Environmentally Friendly

Banyan View Lodge (BVL) aims to guarantee that the environment’s condition and the sustainability of our planet is a high priority in all of our activities and practices.

Environmental Vision

Our vision is to offer a superior eco friendly backpacking experience by minimising the environmental impact of our facilities, and ensuring that we have sustainable procedures and practices in place regarding every aspect of our service delivery to our guests.

Principal

This plan has been designed to create an agreement and further commitment to BVL’s environmental procedures and practices throughout all departments and aspects of the business.

This plan demonstrates BVL’s commitment to become leaders and set benchmarks within the Australian tourism backpacker Industry.

This plan allows BVL to adopt a sustainable approach to its future with environmental obligations and responsibilities researched initiated, practiced and promoted.

Plan

In line with our commitment to environmental sustainability, Banyan View Lodge’s mission is to:

• Develop a formalised Environmental Management Plan which will guide our day to day actions and decisions, ensuring that environmental sustainability is considered at all times.
• Offer an eco friendly backpacking experience reducing Banyan View Lodge’s overall impact on the environment, in particular focusing on the key areas of energy, water, waste and all other items used in our operations.
• Promote and enhance our eco friendly practices and responsibilities to guests, visitors and staff, overall increasing awareness of the need to be environmentally responsible.
• Provide eco friendly training to all staff on a regular basis to both encourage and remind staff of our sustainable commitments, and to provide staff with the opportunity to contribute to improving our environmental performance.
• Promote the need to reduce our carbon footprint to all Banyan View Lodge guests and visitors to Darwin.
• Monitor our waste consumption and implement waste minimisation initiatives to reduce our annual waste, and increase the volume of waste which is recycled.
• Monitor our energy usage and minimise consumption by both staff and guests.
• Identify any local and federal environmental legislations relating to Banyan View Lodge and the tourism industry and ensure we are compliant.
• Continue to research, develop and implement new environmentally sustainable initiatives for the entire Banyan View Lodge establishment.
• Provide a benchmark for and encourage other budget accommodation providers and tourism operators in Darwin to adopt sustainable and environmental practices.

Our Environmental Actions

Banyan View Lodge’s commitment to being an ‘Eco friendly’ Backpackers with strong environmental ideologies and philosophies is what sets us apart from our competitors.

Below are some actions Banyan View Lodge has taken in the fight against Global Warming:

• We are committed to saving water with all shower heads fitted with water saving devices.
• Our toilets all have dual flush systems minimising water consumption.
• We recently purchased new washing machines for guests that are front loaders saving up to 60% on their water usage.
• Our bathroom basin taps have non drop water filters attached to reduce the flow rate, which further reduces our water consumption.
• Guest signage is in place requesting guests minimise shower time to 3 minutes and to  remind them to turn off all taps, i.e. when brushing teeth or when using taps in the laundry or kitchen areas.
• We use only environmentally friendly cleaning products, reducing chemical use.
• Our bathrooms have an automatic spray called EcoMist that injects both pleasant odours into the air, which keeps away bugs without harsh chemicals being used.
• We use energy saving light bulbs and low energy fluorescent tubes for all lighting.
• Pool and spa pumps have timers to control energy usage and unnecessary power.
• We only purchase 100% recycled paper for all administration including ream paper and business cards etc.
• We only provide recycled toilet paper.
• In our reception and office areas, paper usage and waste minimisation procedures are in place to eliminate unnecessary consumption and increase the volume of paper which is recycled.
• Our management has contacted other tourism operators in Darwin and asked them to communicate by e-mail rather than fax to reduce paper consumption.
• We offer TV’s for guests to hire, rather than placing them in all rooms as another method of reducing power consumption.
• Our staff are provided with training on all of our environmentally sustainable policies and procedures.
• We have signage in all guest rooms to remind them to help in the fight against global warming and to turn off all fans and air conditioners when not needed, and when they are not in the room.
• Our reception has a sign on the front window introducing our guests to our commitment to environmental sustainability and to encourage all guests to adhere to our environmentally friendly practices.
• We have numerous recycle bins situated in the Lodge and around the garden to make it easy for guests and visitors to participate in our weekly recycling program.
• When upgrading our furniture, we donate all of our used items to other non profit organisations in need of donations, such as the Salvation Army.
• We provide clothing recycle bins for guests to donate unwanted clothing.  All clothing we collect is then donated to the Red Cross.
• We recycle all camping gear and equipment donated by guests to other guests, saving them on the need to purchase new products.
• We recently upgraded the TV in our common lounge room, purchasing an LCD rather than a Plasma, as a LCD consumes less energy than a plasma when turned on.
• We have a palm shredder that is used to shred fallen palm fronds in the yard, turning them into recyclable wood chips and garden mulch.
• We have eliminated all personal maps of the establishment formerly given to guests, and instead have erected large maps in various locations around the Lodge to enable guests to easily navigate the property, while reducing unnecessary paper consumption.
• We purchased an in -house computerised reservation system to eliminate paper usage for all guests’ bookings.
• We have adopted a ‘No linen change’ procedure for guest rooms, only changing linen for guests staying for 5 days or more, reducing energy usage and water consumption.
• We only hand out printed literature, including invoices or receipts when requested by the guest or when necessary to further reduce our paper consumption.
• In 2009 we became ‘Green Star’ accredited with the National body AAA Tourism. This provides a third party endorsement of our commitment to environmentally friendly practices.
• We participated in ecoBiz NT, a government program to assist businesses in the Northern Territory to implement environmentally friendly business practices, and we were awarded a $30’000 grant to implement environmentally friendly projects which help us to further reduce our energy consumption.
• Through the ecoBiz NT program, we are now monitoring all energy use and reporting on any savings.
• Recent renovations to BVL include the upgrade of 12 of our rooms to Eco friendly rooms with the inclusion of a ‘key tag’ system to control the energy use in all rooms on the ground floor.  These rooms also have energy efficient lighting, air conditioners and fans. Sensor lighting was also fitted to the ground floor guest hallway to save energy usage in common areas.
• BVL hosted Earth Hour this year, and turned off all power in the Lodge for 2 hrs, during this time we offered a free BBQ to guests to keep them from needing any electricity.
• We have commenced a formalised Environmental Management Plan which will guide our day to day actions and ensure that environmental sustainability is considered by management, staff and guests at all times.
• We offer reusable shopping bags to our guests so that they don’t need to use plastic bags for their groceries.