Solar farm installed at hotel

New Zealand hotel wins Enviro Gold Award

The family owned and operated Jet Park Hotel & Conference Centre has recently been named as the recipient of an Enviro Gold Award. Awarded by Qualmark New Zealand, the Enviro Awards recognise businesses in the NZ hospitality industry that are working to reduce their environmental impact.

The award is given to the top performers in five key action areas: energy efficiency, waste management, water conservation, community activities and conservation initiatives. This year, Jet Park Hotel was rewarded for its most recent earth-friendly actions.

The most notable change of the last year is the solar panel farm that Jet Park has installed, which will provide hot water for a large wing of the hotel. Another initiative is to issue guests with key cards that are designed to control the lights in their rooms, so that when they’re out, the lights are too.

Jet Park has also introduced showers and toilets that use less water; systems that ensure that rubbish is separated from recyclables, so that as little as possible ends up in waste disposal; a pilot program for composting kitchen waste; and light bulbs and fittings have been fitted to refurbished rooms that use less than a third of the energy of standard ones.

Recycling was a high priority during the complete refit of 48 rooms, which resulted in producing only two skips of rubbish. The furniture from the refurbished rooms were given away to staff, and good second-hand linen was donated to help a women’s refuge.