WORLD’S 50 BEST ANNOUNCES THE WINNER OF THE FIRST FLOR DE CAÑA ECO HOTEL AWARD

As the sustainability auditor across the entire World’s 50 Best award collection, The SRA is proud to name the winner of the inaugural Flor de Caña Eco Hotel award as Singita Kruger National Park. According to Singita, “a sustainable world is one in which people enjoy happy, healthy lives within their fair share of the earth's resources, leaving space for wildlife and wilderness.” This drive towards harmony in society and nature is clear to see across Singita’s business model and has firmly placed them as this year’s recipient of the first Flor de Caña Eco Hotel award.

This award champions one hotel’s outstanding efforts towards sustainability. The award is independently audited by The Sustainable Restaurant Association, which rates establishments that self-nominate for the prize based on a wide range of criteria, including environmental and social responsibility.

The hotel must provide documentation and complete an extensive questionnaire that assesses business practice across three core areas. Existing accreditations, such as B-Corp status, was also considered in the assessment process. 

Singita’s concession in the Kruger National Park was granted in 2001 in part, because of Singita’s outstanding record and steadfast commitment to conservation as well as its minimal environmental footprint. This reflects Singita’s ongoing sustainability efforts across their entire hotel collection and is demonstrated in their ethos and day to day operations.

To assess a leader amongst its peers, The SRA judges across three categories: environment, society and sourcing. Singita excelled across all three.

Environment 

Singita is an environmentally low impact and high value nature-based system, driven by their 100-year purpose to preserve and protect Africa's wilderness and wildlife for future generations, whilst ensuring that neighbouring communities benefit socio-economically.

They have worked with Bioregional to assess the sustainability of their operations and aligned to the One Planet Living framework, a globally recognised scheme developed in partnership with WWF. Singita Kruger has made progress under each of their 10 principles, but most notably under the environment umbrella they have funded beyond value chain carbon mitigation projects like Wonderbag (VCS accredited) and The Yaeda Valley Forest project (Plan Vivo accredited). 

Singita specifically chose to support these projects based on their potential to deliver measurable impacts to local communities. Among other benefits, Wonderbag helps reduce cook-stove emissions as an alternative to open-flame cooking. The Yaeda Valley Forest project helps protect vulnerable woodland and, in doing so, supports wildlife and climate change prevention. Through this work, the annual deforestation rate in the core Hadza protected territory has declined to 0.1 percent, compared to 2.1 percent—more than 20 times higher—outside the area.

Singita was also the first in Africa to commission Tesla’s Powerpack battery storage, providing the lodge with over 3 MWhs of storage capacity. Constantly looking for ways to reduce their energy footprint, Singita has installed new efficient air conditioning units that have reduced HVAC energy demand by 72%.

Society 

Beyond considering their environmental footprint, Singita has a commitment to social responsibility and supporting the wider community. Their efforts extend to helping improve gender equality, employment opportunities, and access to healthcare for all of their staff and the community. Specifically, they have created a ‘Community Culinary School’ which runs a one-year course followed by a six-month paid internship. This helps provide young people from local communities with the theory and practical knowledge to become professional chefs. More than 30 people have graduated from the programme, 50% of whom are female. From the graduating class, 95% are now employed by Singita. 

They also support an early childhood development centre (pre-school) by funding equipment and resources and running workshops for parents to help them understand the crucial role they play in their children’s development. The programme supports 80 centre managers and practitioners and just over 1,700 children. 

Sourcing 

There is also plenty to celebrate in their sourcing practices. The use of cutting edge, energy-saving technology in the kitchen (detailed in the environment section), a forward-thinking waste management policy and Singita's commitment to the ethical, sustainable and local sourcing of ingredients perfectly complements their contemporary food philosophy. 

As part of Singita’s approach of supporting adjacent communities, the company sources as much food as it can locally. The use of fresh, seasonal produce is one of the most important elements of the enticing daily menus. This produce is sourced from local farmers who have grown and developed their farming skills through the continuous support and long-term relationship with Singita. 

The kitchens at Singita have reduced meat consumption – with a particular focus on red meat – by capping animal protein at 200g per portion. They have also re-designed both their staff and guest menus to include more vegetarian options and have two entirely meat-free days per week in the staff canteen. Local educational programmes will look at including the benefits of balanced diets and animal protein substitutes. 

They also follow WWF-SASSI guidelines for sustainable seafood. This is an initiative specific to South Africa and operating in line with it means all seafood sourced is legal, traceable to its origins and not ‘red-listed’ as unsustainable by the WWF. 

A herb garden was built and is run by the Guiding Team, making for both an ultra-local supply of herbs and acting as a place where culinary school attendees can gain practical experience in small-scale farming and become more connected to the sources of the food they cook with. 

To learn more about Singita Kruger National Park, visit their website. You can learn more about our partnership with 50 Best here.