The saying ‘many hands make light work’ couldn’t be more relevant for Cordis Auckland on its sustainability journey, as they recently received EarthCheck Master status, one of just 15 hotels globally to do so.
The Managing Director of Cordis Auckland, Franz Mascarenhas said the hotel has been on a continuous journey to become more sustainable. It’s all about consistency and the small actions from the team in the hotel daily, from recycling to effective waste management to water usage.
“Fifteen years ago we made a commitment to be a sustainable business and we have been working in incremental steps to achieve this. This accolade is testament to that, showing that small, consistent steps can make the biggest changes long-term.
“This is the way forward for business, and we want to lead the way in the hospitality industry. Change however cannot be done in isolation, it’s a global effort to ensure the world we live in is sustainable for future generations.”
Since 1987, EarthCheck has been a world leading scientific benchmarking, certification and advisory group for travel and tourism. The world is scrutinising with increasing urgency the way in which the hospitality industry monitors and reports on its sustainability performance, and credible measurement and reporting are essential in order to be accountable and demonstrate year-on-year improvement.
Using a science based approach, EarthCheck helps travel and tourism organisations to increase efficiencies, maximise guest experience and minimise their environmental footprint.
Most recently, Cordis Auckland launched its new Pinnacle Tower, bringing an extra 244 rooms to the hotel. With this comes increased resources, so the hotel wanted to ensure sustainability was front of mind in the planning phases.
A number of initiatives have been implemented, including high performance glazing, energy efficient LED lighting and controls, water metering, thermally environmentally efficient façade glazing, biking facilities, e-charging stations for electric vehicles, easy access to public transport and much more.
EarthCheck CEO and founder, Stewart Moore, congratulated the Cordis Auckland team on their long-term sustainability commitment over the past 15 years at an event held at the hotel on Thursday 16 February.
“Achieving EarthCheck Master Certification is not an easy task and it takes the commitment of the whole team to deliver improved operational results across the business. There are no shortcuts and there needs to be an ongoing commitment to both measurement and improved performance,” Mr Moore said.
“Cordis Auckland has persistently worked towards optimising its energy performance, improving water usage, integrating responsible waste management systems and reducing its carbon footprint with science-based targets.”
Notable key achievements at Cordis Auckland include;
Cordis Auckland Beehive
Cordis Auckland has a beehive on level 7 of the hotel, to assist with pollination and support the rehabilitation of bees in urban areas. Auckland is an ideal environment for bees due to the climate, the number of parks nearby to the city and the number of bees in the city are starting to outnumber those in the rural areas of New Zealand.
The hive can produce 45kgs of honey, which is harvested once per year and the honey they produce is known as Pohutukawa Honey, which has a delicate subtle flavour with a slightly salty tang and creamy texture. The honey harvested is used in the hotels food and beverage outlets.
One bee colony can pollinate 300 million flowers each day and if bees ceased to exist, we wouldn’t be able to consume foods we eat such as broccoli, asparagus, cucumber, watermelon, almonds and apples.
Soap Recycling
Cordis Auckland work with Beyond Skin Deep to recycle their hotel soaps in the rooms, as an estimated five million bars of unused soap in hotels is thrown away every day. Redistributing these soap bars to the community helps to promote hygiene and reduce the spread of disease, and all this soap collected is donated to Rapid Relief Team for distribution around NZ and across the globe.
Cordis Auckland was the first hotel in New Zealand to partner with Beyond Skin Deep, and in 2018 and 2019 they collected 597.1kgs of used soap from the hotel’s guest rooms and suites, to be recycled. There was a pause on this initiative with Covid, however it is now being picked back up in the second half of 2023.
With the launch of the new Pinnacle Tower, Cordis Auckland also removed single use amenities where possible, including their toiletries, and swapped to liquid re-usable pumps, reducing the plastic waste.
Sustainable Seafood
Cordis Auckland buys seafood that is caught sustainably from reputable companies, with approximately 80% of their seafood completely sustainable. The seafood they source and use in their food and beverage outlets is all managed under the Quota Management system by the Ministry of Primary Industries.
The Quota Management System was introduced in 1986, to conserve NZ major fishery stocks and to improve the economic efficiency of the seafood industry. In future the hotel have targets to make all their seafood sustainable and fresh only and have no endangered species on their menu, including tuna which is not currently available in the hotel.
Green Meetings by Cordis
Cordis Auckland’s new ‘Green Meetings by Cordis’ programme offers sustainable meeting solutions to assist organisers in integrating environmental considerations and promote positive social impact.
The new event considerations include green and environmentally-friendly resources, including LED walls, electronic signages, compostable drinking straws, and healthy and delicious food and drink options prepared with fresh, locally sourced, seasonal and sustainable ingredients. There’s also the option for carbon neutral meetings, in collaboration with the South Pole. The carbon footprint of the event will be calculated and offset via a selected green project and organisers will be awarded a carbon-neutral certificate.
What’s next?
The hotel is looking at a water bottling machine on site as an alternative to plastic water bottles, in an effort to phase out single use plastics. Water bottling machines will sanitise the glass bottles, fill and seal them.
Cordis Auckland has also used ORCA in the past and are re-introducing this post-Covid. ORCA is an innovative food waste solution that mimics a natural digestion process. It uses mostly air, along with water and microbiology to turn your food waste into an environmentally safe liquid that goes down the drain. Once at the waste water treatment plant, the liquid can then be used to create renewable, sustainable energy.
