Exclusive Ecolodges | Membership Criteria

Below we outline the criteria required for lodgings to become members of this highly select group.

Firstly, and of equal importance to their commitment to environmental stewardship and sustainable business practices, is the necessity that group members provide luxury accommodation and quality hosting.

Luxury Accommodation and Quality Hosting

A visitor’s experience in New Zealand is as much about the people they meet as it is the places they stay at. To both ends, all group members have been site-visited by an independent group administrator to assess both the standard of the accommodation, and the hospitality of the owners.

Environmental Stewardship and Sustainable Business Practices

INDEPENDENT ASSESSMENT of a prospective group member’s environmental stewardship and sustainable business practices is the second key criterion.To this end, the group has turned to 2 independent agencies for an “enviro-rating” to use as the criteria for eligibility to join the group – Qualmark, and Green Globe.

QUALMARK GREEN

Qualmark® is New Zealand tourism's official mark of quality, and their website can be visited here. In addition to Qualmark assessing on a wide range of quality indicators, part of their assessment process involves enhanced environmental criteria, known as Responsible Tourism Operations.

They have 3 enviro-logos that indentify top-performers in this area: Enviro-Bronze, Enviro-Silver, andEnviro-Gold.

For accommodation providers to be eligible to join Exclusive Ecologes of New Zealand, they must attain an Enviro-Gold accreditation with Qualmark.

How do they achieve the Qualmark® Enviro-Gold rating?

In addition to meeting a set of ‘minimum standards’ in sound environmental practice, the Enviro-Gold level represents best practice sustainable tourism.The following must be in place for the Enviro-Gold level to be attained:

A checklist has been used to review the operation from an environmental perspective (see the Responsible Tourism “Plan of Action” note below):

• Recycling will be evident and available for staff and guests to use
• Pollution management must be in place
• The monitoring of at least two key resource uses (e.g. energy, waste, water) must be under way
• Environmental and social activities will communicated to guests through a publicly displayed Responsible Tourism statement
• Any environmental claims made in promotional materials, including website communications must be substantiated
• An individual or team within the lodging has formal responsibility for the implementation of the plan and possible improvements.

At the Enviro-Gold level, these activities are supported by a wide range of energy, waste, water, community and conservation initiatives:

• Energy Efficiency – making the lodging more energy efficient
• Waste Management – the reduction, reuse and recycling of lodging waste
• Water Conservation – the responsible use of fresh water and helping to minimise water pollution through the use of responsible cleaning products
• Local Conservation – the conservation of local flora and fauna and/or historical aspects
• Community – establishing links with, or support for, local community initiatives

Each of the group members has a Responsible Tourism “Plan of Action” with an attendant checklist stating their business practices that have been implemented to comply with the criteria above.

Keep an eye out for those on each of their pages!

GREEN GLOBE

Green Globe is a worldwide certification programme for travel and tourism based on the principles of sustainable development, which originated at the 1992 United Nations Rio Earth Summit. It measures an organisation’s environmental performance through bench marking against international best practice.

For accommodation providers to be eligible to join Exclusive Ecologes of New Zealand, they must attain at least a Bronze (or "Benchmarked") certification with Green Globe.

Involved in 52 countries worldwide, it is truly the global performance brand for sustainable tourism, and its participants represent a wide cross-section of tourism businesses, from five star hotels to kayak tours. By selecting tourism businesses with the distinctive Green Globe logo, you can be confident you are supporting some of the most responsible, sustainable operators in the industry.

How does an organization become Green Globe accredited?

An organization has to pass a number of different stages to achieve a ranking of Bronze (otherwise known as “Benchmarked”), Silver, or Gold. As part of the process, they are required to:

1. Create a Sustainability Policy that meets the requirements of the 10 Green Globe Key Performance Areas. These areas comprise:

a) Reduced green house gas emissions

b) Energy efficiency, conservation and management

c) Reduced consumption of fresh water resources

d) Ecosystem conservation and management

e) Local community development

f) Improved management of social and cultural issues

g) Improved land use planning and management

h) Improved air quality and noise reduction

i) Improved waste water management

j) Waste minimization

2. Undergo an Annual Benchmarking Process and achieve above “Baseline Performance” on all key performance areas, at which point they attain Bronze (or “Benchmarked”) status. This allows them to proceed with “Certification”. Benchmarked status informs the customer that the business has completed a thorough evaluation of their potential and actual impacts, has presented data that is adjudged to be of a performance standard that is commendable for that business sector and has set up future actions to improve a number of performance areas over the next year.

3. Measure, Monitor and Improve where necessary their key performance areas as above to attain certification and the Silver status:

a) Silver or "Certified" will only be awarded after the business passes an independent external Green Globe audit and assessment;

b) Gold is to be certified Silver for 5 consecutive years.

BIOGRO NEW ZEALAND ORGANIC CERTIFICATION

BioGro is New Zealand's leading organic certification agency. Established in 1983, BioGro now certifies over 900 operations across New Zealand's primary production, processing, farm input supply, export, and retail sectors.

Further information about BioGro and the organic certification process can be viewed on the BioGro website, and detailed information on their standards can be accessed here.