Evergreen Motel is a quality accommodation situated at the gates of Southland in the city of Invercargill. They have been operating for two years and have four staff members. The markets that they focus on are domestic, contractors and international visitors.
To Evergreen Motel sustainability means a better, and sometimes easier, way to run a people orientated business.

The motivation behind the implementing the initiatives was that they wanted a way to do things that would reduce ongoing costs, be better for the environment and healthier for those working in the motel. Sheree trusts that other businesses would be interested in doing something similar because they believe all businesses want to find ways to reduce costs and if that means it’s better for the town, country, and planet then that is an added bonus.

The staff at Evergreen Motel have implemented a number of initiatives to become a more sustainable business, including:
• Actively encouraging recycling and reusing office paper to reduce waste.
• Lagging hot water pipes, changing to more efficient light bulbs, and putting a timer on the heating system to reduce energy used.
• Installed low flow shower heads to reduce water used.
• Used steam cleaning to reduce the chemicals used.
• Regular checking of all equipment to ensure no leaks or hazards.
They believe that the steam cleaning initiative they put in place has been the biggest success so far, it has made their job of cleaning easier, has stopped all chemical use and does a better cleaning job.

Sheree found there were few direct costs involved in setting up their sustainable initiatives, and they have found that expenses have reduced as light bulbs are lasting longer and they no longer need to buy chemicals for cleaning etc. It took them some time to plan the changes, but implementing the changes took little time. They have noticed obvious saving in electricity bills and reduced water use.

Their advice to other businesses interested in implementing a similar type of initiative would be to get as much information as you can from as many sources as possible and take your time working through it, completing one task at a time before looking at the next idea.

Thank you to Evergreen Motel for providing this information.