what are we doing for the planet?
These days, terms such as sustainable, eco-friendly, environmentally conscious and green-stays are becoming more commonly used in the hospitality industry. Travellers are more mindful about the way they travel and the options they choose. Subsequently, at Te Mata House we are always looking at ways to be more eco friendly, and are actively implementing change for a healthier environment.
Firstly, what are sustainable practices and why are they important? Sustainable practices are actions that help reduce environmental impact through a more considered approach to cleaning, maintenance, amenities, products and services provided. For some people, consideration of these things may appear expensive, complicated and time-consuming, but once you start with the basics, everything else flows and it’s worth it!
Something we really try to achieve first and foremost is to ‘keep it local’, because we want to reduce our carbon footprint as much as possible. Sourcing some our products locally not only supports our community and local businesses, but also reduces our carbon footprint. By buying locally, we reduce our ‘food (and product) miles’. Less plane trips and truck deliveries means less fuel consumption and air pollution.
A further example of our sustainable practices is our choice of skincare products for the cottages and pool house. Instead of providing guests with skin and hair-care sachets used by some of the big hotel chains around the world, we offer refill bottles of local products with eco-friendly ingredients. It’s not only more environmentally safe but it’s cheaper, and gives a better impression of the service and brand. At Te Mata House, we chose to partner with Real World to provide body wash, shampoo, conditioner, hand-sanitiser, laundry liquid and hand lotion for all the rooms. Their natural plant-based products are toxin and chemical-free. Hand sanitisers and body lotions are not part of the refillable group, however, we take these bottles back to Real World, Hastings to be recycled and reused.
Unfortunately, due to the pandemic situation that grips us today, many of the eco-friendly practices worldwide had to go back to plastic packaging, individual servings and single-use containers as cross-contamination was a very high risk. When Te Mata House started offering its services back in January 2021, we purchased a whole lot of single-packed butter, jams, marmite and peanut butter, offered as part of the continental breakfast. Now that New Zealand is community covid-free, we are now transitioning to providing spreads in reusable glass jars. We also serve milk, juice and preserved fruit in glass bottles and jars for reuse.
For coffee, we provide Nespresso pods, which are collected and sent back to the company for the recycling process. As per Nespresso policy:” Aluminium is not just 100% recyclable, it’s infinitely recyclable. Each coffee capsule you recycle can come back in another everyday object – another capsule, bicycle, Swiss army knife, BBQ tongs, peeler, ladder, window frame or watch case”. Similarly, we offer environmentally-friendly and organic tea bags from Studio Red Tea, with biodegradable bags and recyclable paper tags. Every step counts!
We are also very conscious about recycling. Besides regular recycling of glass, cans, paper and some plastics, we also collect wine and beer bottles lids and bread bag tags. We take these to the Environmental Centre located in Hastings, where with an appropriate recycling process, they get another chance to be something different.
We have also partnered up with La Petite, an artisan chocolate store located in Hastings to provide beautiful treats for our guests. Their chocolates are handmade with the finest organic, fair trade & single origin cacao and are wrapped in special compostable packaging. This is a token of appreciation to our guests for choosing to stay with us.
Our next step towards incorporating more sustainable practices was to purchase Smartass toilet paper for all the rooms at Te Mata House. Their tree-free toilet paper is made from sugarcane waste and sustainably grown bamboo fibres, plastic-free and home compostable! How amazing is that!
And we have just started composting food waste left in the cottages and depositing it in our compost bin nestled in our citrus garden.
We are aware there is still room for improvement and our commitment to our environment, our region and our planet is unstoppable. We are so happy to make these first steps towards a greener property and service and we keep learning every single day. Hawke’s Bay is our home but we owe everything we have to Mother Earth.