16 April 2025
Sustainability Annual Report 2024
Scenic Hotel Group’s 2024 Sustainability Audit highlights a year of meaningful progress and renewed commitment to environmental leadership across our New Zealand & Pacific hotel network. A major milestone this year was achieving Toitū Carbon Reduce Certification—an independent verification of our emissions data that strengthens the transparency and credibility of our sustainability journey. In addition, over two-thirds of our hotels now have approved sustainability action plans, with several properties also achieving Qualmark Gold Accreditation for their ongoing efforts in responsible tourism practices.
Our people remain at the heart of this progress, with staff engagement in sustainability initiatives continuing to grow. This year saw increased participation in our internal sustainability survey and stronger collaboration across teams to drive practical, long-term change. As tourism rebounds and pressures around over-tourism emerge, we remain focused on embedding sustainable practices across all operations—helping to ensure we meet the challenges ahead while continuing to lead by example in the hospitality industry.
24 February 2025
Our Commitment to Sustainable Printing
We recently met with our printing partner, Spectrum, to explore a more sustainable approach to our printing. As a Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC) -certified print company, they align with our commitment to responsible sourcing. The Forest Stewardship Council® is an international organisation dedicated to promoting responsible forest management through certification. Their globally recognised logo guarantees that materials come from sustainable forestry practices.
Moving forward, we will prioritise FSC-certified paper wherever possible. This means nearly all printed materials will come from environmentally, socially, and economically responsible sources, with the FSC logo signifying this commitment. These changes reflect our ongoing sustainability efforts, helping us reduce our environmental footprint while maintaining high-quality printed materials.
7 November 2024
Scenic Wins Environmental Program Award
Scenic Hotel Group is proud to announce its recent win at the 2024 HM Awards, where we received the prestigious Environmental Program Award. This award is a testament to the Group’s ongoing commitment to sustainability and environmental responsibility across all its New Zealand and Pacific properties.
Richard Hayman, Head of Property and Environmental Policy Advisor proudly accepted the award on behalf of the Group, underscoring the Group’s dedication to preserving the natural beauty and resources of our unique region.
15 October 2024
Scenic Hotel Te Pania’s Sustainability Recognised
We are incredibly proud to announce that our Napier hotel Scenic Hotel Te Pania has been nominated for the Excellence in Sustainability award, sponsored by Hawke’s Bay Regional Council, at the Pan Pac Hawke’s Bay Business Awards 2024.
At Scenic Hotel Group, we’re committed to becoming industry leaders in sustainability in the hotel and hospitality sector. For over 40 years, as a New Zealand-owned and operated business, we’ve taken pride in connecting our guests with incredible people, experiences, and places throughout New Zealand.
A big congratulations to all finalists, we’re honoured to be part of an amazing group of finalists!
24 June 2024
Our Christchurch Hotel is Gold!
We are incredibly proud to announce that our Christchurch hotel Scenic Hotel Cotswold has been awarded the Qualmark Gold Accreditation for their Sustainability actions and efforts. This accreditation means that they deliver exceptional customer experiences and are helping lead the way in making the New Zealand tourism industry a world-class, sustainable destination.
Qualmark measures this against four different criteria – Economic, Social & People, Environment & Culture, and Health, Safety & Wellness. To obtain the Gold accreditation you must excel in each of these areas.
Well done to our Cotswold team for your efforts and commitment to our sustainable journey!
10 June 2024
OPERA Native Plant Restoration
The Scenic Hotel Dunedin City team recently spent a day out volunteering at OPERA (Otago Peninsula Eco Restoration Alliance). Last year 5000 native seedlings were planted as part of their forest restoration plan. Volunteers spent the day clearing weeds and introduced species to help ensure the seedlings thrive. OPERA is a conservation, rehabilitation, restoration and education operation.
17 May 2024
Okarito Plant Project
The Heartland Hotel team in Fox Glacier have been working on the Okarito Plant Project. A site close to the famous Lake Matheson has been replanted with New Zealand native trees and grasses. The team have helped with the planting as well as ongoing site maintenance to keep the plants free of introduced vegetation. Further ground has been prepared for the next round of plants due later this month.
