The Petousis family’s love of nature is obvious to all who visit the Vineyard Hotel & Spa and see the glorious gardens they have established and the great effort they have taken to include the natural elements indoors. The tall gracious trees growing inside the Square Restaurant, the tinkling waterfalls plus the huge expanse of glass windows in the Square Restaurant, Garden Lounge and both conference and health centres all pay tribute to this. As children, the young Petousis’ often accompanied their father on his weekend hikes up Table Mountain and today they still spend as much time outdoors as they can. Once a month they form part of a Vineyard team who battle under the African sun, removing alien vegetation from an area the Vineyard Hotel & Spa have committed to looking after, just over 8.5 hectares in Silvermine, part of the Table Mountain National Park.

In 2013 the Vineyard Hotel & Spa, a leader in sustainability in the South African hotel sector, moves into the tenth year of its extensive and highly successful greening program. Chris van Zyl, group sustainability manager, says the hotel has made huge strides since it launched its sustainability program in 2004.

“For nearly a decade, we have continually evolved our thinking around how we can become a truly sustainable hotel. In this time, we have introduced alien vegetation clearing projects in the surrounding areas, which were attended by 180 people during the course of last year; built one of the greenest conference centres in the country; and reduced the amount of hotel waste that ends up in landfills to a meagre 6%, a feat for which we won the 2012 IMVELO Waste Management Award,” he explains.

The results of the hotel’s green initiatives speak for themselves: a new laundry system installed in 2012 has already achieved a 34% saving in consumption of kilowatt hours and a 35% saving in KVA consumption in comparable time periods – working out to a 5% saving on the total energy consumption for the hotel. “We are giving life to our brand by ‘Living Green’, which is a key objective for the hotel,” says van Zyl.

As part of the broader Responsible Tourism banner under which the sustainability initiatives fall, a number of bespoke voluntourism packages have also been introduced to allow guests to get hands-on in making a difference to the lives of local communities by helping kids with homework, cooking food for the hungry or assisting with special care at a local clinic.

	vineyard hotel & spa scoops up another imvelo award The Vineyard Hotel & Spa has won the 'Best single resource management programme - waste management' at the 2012 Imvelo Awards, held in Johannesburg on Wednesday 31 October. to view the press article: click here
	social commitments In all the rooms at the Vineyard Hotel & Spa we offer an invitation to our guests to participate in our “kids of the cape fund”. This is just one of the ways they strive to make a difference to our community. for more information: click here
	sustainability initiatives The management of the hotel are extremely committed to the environment and encourage each department to participate in environmental projects. for more information: click here
	uncorked "The aim is to take something totally recyclable that is usually thrown away and create from it something that will benefit the children of our Community. With the help of our wine partners and through our Kids of the Cape initiative we will be recycling corks into flooring."  listen to: interviews to visit facebook page: click here  read more: click here
	garden walks calendar Join us for a guided tour through our beautiful gardens with Chris van Zyl or Vanessa Vermeulen, our environmentalists & horticulturists, followed by tea and coffee served with a choice of finger snacks. to view the 2013 garden walk schedule: click here