| Environmental Good Practice in Hotels: Australia | Australia | - | Full scale |
HOTEL AND RESTAURANTS # 1
Background:
Kingfisher Bay Resort & Village is located on the west coast of UNESCO's World Heritage-listed Fraser Island, 250km north of Brisbane, Australia. The site encompasses 65 ha. and includes a 152-room hotel, 75 self-contained villas, a 114-bed Wilderness Lodge, a day-visitor pavilion, the staff village, 3 restaurants and conference rooms for up to 300 people.
Kingfisher Bay was built to strict environmental guidelines with the aim of offering a modern resort to blend harmoniously with the island's sensitive ecosystem. Before construction began, extensive environmental impact assessments were performed. Additional research was undertaken to examine certain areas in more detail: topography, vegetation and fauna surveys, a hydrology survey and studies of previous aboriginal use and habitation of the site. Findings of these studies gave rise to several management challenges and further advice was obtained to ensure that construction and operation of the resort would be carried out with minimum disturbance to the ecosystem. Kingfisher Bay estimates that over 57 person years of research, planning and design went into the project.
Cleaner Production Principle:
Process Modification.
Cleaner Production Application:
From the outset, every effort was made to minimize environmental impacts and to achieve a high level of environmental integration :
| Roads and buildings are planned around the major trees, to the greatest extent possible. |
| All buildings are designed to harmonize with the environment using Queensland-style architecture made of wood with open verandas and curving tin roofs to reflect the sand dunes. Colors reflect the surrounding bush vegetation. |
| Buildings are limited to 2 levels, and are below the tree line. |
| All timber is from indigenous species. |
| The hotel center complex (conference rooms, reception, lounge rooms, restaurants, administration offices and toilets) is designed without air-conditioning. Natural convection currents are created by windows and vents at the upper and lower levels of the building. In summer, cool air is drawn into the building throughout the day while hot air escapes through the large ceiling vents. In winter, vents are closed to trap warm air resulting in a "glasshouse" effect. |
| All rooms and public areas have enough natural light during daylight hours to eliminate the need for artificial lighting on fine days. Insulation has been maximized in all rooms. |
| A keycard is required to power each room. This ensures that all energy is turned off when the room is vacant. Air-conditioning units have to be switched on manually. |
| All public areas, conference rooms, bedrooms and offices are non-smoking. Smoker bedrooms are available on request. |
| Impacts on the dunes and swamps are minimized through the use of either hardwood boardwalks or wood chip walking tracks. |
| The resort has an on-site sewage treatment plant. |
The introduction of mainland soil diseases was prevented by using landfill obtained from the Kingfisher Bay site itself or from approved mainland sources. Natural materials removed from the site were mulched and used for landscaping.
Native plants from the site and surrounding area were used for landscaping. Thousands of plants were removed prior to construction and held in an on-site nursery for replanting later. A further 150,000 native plants were raised from seeds and cuttings. The on-site nursery continues to provide for all the resort's landscaping needs.
Run-off from roads and roofs is diverted into large lakes within the resort area to reduce scouring, creating natural-looking peat lakes which attract a diverse range of wildlife.
Waste water treated through the biotechnological plant is not used for irrigation as the nutrient requirement levels of the soil and vegetation on Fraser island are very low. Treated water is released into the fast-moving channel in the Great Sandy Strait.
All waste generated by the resort is separated, compacted, stored on site and sent to the mainland for recycling. Glass waste is crushed before being sent for recycling.
Kingfisher Bay has set up a community consultative committee to ensure the resort maintains good communication links with various interest groups in the community. Conservation, Aboriginal, and resident groups are represented on this committee.
Kingfisher Bay actively encourages research Programs relevant to the Fraser Island ecosystem and to ecotourism. These include :
| Mammal research on the behaviour of small native marsupials, |
| Kingfisher Bay's parent company, Queensland Tourism Industries Ltd, offers 5 grants each year to postgraduate students doing Ecotourism research. |
Within the framework of the resort's environmental interpretation Program, several educational initiatives are in operation to increase the environmental awareness and sensitivity of visitors. They include :
| Fraser Wild Nature Program, courses hosted by specialists to give guests an opportunity to further their knowledge. |
| Environmental Education Program for Schools, conducted with practical interaction with the resort's rangers. |
Staff induction Programs include an environmental good conduct video.
A 4-stage Program is in place - promotion, orientation, involvement and reinforcement. Within this framework several interpretation Programs, self-guide tours, displays, publications and videos are available to guests. The interpretation Programs include guided walks, four-wheel drive tours, marine tours and "meet the ranger" activities. Kingfisher Bay employs 13 full-time rangers on these Programs.
Environmental and Economic Benefits:
The design of the resort is estimated to save over 500,000kwh of energy each year, which is equivalent to the energy consumption of 100 households. Information on the costs involved and the economic benefits were not available.
Constraints:
None mentioned
Contacts:
Review Status:
This case study was taken from the joint UNEP/International Hotel & Restaurant Association (HRA) publication "Environmental Good Practice in Hotels: Case Studies from the IHRA Environmental Award." Each case study was judged in 1995 by UNEP IE prior to inclusion in the publication. It was edited for the ICPIC diskette in June 1997. Subsequently, in September 1998 it was technically reviewed by Dr. Prasad Modak, Environmental Management Centre, Mumbai, India. For more information contact UNEPIE.