Our Environment
Our hostels are in some of the most beautiful places in the world, and we want to keep it that way. Here are just a few of the environmental initiatives we use, with more on the way.
Stand up and be accountable
Each year, every Adventure Hostel logs and maps their carbon emissions, with the help of Wao and Environmental Accounting Services.
In 2021 we wanted to emerge from covid, a better and more responsible accommodation provider. We set out to identify where and what were our buisness’ and our guests’ main carbon emission generators and what we could do to reduce our overall carbon footprint. With the help of WAO and EAS, we now perform annual audits and look for trends that we can focus on each yearly cycle.
Recycle, Recycle, Recycle
To help our guests to do their part for our planet, every room at an Adventure Hostels has separate landfill and recycling bins.
In communal spaces you’ll find glass/bottle bins, and we also have a compost recycling system in our kitchen.
All bins are emptied daily, and collected by the team at Smart Environmental services. These eco warriors sort through and serparate the recyclable elements at their state of the art centre, located in Queenstown.
Dreaming of a plastic-free world
It might seem like a small thing to focus on, but each time you throw your bin bag out, think about it. One day might not make much of a difference, but over a year, you can impact real change.
There are around 25-30 bins at each Adventure Hostel. Our team estimated that we were sending over 1000 plastic bin bags per year to landfill sites. These plastic bags can take hundreds of years to degrade and will therefore blight the beautiful New Zealand landscape for years to come.
We decided to introduce sleek, bag-less bins throughout our hostels. And where we couldn’t (in our bathroom stalls and compost bins) we use biodegradable bags that will break down in much less time.
We are powered by planet Earth
Our hostels are powered by the environment. NZ renewable-sourced electricity generation makes up the core of our energy requirements, with up to 85% of our energy coming from renewable sources such as hydro, geothermal, wind and solar power. The hydro power stations can be found at Roaring Meg, Lake Manapouri and the Clyde and Roxburgh dams.
On the advise of our partners at EAS, we upgraded our heat exhange system – that generates hot water at our hostels for showering and bathing, from gas to a hybrid gas-electric system.
This new system gives us the benefit of less gas-powered carbon emissions, while still being able to maintain hot water for all guests showering during the 10am check out rush!
If you know how we can continue to improve our Environmental credentials, please let us know. And keep an eye on this page as we update you with our environmentally friendly initiatives.
what are you waiting for?