The restoration and protection of natural ecosystems is essential for a sustainable future, fostering biodiversity and regenerating vital forests, waterways, and wetlands.
7 May 2024
Growing Taro in Franz Josef
The team in Franz Josef have been busy planting and tending a taro crop in the Scenic Hotel Franz Josef Glacier kitchen garden. Many of our hotel team members hail from the sunny climes of Polynesia so it’s fantastic to be able to grow vegetables that provide the team with a taste of home, and our chefs’ a beautiful fresh resource for the hotel restaurants.
Taro needs a frost free environment and requires plenty of water, so we have no doubt that the West Coast’s unique micro-climate is going to provide this!
4 March 2024
School’s in Session!
Our team at Scenic Hotel Te Pania have been sharing their passion for the hospitality industry with local students from Central Hawkes Bay College. As part of SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), Tourism and Hospitality students have been learning about the potential opportunities and career pathways, as well as getting more information on what working in a hotel is really like. Tourism and hospitality has such a wide variety of roles and expertise required, from a part time school holiday job through to finance and senior management – and the Te Pania team loved being able to showcase this to some incredible young minds.
14 December 2023
West Coast Tree Planting
The teams from our Franz Josef and Fox Glacier hotels recently got the chance to be part of an incredible group of local volunteers, planting native trees in the Purcell Reserve in Whataroa through the Okarito Plant Project. On this day there was representation from various groups around the community, all dedicated to seeing our natural environment thrive, build local engagement and of course, to do their part for climate change.
There are various ways that people and businesses can get involved with the Okarito Plant Project, through memberships, buying native plants, donations and volunteering – check out their site for more information on how you can help!
20 October 2023
New EV Chargers
We are rolling out new EV chargers around the country so that those people travelling around using EV’s can charge up while staying at our properties. We already have Tesla chargers at selected locations around the country, but we will be changing these to Type 2 chargers plus adding new locations, to make them more widely available to the ever growing range of EV’s.
These chargers are in place at Scenic Hotel Bay of Islands in Paihia, Scenic Hotel Te Pania in Napier, Scenic Hotel Marlborough in Blenheim and Scenic Hotel Cotswold in Christchurch and are working on more locations as we speak.
We are invested in ensuring that travellers are able to have a convenient, and smooth experience when saying at our properties and travelling around the country, and are proud to be able to offer this service to our many EV drivers around the country.
28 August 2023
Making Plastic Fantastic
Scenic Hotel Marlborough have some brand new beds – great for our guests but also for many others! The old beds were donated to the local Rotary group, to on sell for help with their fundraising, and the soft plastic that the new beds come wrapped in also gets a new lease on life. We recently signed up with Future Post, who have a processing factory based in Blenheim. They transform used soft plastics and turn them into strong, long lasting fence posts for farms to be able to use. Their mission is to divert as much soft plastic as possible from New Zealand landfill, to create a functional, durable and sustainable product, benefiting current and future generations!
24 July 2023
SHG Partners with Toitū
The process of decarbonising your business is complicated, and we believe until you measure, compare and certify the numbers, it is really hard to give solid facts and figures about your reduction targets and how well you’re doing in this space. Scenic hotel Group has partnered with Toitū Envirocare, to measure our emissions and reductions, so that we can be confident in our work and actions. We are serious about positive change and this is proof our actions speak louder than words.
29 June 2023
Our Dunedin Hotels are Gold!
We are incredibly proud to announce that our two Scenic Hotel properties in Dunedin, Scenic Hotel Southern Cross and Scenic Hotel Dunedin City, have been awarded the Qualmark Gold Accreditation for their Sustainability actions and efforts. This accreditation means that they deliver exceptional customer experiences and are helping lead the way in making the New Zealand tourism industry a world-class, sustainable destination.
Qualmark measures this against four different criteria – Economic, Social & People, Environment & Culture, and Health, Safety & Wellness. To obtain the Gold accreditation you must excel in each of these areas.
