Sustainability - Bella Vista's Journey

Throughout our operating history, Bella Vista Accomodation Nationwide has undertaken local and countrywide initiatives, which in turn support our guests, businesses and communities desire to minimise their environmental impact.  Bella Vista continue to adopt programmes, review processes and seek products that will assist our social, economic, and environmental responsibilities.

Bella Vista's Sustainability Journey to date.

• Quality in business from the start. A founding principle of Bella Vista was that each property is required to be members of New Zealand's tourism and hospitality quality assurance programme called Qualmark. A business displaying the Qualmark logo represents the best tourism experience New Zealand has to offer. Qualmark provides a grading system for accommodation providers and the Qualmark logo means you can book with confidence, knowing that the experience is quality-assured to the highest standards. For its members, the Qualmark process provides leadership and guidance in different business fields including environmental actions and sustainable initiatives.

• Enviro Assured. In 2008 in an attempt to court increasingly environmental focused tourists and reward environmentally-minded accommodation providers, Qualmark released a new logo that represented businesses that met the Qualmark quality and environmental criteria having introduced a range of environmental and sustainable protocol which members could adhere to. The introduction of the Responsible Tourism criteria in 2008 marked a ‘world first’, with New Zealand being the first country to have a fully integrated quality and environmental performance tourism assurance system. Bella Vista Accommodation Nationwide participated in this new enviro focused programme.
   

• Dream Green Bedding with Vendella. In 2014, Vendella, a key supplier of hospitality supplies to Bella Vista Accommodation, introduced their Dream Green programme whereby plastic bottles are recycled into a luxury soft microfibre, perfect for their luxury bedding range including pillows which are incredibly popular with Bella Vista guests. 

​

• The Tiaki Promise. The Tourism Industry Tiaki Promise introduced in 2018 focused minds for travellers and hospitality operators alike toward responsible tourism, encouraging visitors to care for New Zealand's environment, culture, and communities. All Bella Vista businesses promote and adhere to the principles of the Tiaki Promise, displaying the promise within their receptions for all guests to read and become familiar with.

• Augmenting Our Sustainability. In 2022, Bella Vista introduced a range of measures that ensured sustainability considerations remained front and centre in our business practices.  The Bella Vista Sustainability Committee spearheads our commitments.
   
• EV Chargers Installed Nationwide. Across 2023, Bella Vista network introduced Type 2 EV Chargers across all locations to encourage and support those travellers who had switched to either hybrid or clean fuel electric vehicles.  For a small cost for recharging, Bella Vista patrons can now travel our countrywide network without the need to burn fossil fuels.

• Globally Qualmark Green. In 2023, Qualmark's Sustainable Tourism Business Criteria has become the first in New Zealand to gain recognised status from the Global Sustainable Tourism Council, meaning members can be confident that achieving Qualmark certification meets global standards of sustainability. Two-thirds of the Bella Vista accommodation network now meet the necessary criteria to be considered Qualmark Silver.

• ​Sustainability and Social Responsibility Statement. In 2023, Bella Vista devised, adopted and published our overarching statement outlining our networks commitments and environmental goals;   At Bella Vista Accommodation Nationwide, we are dedicated to building a sustainable future for our businesses. We seek to embrace environmentally conscious business practices and involve sustainability considerations in our decision making process. Bella Vista is aiming for network-wide net zero emissions by 2050.
   
• Measuring Our Emmisions. 2024 saw Bella Vista introduce a network-wide monitoring tool that allowed each Bella Vista to record, measure and therefore better manage CO2 emissions produced by their business. Creating a benchmark for average CO2 emissions per night stayed will position Bella Vista to introduce programmes to actively mitigate or offset those emissions. 

Bella Vista's nationwide sustainbililty initiatives are supported by a host of local, community based actions that each Bella Vista operator proudly promote in their business.