Drakensberg Sun - an environmentally responsible tourist destination

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The Drakensberg Sun Lifestyle Resort is the ideal venue to host a green meeting or team building event.

Its high-tech conference facilities can cater for 200 delegates and it offers team building as well as outdoor conferencing surrounded by the beautiful Drakensberg Mountains.  

For companies and conference delegates who take their corporate social responsibility (CSR) seriously, the Drakensberg Sun offers team building opportunities that take CSR into consideration while assisting rural communities. These include delegates planting fruit trees at rural schools; getting involved with much needed building maintenance at schools; and a cycle adventure for conference delegates who then donate their bicycles and helmets to rural school children.

The Drakensberg Sun's green initiatives were recognised at the 2011 Imvelo Responsible Tourism Awards.

Its comprehensive, well-managed environmental programme won the award for Best Overall Environmental Management Programme and the Best  Single Resource Management Programme: Water Management. 

Darron Moore, General Manager of the Drakensberg Sun, and his team have worked hard to create an environmentally responsible destination. The resort works with environmental management company Heritage and together they have established and implemented environmental policies and procedures, earning a Heritage Platinum rating.

'Ours is a vision encompassing a long-term goal – where people visit the resort many years from now and witness the effects of the positive changes we are currently making,' Moore says.

To achieve this vision, the Drakensberg Sun operates like a small municipality. Notable results have included reductions in energy, water and gas consumption as well as waste.

Employees live the resort's environmental brand promise every day, with initiatives such as SOS – or 'switch off something' (dripping taps or lights, for example) – and monthly feedback sessions in place. Visual aids located in strategic positions in the back of house consistently remind employees about environmental goals while its Earth books inform guests about the resort's holistic plan.

'We want to access the eco-tourism market,' explains Moore, 'and we believe we have the correct bio-diversity to compete.'

According to Moore, local eco-conscious business travellers are fascinated by the scale and depth of the Drakensberg Sun Lifestyle Resort’s green initiatives and procedures: 'we offer guests a tour of our environmental initiatives where we explain in detail what we are doing.

'We aim to create a resort that caters to the leisure and corporate market but also to the environmentally conscious traveller and the tourist looking to support businesses working towards generating sustainable biodiversity,' he says.

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