside).
Carbon Emissions
Our carbon emissions were calculated for the 2020/2021 year and we are proud to have a pretty low footprint at 16.72 tCO2e.
In 2023/2024 we now have a carbon footprint of 9.72 tC02e. We are very proud of our efforts to reduce our overall emissions.
We have offset these emissions by purchasing New Zealand based carbon credits as well as credits that support several overseas fair trade projects
Our next goal is to reduce our emissions and resource use onsite even further so we can reduce the number of carbon credits we have to buy.
A Gold Award recognises the best sustainable tourism businesses in New Zealand, with the delivery of exceptional customer experiences an integral part of everything they do.
A Gold Sustainable Tourism Award identifies those businesses leading the way in making the New Zealand tourism industry a world class sustainable visitor destination.
We are a founding member of the Rotorua Sustainable Charter which since 1998 has been dedicated to promoting sustainable practices within the Rotorua community.
They are committed to continually improving all business dimensions, including social, cultural, and environmental performance and as part of the charter we are also committed to helping other Rotorua businesses reach their sustainability goals.
We are big supporters of the Tourism Industry Associations 12 business sustainability commitments with the vision to be part of leading the world in Sustainable Tourism - Toitū te taiao, toitū te tāpoi. E kōkiri ana e Aotearoa. The commitments help to form our Sustainability Action Plan.
We support the Tiaki Promise.
Tiaki means to care for people and place. New Zealanders have a special connection to the land, and want to help visitors travel safely and conscientiously.
The Tiaki promise is a set of travelling guidelines we support as kaitiaki of Te Wairoa to help visitors to travel safely and sustainably when they visit us and travel throughout Aotearoa.