Lake Roxburgh Lodge
is one of Central Otago's only
'Plus' tourist businesses.

In 2009 Qualmark, New Zealand tourism's official quality agency, recognised the work Kim and Phil Winterbottom have put into their business with a 4 Star Plus rating … Plus... Qualmark also awarded Lake Roxburgh Lodge an 'Enviro-Silver' for Responsible Tourism Operations in the new-established Qualmark Green ratings.

So what exactly does an 'Enviro-Silver' mean? This report from the Responsible Tourism website (www.responsibletourism.co.nz/news.php?type=news&cat=news&id=42 ) is well worth reading...

04 August 2009
New Zealand’s world-leading environmental accreditation system for tourism businesses - Qualmark Green - is one year old today.

It’s not easy being green, but over 200 tourism businesses have shown it can be done by achieving Qualmark Green enviro-ratings within 12 months of the programme’s launch.

Of those, 50 have immediately reached Enviro-Gold standard - the highest ranking available under the system.

"We are delighted that we’ve got 200 accredited businesses and 50 who went straight to Enviro-Gold. The Qualmark enviro-rating system is demanding and thorough so that’s quite an achievement in just 12 months," says Qualmark Chief Executive Geoff Penrose.

Qualmark is New Zealand tourism’s official quality accreditation programme. The launch of Qualmark Green enviro-ratings last year made Qualmark the world’s first fully-integrated environmental and quality accreditation programme for tourism.

The five key assessment areas for the Qualmark Green enviro-ratings are energy efficiency, waste reduction, water management, and involvement in conservation and community activities. Operators must provide evidence that they have processes and programmes in place to monitor and improve performance across these areas.

The rankings are on top of the set of minimum requirements for responsible tourism operations that form part of every Qualmark quality assessment. Over 1,600 tourism businesses have been assessed against these criteria in the past year.

In November 2008, New Zealand won the ‘Overall Winner’ and ‘Best Destination’ categories in the Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Awards in London. The judges recognised Qualmark Green as one of New Zealand’s most important achievements in responsible tourism.