Sustainability

Sustainability is important. That’s why at Awatuna Sunset Lodge we strive to reduce our tourism impact and invite you to help us do this while you enjoy your stay.

The Tiaki Promise

At Awatuna Sunset Lodge we’re committed to the Tiaki Promise to care for our environment for our generation, and the many generations to come.

We have taken a number of practical steps to care for people and our environment. These include:

    • Growing our own fruit and vegetables so that we are as self-sufficient as possible.
    • Turning excess fruit and vegetables into sauces, chutneys, and jams that we preserve and freeze to use throughout the year.
    • Channeling all food waste back into our gardens, either by feeding scraps to our chooks or using our Bokashi compost system.
    • We have a weed eradication programme that has already seen the removal or control of noxious weeds such as wild ginger, Chilean rhubarb, banana passionfruit, convululous, blackberry, Himalayan honeysuckle and gorse from our property. We are replanting these areas with native trees and plants.
    • Baking and cooking most food from scratch, which means we save on packaging and plastic and you enjoy food that is preservative and artificial-additive free.
    • Using rainwater tanks and providing UV-treated and filtered drinking water.
    • Using only LED lighting throughout the property and tracking our use of electricity.
    • Supporting local businesses by purchasing locally.
    • Supporting New Zealand artists and writers and stocking their work for sale. 

Find out more about the Aotearoa/New Zealand Tiaki Promise.

YouTube video

To further support the Tiaki Promise in the local area, Elizabeth is a member of the Westland Sustainability Team.  “The Green Team” works with residents and businesses in the Hokitika area to improve sustainability.

West Coast Penguin Trust

With a penguin breeding colony in the sand dunes at the edge of the property, Elizabeth also volunteers for the West Coast Penguin Trust, which helps to protect kororā, the Little Blue Penguins.

We are pleased to have raised $176.00, through the generosity of our guests, and radar, our amphibious Argo, for the West Coast Penguin Trust summer season 2023/2024. 

This money has been matched by a kind sponsor of the Trust making it a total of $352.00.

Booking.com travel sustainable certification.