Well done to our Dunedin teams for your efforts and commitment to our sustainable journey!
7 June 2023
Let There Be Light
We are all about sharing our small wins along this sustainable journey, so here is a great one that people can do at home or work. Our Scenic Hotel Dunedin City has switched over the lights in the onsite gym from power hungry fluorescents to more eco and wallet friendly LED bulbs.
They are light, bright and give a modern look to the space all the while reducing our emissions. Small step, big win.
6 June 2023
Seedy Slippers
Sustainable wins came come in all shapes and sizes. It is about taking lots of small steps along the way… and what better way to take a step than with sustainable slippers. Did you know that disposable slippers you find in your hotel rooms creates millions of tonnes of waste worldwide every year?
We are teaming up with Astro, our hotel supply experts, to bring our guests a slice of organic luxury with our new Seedling Sole Slippers. They are 100% plastic free and Biodegradable. With an unbleached linen upper, flax padding, and a sustainable cork sole for a soft and flexible feel. These all-natural materials use little water to grow and require zero pesticides.
A great way to reduce waste and continue our environmental journey.
2 June 2023
Paper Power
Much of what we do is online these days, and that is just the way we like it. But sometimes we do still need to print some of our collateral and ideas to communicate properly.
We have chosen to partner with companies who are like minded in their journey for sustainability, and who use ethical, renewable and sustainable ways to do business. One of our preferred printers, Spectrum Print, are taking great strides in this space through waste and emission reduction and responsible partnerships. All our paper stock is FSC Certified, from renewable sources, and we use vegetable inks, so they are non toxic with low environmental impact.
We would love to live in a paperless world, but for now, we are making conscious decisions to ensure our choices are ones that don’t negatively affect our environment.
30 May 2023
Waste Not Want Not
While we do our best to use every part of the vegetable and food we serve in our restaurants, and ensure our food is so delicious you don’t want to leave a morsel on your plate, reality is that there are always some food scraps from our kitchens at the end of the day.
Some of our properties like Hamilton, Te Waonui, Napier and Marlborough, already have in place some programmes through so ensure it doesn’t go to waste. We donate leftover food to registered local pig and chicken farms (no meat products), so their animals can eat like kings, and the circle of food production can continue to go round and round. It is a win win, less waste from our hotels, and helping build stronger local business.
21 May 2023
Cotswold Clover
Our busy wee bees at Scenic Hotel Cotswold have officially made their first batch of hotel honey which has been harvested and bottled to use as gifts. From our two small hives, we harvested a whopping 8 litres of honey!! It is beautifully clear and refined, with a deep amber colour. The gorgeous flowers and plants we care for around the property and the wider suburb of the garden city of Christchurch have certainly given our bees plenty of food to create our first harvest, and hopefully many more to come.
13 March 2023
Better Batteries
No more life left in the battery? Give it a new one!
Batteries are often necessary when travelling, and the team at Scenic Hotel Franz Josef Glacier are doing their bit to ensure that these are disposed of in a thoughtful way. They have implemented Upcycle Bins that are specifically for battery disposal, so that we can help reduce the amount of heavy metals and toxic substances that leak into the earth in normal landfill. Many of the valuable materials in a battery are actually able to be recovered and reused, so it is positive all round result reducing waste, potential contamination and recycling elements again.
03 March 2023
e-Bikes Galore
Unfortunately Shutyl are no longer working in this space, however we were proud to be able to trial this idea with this innovative kiwi start up, and we would love to be to work with more people and companies with great ideas and products.
Following the successful rollout of our e-Bikes at Heartland Hotel Cotswold, we are please to advise that we now also have them available to guests at Scenic Hotel Franz Josef Glacier and at our Support Office in Christchurch.
Using e-bikes as an alternative to jumping in your car for a short trip is not only an environmentally friendly way of getting around, but also has a positive impact on health and for our support office staff, a great way to reinvigorate the mind during the work day.
