Success Stories
Rotorua Sustainable Tourism Charter members are always implementing new and innovative sustainable business practices. Check back here regularly to learn about the contributions Charter member businesses are making towards sustainability.
A rainbow of produce
Apr 20, 2009
Living up to a Qualmark Gold enviro-mark is not easy, but Rainbow Springs seems to be doing this well. The attraction has taken its recycling measures further by introducing in-park recycling bins and a staff recycling work station on site. Staff have received training in recycling goals and procedures and both operational and visitor recyclables are now taken to the Te Ngae Road recycling centre instead of the landfill.
“The on site bins and workstation have given us the tools we need to significantly reduce the amount of waste we send to landfill” says Toni Thompson from the Rainbow Springs team. According to Toni the process has not been without its challenges, but everyone is getting better and the system is working well. In addition to a ‘mark II’ recycling system, Rainbow Springs has improved the efficiency of its vegetable garden to the point where vegetables are now being sold for a donation with all funds raised going to the attraction’s Tuatara breeding programme.
The Gardening guru at Rainbow Springs is Arnie Bava. “All our herbs and vegetables are heirloom varieties so some of the best produce is left to mature and go to seed for next spring. This saves money and ensures the best quality vegetables” says Arnie. Rainbow Springs has two worm farms which are supplied with food-scraps from the staff room, café. According to Arnie, the worm farms provide approximately twenty litres of leachate each week and so far have provided three quarters of a cubic metre of worm castings. In addition to worm farms Rainbow Springs has a large composting area which was only established early this year. “The compost system takes any ingredients that would take too long to be processed by the worm farms” says Arnie.
Toni believes that while Rainbow Spring’s association with the Charter, Qualmark and Green Globe raises expectations among their visitors around the attraction’s environmental performance, you would expect nothing less from an attraction that counts kiwi and tuatara breeding in its portfolio.
