Our Commitment

Camp Glenorchy offers visitors a unique opportunity to experience a holiday in harmony with nature.

Nestled among some of New Zealand’s most spectacular scenery, it reflects and celebrate our natural and cultural environment through buildings designed with non-toxic construction materials, native plantings, and creative touches from New Zealand artists and craftspeople.

The buildings provide guests with a comfortable, rustic aesthetic experience while using both simple and state-of-the-art technology to help reduce water and energy use.

 

We are committed to: 

  • A healthy relationship with the natural environment, during both construction and operation.
  • Creating a place where people feel comfortable, healthy and inspired.
  • Using 50% less energy than similar facilities.
  • Generating 105% of the energy we use onsite over the course of a year. 
  • Using 50% less water than similar facilities.
  • Operating within our own water balance as much as possible, through collecting and chemically-free treating our drinking-rain-water, and then treating our own waste water too!
  • Minimizing and managing our waste.

 

We hope Camp Glenorchy serves as an example of sustainability in everything we do, inspiring visitors to bring some of these ideas back to their own homes and communities.



Our Journey

Part of this journey is our drive to share with as many people as possible.

As a result we're constantly going through the process of updating our website to transparently, honestly, and effectively let you know about what we're doing, how we're doing it and the impacts of those things. 

Since first welcoming guests in March 2018, Camp Glenorchy has learnt a lot, we have also set our sights both higher and broader for our sustainable goals. Part of that learning was the specifics of how well everything is running, some real numbers about how much water we collect, energy we generate, and guests we welcome, we are working on sharing this data with you.

We knew during construction that our technologies would allow us to constantly improve, but it's our people; our team, and you our guest, that are our greatest asset. You let us be sustainable here, by embracing our story, and you let us enable greater change in personal lives, communities, industries, towards sustainability in it's many shapes and sizes.

If you cannot find something today you believe was once here, it's likely we are working on it to re-release. Don't forget that Camp Glenorchy cannot be contained, described, or conveyed through written word alone, what we offer here is unique and we invite you to join us in that experience, here in Glenorchy.

 

The Living Building Challenge™

Camp Glenorchy is designed, built and operated in line with the philosophy and principles of the Living Building Challenge (LBC), recognised as the most stringent environmental building design certification in the world. We are registered under the Living Building Challenge Petal Certification pathway for the Energy, Water, and Beauty Petals.

The LBC uses the metaphor of a flower to reflect a healthy living entity. Like a flower, a building is rooted in place. A flower must generate its own fuel, collect its own water, support its local ecosystem and community (via pollination), and become food for the local ecosystem at the end of its life. And ultimately, of course, a flower is beautiful.

The LBC is made up of the seven categories or ‘Petals’ shown above. Click through each to read about the choices we’re making for each as Camp Glenorchy comes to life. We are currently monitoring our Energy and Water usage and hope to be able to share this data; our sustainable progress, with you in the future.

We look forward to sharing our journey towards a more sustainable future with you.

Embracing Innovation

Camp Glenorchy was designed to inspire its visitors to see and learn about what's possible with today’s technologies and people. Guests and visitors can review all aspects of the sustainability choices, or just enjoy the warm comfortable stay they provide. 

“We recognize some of these systems will produce a positive return on investment (like solar) in 7-10 years. Other systems won’t produce a positive return for a variety of reasons, including lack of market demand, cost to import and commission or government policies,” says Paul Brainerd, founder and visionary behind Camp Glenorchy.

“It will be a living laboratory to measure the performance of these systems and determine their long-term operating costs. We will be sharing our building performance data over the next 3-5 years to determine what works and what isn’t working as expected. This data will allow us to continuously fine tune the buildings to achieve higher performance levels over time,” he adds.

While it’s not possible in the early stages of the project to say whether the innovative technologies invested in are ready for commercial deployment - some are and some are not – Paul and his team tested a wide-range of systems, picked to meet the requirements of the Living Building Challenge in Glenorchy, whilst letting guests from all walks be introduced to what sustainability can look and feel like. 

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