The four-star Hotel Verde, at Cape Town International Airport, is the latest product to become Fair Trade Tourism certified.

Hailed as Africa’s greenest hotel, Hotel Verde is an innovative concept that proves luxury and sustainability can go hand in hand. The 145-room hotel offers carbon-neutral accommodation and conferencing and was the first hotel world-wide to receive a double-platinum green building certification from the United States Green Building Council in 2015. Last year it took first place in the Urban Accommodation category at the Skål International Sustainable Tourism Awards.

Its sustainable interventions include wind turbines, photovoltaic panels, geothermal technology, regenerative drive elevators and grey water recycling. The grey water system saves an average of 6 000 litres a day, which totally replaces the use of drinking water in its toilets - a huge plus in a city suffering critical water shortages. The hotel has a zero waste to landfill goal, which is exemplary for a large city hotel.

“Going green is not just about the building; it’s about every aspect of the operation,” says Samantha Annandale, CEO of Verde Hotels, the sustainable hotel management company behind Hotel Verde. “We are committed to following the principal tenets of sustainable procurement, to minimise their environmental impact, to maximise wider social benefits and, of course, ensuring the wellbeing and future of our employees.”

“We are extremely proud of our Fairtrade certification,” said Lindy Meiring, General Manager of Hotel Verde. “The Fair Trade mark also gives responsible travellers an easy way of identifying our commitment to responsible practice when choosing accommodation in Cape Town.”