Award winning practices

Sustainability

From food waste to compost overnight! We are the proud owners of a CLOSED LOOP organic food composter which uses natural microbes and heat to transform food waste into nutrient rich compost in just 24 hours.

Roughly 260kg of food waste goes through the machine per week, producing a highly concentrated compost that is mixed with soil and used in our onsite kitchen gardens. This also heavily reduces our methane emissions.

This is one of the many sustainable practices we have introduced to help reduce the environmental impact in our community.

A few years back, we were very proud when we were honoured with the Good Living Sustainability Award at the Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide Awards.

Then, the award was the culmination of years work, with the team building up the kitchen gardens into more than 500 square metres of land now cultivated for food. Since then, each year we have focused on building our sustainability processes and lowering our carbon footprint for the greater good of our environment.

In addition to the onsite kitchen gardens, we have approximately 40 chickens that keep the kitchen well supplied with fresh eggs. We are dedicated to growing our own produce and sourcing as much local produce as we can, to ensure quality and seasonality are achieved. More than 15% of the restaurant menu comes directly from our garden.

Everyday Sustainability

Here are some further examples of how year-on-year we have actively achieved a more sustainable hotel;

• In the kitchen, the seasonal menu offerings are designed using large amounts of house-made, home-grown, organic and local produce from local suppliers. The estate houses two lush vegetable gardens, which are harvested daily, forming the basis of much of the menu. Chefs & our Horticulturist are continuously collaborating and planting new, seasonal seedlings and hand picking produce to use that very day
• We want to reduce our carbon footprint, so we have established ways to get the data we need to understand our climate impact and to identify where we can make changes for the better. From 2023 we have started measuring, monitoring and reporting on our emissions usage across the property, so we can take action where it’s needed most moving forward
• We adopt the “nose to tail’ principle in the kitchen, whereby wastage of produce is minimized
• The property uses rainwater from a tank, for the garden
• The few kitchen chemicals that we use are fully biodegradable
• We have our own small orchard, including olive trees and quince trees and we even use our rose petals in our homemade sorbet
• We stock chemical and preservative free wine and purchase from a number of international and local organic and bio-dynamic wine suppliers
• We understand that fresh, clean, pure drinking water is a necessity in the restaurant, so we have installed a Purezza water system. This supplies us with unlimited still and sparking water without the requirement for shipping bottles, delivery trucks, plastic production or waste disposal. A greener choice and one we are proud of!
• Our coffee is sourced from a local company less than 20km away
• Our tea comes from a local company less than 10km away
• Our toilet paper is made from bamboo and is delivered plastic free
• We have two Electric Vehicle car charging stations onsite
• We have invested in Solar panels for the main house to reduce energy consumption across the property. Each of the new luxurious Lodges also has solar installed, heating the magnesium pools.
• Our signature Olive Oil is produced in Mudgee and bottled onsite
• We recycle our paper office waste and all cardboard packaging
• We chose to partner with local NSW company, iKOU, in the day spa as their products offer clean beauty. They are not tested on animals, are organic where possible, vegan friendly, palm oil free and are socially responsible.
• We have established a partnership with Groundswell Giving, whereby we, and our guests, contribute to their community grants that are dispursed to Eco warriers to help fight climate change. On booking to stay with us, our guests may choose to donate to support this Carbon Offset initiative.
• The slippers in our rooms and day spa are made from entirely renewable resources and natural materials. They are 100% biodegradable and fully compostable.
• Our signature Bouddi Bathroom product range is refilled by our housekeeping team, using bulk product, saving on packaging
• We host monthly Garden Tours with our head horticulturist who educates our community and guests on our Sustainability values and our garden features.
• We include Indigenous Welcome Ceremony and guided walks with our local Aboriginal guide, Girri Girra, in special packages, conference quotes and over NAIDOC week.
• We love highlight the Bouddi National Park and the wonderful natural setting of the local beaches
• We love our community so we actively support many local organisations, local causes and charities on the Bouddi peninsula and we have strong social and moral beliefs to philanthropic endeavours. We have supported three children from World Vision Australia, on a monthly basis since we opened in 2007 and we regularly donate to local families in need, our local primary school, our regional hospitals and our amazing emergency services. On a national level we support many other charities such as Cancer Council, Starlight Children’s Foundation, Camp Quality, The Bella Dinner (Museum of Contemporary Art), Global Volunteer Network, Taranga Foundation, Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, Room to Read and the YWCA.