Trend forecasting shows that sustainability will play a key role in travel’s global recovery, with individuals becoming even more engaged in the topic when making decisions on where to travel post-covid. Hilton Seychelles Northolme Resort & Spa is promising to lead the way on the Seychelles’ main island, Mahé, with its ever-expanding eco-initiatives and efforts, which are part of its Sustainability Management Plan. Boasting a Green Globe accreditation, one of the highest standards for sustainability worldwide, the hotel has an array of well-established sustainability practices, as well as recently launched initiatives, all of which are focused on having a meaningful impact on the surrounding environment and community.
New initiatives
Recent developments include the introduction of a “Sustainable Day” and the launch of healthy dining restaurant, WAVE, which offers an environmentally conscious menu. The monthly “Sustainable Day” offers an opportunity for active engagement, with guests encouraged to get involved in a range of activities, from beach cleans and meat-free meals, to swapping the gym for a local Seychellois Moutya dance, to switching all power and water off in your villa for an hour a day. The newly launched WAVE restaurant was unveiled as part of the hotel’s recent renovation project, and as well as proving popular for its overwater decking and cool beach vibes, the restaurant is a hit for its menu. The hotel team worked hard to ensure their eco ethos is reflected in the hotel’s dining offering, and in addition to sourcing produce locally to reduce food miles, WAVE’s menu offers innovative dishes including a “blended burger”: a patty containing 30% mushrooms and 70% sustainably-sourced beef, thereby reducing the CO2 generated by the dish by 29%, whilst maintaining a burger’s taste and texture. The menu also contains healthy favourites, including poke and buddha bowls, and locally-inspired dishes, such as smoked marlin with marinated anchovies and grilled okra – all sustainably sourced.
Coral Reef Restoration
Having unveiled Mahé’s first artificial reef in 2018, Hilton Seychelles Northolme Resort & Spa is proud of its ongoing efforts to help restore and protect the surrounding coral reef. The artificial reef aims to regenerate and diversify the marine ecosystem and is complemented by the hotel’s well-established coral nursery. Launched in partnership with the Marine Conservation Seychelles Society, the nursery team helps regrow coral on land before transplanting it to degraded and bleached reef sites, an initiative which has seen over 280 corals be introduced since its launch. Guests are invited to get involved – either by snorkelling along the 650-metre coral trail to see the positive impact of this work, or by adopting a piece of coral to track its growth and development after they’ve left the hotel – so far, more than 230 corals have been adopted since May 2018.
Energy & Waste
The hotel is also leading the way in its use of solar panels, as one of the only resorts in the Seychelles that uses this form of energy to generate hot water, for use in guest villas and also the spa. Other initiatives developed by the hotel include bottling its own water directly from Mount Dauban on neighbouring Silhouette Island; thereby saving more than 5,000 plastic bottles a month, and the recycling of as much waste as possible, such as aluminium cans; eliminating over 15 households’ worth of waste.
As travellers begin to plan their post-lockdown getaways, those looking for a hit of conscious luxury need look no further than Hilton Seychelles Northolme Resort & Spa.
I‘m currently at Hilton Northolme as of writing this comment. It’s incredible how low the bar is for this magazine to praise a hotel for its sustainability efforts.
How much impact has a burger (which tastes really bad btw) when every single light, the TV and AC are turned on when you come to your room. They prepare the room for 2 pm the latest, so when you arrive late at night, everything has been blasting for hours.
So turning it off for one hour is the solution? You must be kidding. They don’t even have the electronical equipment where you put in your room card that turns off the lights when you leave the room. If you leave the room, everything stays on.
I‘ve also stayed at Hilton Labriz on Silhouette. You see the plaques for their sustainability efforts everywhere. You even pay 1 dollar per day per guest to support those efforts.
But when you wonder: where does all the electricity for the island come from? Their answer is: from a huge diesel generator that powers the entire island. Thanks for saving on paper cups.
In an area of the world where the sun is shining 99% of the time, any effort short of putting solar panels on every villa‘s roof is blatant greenwashing and the writer of this article should know better.
Greenwashing is a serious problem because it makes all efforts (even the good ones) uncredible.
Please do better next time.