31 January 2023
Reducing Landfill Waste
New sustainable toiletry dispensers being rolled out
We are pleased to advise that our hotels are moving to more sustainable in-room amenities, with specially designed tamper-proof dispensers for our famous Matakana Botanicals hair and skincare. We have always favoured a no waste approach, by providing bags for people to take home the individual tubes we used to provide to ensure the whole amount was used but we identified this as a key area we could improve on to reduce waste and rubbish going to landfill. You will still have the same iconic Scenic Hotel Group Cucumber and Mint scent, and the same quality product you are used it, now with the added benefit of helping reduce our impact on climate change.
Sustainability is a journey, and it is every step you take that takes you forward. Let’s not stop moving.
21 January 2023
e-Bike Rollout
Scenic partners with shutl in Christchurch
Scenic Hotel Group has partnered with shutl to help electrify urban transport for our guests. Starting with a trial program at Heartland Hotel Cotswold, if successful expect to see more electric bikes rolled out across the country.
Check out the shutl website at https://www.rideshutl.com/ to see what’s on offer or watch this One News piece explaining what shutl is all about. Check it out at https://www.1news.co.nz/2023/01/18/e-bike-subscription-service-rolls-out-in-christchurch/.
17 January 2023
Staff Room Refurbishment
A refreshed breakout space for our Queenstown team
Our staff, guests and our communities are the heart of everything Scenic, so creating a work environment that is welcoming, inclusive and enjoyable to be in is one of the main targets for SDG3 Good Health and Wellbeing in our wider Sustainability Strategy. The team in our busy Queenstown properties are now happy recipients of a fully refreshed space, with all new flooring & carpet, furniture, and some local artwork on display. It is lighter, brighter and a fresher environment for our team to have time out and chill out, so that they can epitomise the genuine warm kiwi hospitality that Scenic is known for.
20 December 2022
Raglan Food Co
Heartland Hotel Hamilton have teamed up with their local food provider, Raglan Food Co to supply their plant based options for the restaurant. Raglan Food Co have also chosen to align their sustainability journey with the United Nations Sustainability Development Goals, which match some of the issues that Scenic Hotel Group have identified as matters we make a positive impact on.
We are proud to support other local companies who are doing their bit for a better, more sustainable future.
22 November 2022
27 Seconds
Heartland Hotel Auckland Airport have teamed up with the incredible team at 27 Seconds, a social impact winery who donates 100% of their profits to go toward helping survivors of slavery. They help provide things like trauma care, education and economic empowerment through the kiwi organisation Hagar.
Simply by purchasing (and enjoying!) this delicious wine from award winning wineries Greystone and Terrace Edge, people are helping to fund this life changing work. We are proud to be able to now offer 27 Seconds wine at Heartland Hotel Auckland Airport.
22 November 2022
Kiwi First – Carbon-Zero Corporate Rates
Scenic Hotel Group has delivered ‘sustainable stays’ to its corporate customers through carbon-zero room rates in a kiwi-first move in sustainability.
This initiative is one of many that the group have delivered as part of a commitment toward a more climate-friendly and sustainable industry.
The result of extensive consultation and engagement, together with some highly quantifiable activities, has enabled the group to accurately calculate and reduce carbon emissions through a high-trust carbon offsetting programme.
Click here to read the full press release.
7 September 2022
Wig Wednesday
The Child Cancer Foundation support families so they can concentrate on the most important thing of all, loving and caring for their child. They help them overcome challenges and maintain control of their lives where they can.
Scenic Hotel Group have been proud supporters of this incredible foundation for many years. For this year’s Wig Wednesday our team got wiggy with it to raise funds over some snags, hot dogs and bacon butties!
The foundation does amazing work supporting kiwi kids and their families!
26 August 2022
Daffodil Day
The team at Scenic Hotel Marlborough are blooming, as they show support for The Cancer Society of New Zealand and their annual Daffodil Day. The team are getting behind this worthwhile cause to raise money to go towards cancer care for patient and their whanau, education and awareness programmes, and life-saving cancer research.