Hotel St Moritz - Luxury hotel - SUSTAINBILITY AT HOTEL ST MORITZ

The committed individuals that make up our hotel business are genuinely motivated by the protection of our environment and our community.  As an Accor Hotel the framework by which we do this is called Planet 21, and in New Zealand this is underpinned by our undertaking to live the Tiaki promise.

Here are just a few initiatives we do to do our bit.

Planet 21 – Silver

This programme by AccorHotels is our global Corporate Social Responsibility programme within which we are actively monitored.  Under Planet 21, the hotel is measured and benchmarked across 21 pillars addressing energy consumption & efficiencies, community contribution, ethical practices, training, diversity and environmental protection.

Qualmark Gold

Externally assessed, our Qualmark Gold rating recognises the ‘best sustainable tourism businesses in New Zealand, with the delivery of exceptional customer experiences an integral part of everything they do.  A Gold Sustainable Tourism Award identifies those businesses leading the way in making the New Zealand tourism industry a world class sustainable visitor destination’.

Reimagining Turndown

In a bid to reduce waste, we have ceased providing plastic bottled water to our guests – instead offering an elegant bedside carafe for turndown service.   Whilst plastic single use bottles continue to be available on request, this initiative alone is estimated to avoid disposing of over 10,000 plastic bottles each year.  Turndown service also includes a thought-provoking Maori proverb in the vein of ‘Tiaki’ – our commitment to care for our land and our people.

Re-Purposing Waste Soap with Beyond Skin Deep

Another of our waste-reducing actions is our participation in the ‘Beyond Skin Deep’ soap recycling programme.  Based in New Zealand, Beyond Skin Deep collect waste bars of soap, sanitize and re-form them to provide soap for communities in need.

Planting ‘Trees for Survival’

This long-standing partnernship between AccorHotels and Trees for Survival connects hotels and schools in local communities  (in our case, Queenstown Primary School) and hotels.  We provide the school with mostly native seedlings and a growing unit for the children to learn the basics of horticulture and the importance of restoring natural habitats.  Once the seedlings are mature enough, hotel staff and students jointly have a planting day in a location identified as needing regeneration.  Just recently, we learned the apricot trees donated and grown at the school as part of this programme harvested enough apricots to make jam which was then sold at the school fair to raise money for the school.

Eliminating Single Use Plastic

We believe we’ve come up with an ingenious way to make sure we provide fresh daily milk to our guests, but without creating waste through single use plastic containers.  Our glass bottle system is working a treat! Guests ask for fresh milk daily and our team prepare and deliver as part of our daily room servicing. Empty / used bottles are collected and sanitised for re-use.