Sustainability and Guardianship
Bay of Many Coves Resort is located in a pristine bay in the Queen Charlotte Sounds. This is a privilege we do not take lightly, and as residents of the Bay, it falls on us to be the guardians or “Kaitiaki” of this land. “Kaitiakitanga” is a traditional Maori concept describing guardianship and stewardship to care, conserve, and protect. We strongly believe in the Tiaki principle, to care for New Zealand and share this story with our guests as we all have a responsibility to protect this wonderful area and NZ as a whole. Our Kaitiakitanga objectives are threefold: Pest Control, Re-generation, Economic development through the creation of Carbon Credits:
We are passionate about the community in which we operate and the unique environment of the Marlborough Sounds that makes our Resort a special place to stay. We are undertaking a wide range of practices to ensure that the Bay of Many Coves has a low environmental footprint and makes a positive and significant contribution to conservation and our local community. We continually endeavour to balance guest comfort with our environmentally responsible practices, some key elements are listed below, with further details listing in our Tourism Sustainability Commitment Action Plan. We welcome any new ideas and feedback that staff, guests or visitors may have.
- We have planted over 20,000 native plants in the area, encouraging indigenous birds to return. We also support the Department of Conservation with planting along the foreshore reserve as well as with pest control initiatives and non-native plant species eradication to ensure the conservation of the region.
- We take a range of measures to reduce energy use in the Resort, including a laundering policy allowing our guests to nominate when they have their towels and linen changed; energy-efficient lighting and appliances throughout the property and encouraging guests to use scheduled water taxi trips. The Resort's design maximises natural light reducing the need for and consumption of electrical lighting, and we have a has a switch off policy applied in lower season and energy efficiency measures in place year round.
- We harvest our own water from a natural spring, treating without the use of chemicals for consumption, and return our grey waste water to the land through irrigation. Water usage is monitor daily to ensure efficiency.
- We reduce the impact of waste generated in our business by reducing the amount of waste produced. A lot of waste products produced on site to be reused, for example, glass is crushed and utilised for path building, garden waste for weed matting/mulch, food scraps for compost, spent coffee for gardens and used cooking oil is sent to be repurposed into biofuel. We reduce the amount of waste by choosing products that have less packaging and suppliers who have a ‘take-back’ scheme. We purchase in bulk, use concentrating eco-friendly cleaning chemicals to reduce freight volumes/quantities and bake our own breads, cereals, and other foodstuffs, grow our own herbs and garnish to reduce the need for packaging & freight. Single use plastics are not used anywhere on the property.
- We have a strict procurement policy, favouring local wherever possible and the most environmentally friendly option, or closest alternative. Our Supplier Policy means we monitor the environmental attributes of goods and services we use in our business. For example, we support local vineyards with our wine-list and other local growers and farmers, and our cleaning products are biodegradable.
- We monitor our waste generation and energy use with a view to making reductions in these. Our chosen energy supplier source the electricity via 100% renewable sources.
- Fuel usage is minimised on the resort – it is a conscious choice to use electric rechargeable battery–operated golf carts operate around resort, rather than petrol vehicles, and watercraft available for guest usage are all non-powered watercraft.
We encourage our guests to assist in our efforts to preserve this beautiful natural environment that we are lucky to call home.