News

Vineyard Hotel & Spa scoops up another Imvelo Award

Vineyard Hotel

The Vineyard Hotel & Spa has won the ‘Best single resource management programme – waste management’ at the 2012 Imvelo Awards, held in Johannesburg on Wednesday 31 October.

Group environmental manager Chris van Zyl said they are excited about the win. “We have a very extensive recycling programme at the Vineyard, and we are constantly making efforts to reduce our landfill by coming up with innovative ways of recycling and reusing materials.

Currently, the Vineyard recycles 92% of the waste generated by the hotel and only about 8% ends up in landfills, and we will continue to explore and implement innovative measures to help us reduce this even further.”

Vineyard Hotel & Spa, Miss Earth SA and alien plant clearing team at Silvermine – Earth Day 2012

Rick Taylor, EXCO Member and Chief Marketing Officer, said the Group, namely the Vineyard, Townhouse and Oude Werf Hotels, has invested heavily in its environmental initiatives. “Responsible Tourism is one of the key pillars that underpin all our work as a Group, and we have gone to great lengths to ensure our impact on the environment is kept to a minimum. It is a great honour for us to receive this award and we look forward to another great year of ‘living green’.” Taylor added that the priceless work being activated by the Green Team would be enhanced next year by, for example, introducing tools such as carbon calculators and innovative carbon-offset type packages.

The annual Imvelo Awards, now in its eleventh year, awards tourism businesses that demonstrate sustained responsible practice in their operations in terms of their natural, social and economic environments. The awards are in line with the National Minimum Standard for Responsible Tourism, the Responsible Tourism guidelines for the South African hospitality industry, and the UN World Tourism Organisation’s code of ethics.


© Property Wheel

Leave a Comment