Estate Living Magazine The Slow Movement - Issue 39 March 2019 | Page 27

P R O P E R T Y
&
I N V E S T M E N T
Verde Hotels is a sustainable property development company,
whose holistic approach to developing environmentally conscious
properties is making its mark with significant, positive results around
waste minimisation and management strategies and processes.
Dawie Meiring, group systems and sustainability manager at Verde
Hotels, says: ‘Our primary objective is to ensure that the properties
we develop and operate have systems in place to minimise the
consumption of natural resources, avoid and lower the generation
of waste, reduce, reuse, recycle and recover waste where possible,
and, as a last resort, treat and safely dispose of waste.’
It is also supremely important to inform, educate and get the buy-
in of staff, stakeholders, guests and the community to support and
sustain environmental initiatives at ground level. At Hotel Verde
Cape Town Airport, for example, says General Manager Lindy
Meiring, ‘all our staff undergo sustainability training with the hotel’s
eco team, the Green Guardians, so they are up to speed on all
things sustainable.’ The hotel actions and encourages responsible
procurement, buys in bulk and uses eco-friendly alternatives; they
bottle their own water in reusable bottles, and promote operations
that minimise waste in general. ‘We have also installed split bins in all
145 rooms, and at strategic points throughout the hotel, along with
educational signage and green tips – our guests are rewarded with a
unique in-house currency called “Verdinos” when they participate in
correctly using the bins or any of the hotel’s other green initiatives,’
adds Lindy.
Dawie states that the figures for Hotel Verde Cape Town are
phenomenal, having exceeded their waste-to-landfill targets of 85%
R