Wyndham Destinations Asia Pacific Boosts Sustainability Efforts
Wyndham Destinations Asia Pacific, a division of the world’s largest vacation ownership and exchange company, Wyndham Destinations, is demonstrating its commitment to the environment through a partnership with the City of Gold Coast (the City) in a food waste recycling trial.
The City has implemented a trial food waste recycling service to assist its commercial customers to divert as much waste as possible from landfill.
The service enables participating businesses in key business districts to remove their food scraps from the general waste collection.
Food waste collected is combined with the city’s green waste and turned into certified organic compost now being used in Gold Coast parks and gardens.
Gold Coast resort, Wyndham Surfers Paradise, together with restaurant tenants in the same building have volunteered their support of the program, and in the first quarter of participation have created 2.5 tonnes of usable compost that would have otherwise gone to landfill.
“We are proud to be a part of this fantastic initiative,” said Kaydee George, Area General Manager, Gold Coast at Wyndham Destinations Asia Pacific, “We are committed to doing all we can to reduce our carbon footprint and preserve our beautiful natural resources long into the future.”
Aiming for conservation of resources, preservation of natural habitats and prevention of pollution, Wyndham Destinations Asia Pacific, which manages 34 hotels and resorts across Asia Pacific, and has offices in eight Asia Pacific countries, has slashed its use of plastics and upped its emphasis on environmentally friendly technologies and best practice.
Through its WYNDGreen program, recent initiatives include a total balloon and plastic straw ban at its resorts and offices.
“This has saved the planet from potentially damaging litter from balloons, which turtles are known to ingest when they are mistaken for jellyfish” said Ben Perkins, Manager Sustainability, Wyndham Destinations Asia Pacific. “Plastic straws, which are only used once are one of the most prevalent litter items in our oceans and by making this change we are saving the planet from approximately 400,000 plastic straws per annum.”
“More and more travellers around the world are placing importance on hotels and resorts that implement eco-friendly practices. Through our WYNDGreen Program we are proud to be focused on education and innovation that improves the environment, supports global and local communities, and develops sustainable practices,” he added.
Reusable coffee cups are now sold at Wyndham’s Gold Coast café, Canteen Social, and the business has also switched to BioPak plant based cutlery and packaging. Battery and soft plastic recycling stations are also being installed in trials across the company’s resorts and sites.
Digital signatures have been implemented across the business saving thousands of sheets of paper each year, and each time a resort is refurbished, furniture and linen donations are routinely made to local charities.
The WYNDGreen program also asks for suppliers to be accountable when it comes to sustainability. As an example, a recent request was made for no more plastic wrappers on individual biros and USBs delivered across the resort network. This resulted in the elimination of 127,000 plastic wrappers per annum. Wyndham Destinations Asia Pacific teams hold regular litter collections and beach cleanups throughout the year, along with upcycling clothing swaps.
Wyndham Destinations staff are also encouraged to Catch a Colleague Green Handed with prizes on offer including having a native rainforest tree planted their honour in Gunung Leuser National Park in North Sumatra, Indonesia. The park is one of two remaining habitats for Sumatran orangutans.
City of Gold Coast
For more information on the City of Gold Coast food waste recycling service visit: cityofgoldcoast.com.au/foodrecycling
About Wyndham Destinations Asia Pacific
With a wealth of hospitality expertise, Wyndham Destinations Asia Pacific is a development partner of choice. Its management subsidiaries oversee a collection of 45 hotels and resorts across the region, some of which are mixed-use developments where Wyndham Destinations holds an owning interest. Extending across Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Thailand, Indonesia, Hawaii and Europe, the company’s managed portfolio uses the globally renowned Wyndham Grand, Wyndham, Wyndham Garden, Ramada by Wyndham, TRYP by Wyndham and Days Inn by Wyndham brands.
Wyndham Destinations Asia Pacific is the largest timeshare development operation outside of North America. The company markets and sells vacation ownership interests and provides consumer financing to vacation owners in the WorldMark South Pacific Club. The Wyndham Destinations Asia Pacific team also provides support for affiliate Wyndham Destinations Asia Pacific (HK) Ltd, responsible for the development of Club Wyndham Asia. The company employs close to 4,000 staff across eight Asia Pacific countries.
About Wyndham Destinations
Wyndham Destinations (NYSE:WYND) believes in putting the world on vacation. Our global presence in 110 countries at more than 200 vacation ownership (timeshare) resorts and 4,300+ affiliated exchange properties distinguishes Wyndham Destinations as the world’s largest vacation ownership, exchange company. Each year our team of 25,000 associates delivers great vacations to millions of families as they make memories of a lifetime. Learn more at wyndhamdestinations.com. Our world is your destination.
