During the internationally-promoted Plastic Free July, the City Lodge Hotel Group, together with its South African supplier The Bespoke Amenities Company, is launching an all-new range of bathroom amenities that reduces the amount of plastic used in its hotel rooms.
These will be available across all five hotel brands – Fairview Hotel (Kenya), Courtyard Hotel, City Lodge Hotel, Town Lodge and Road Lodge – in what is a first for a South African hotel group, and among the first in the world.
The new guest amenities range includes the Zero Bar collection produced by TBAC. Standard products will include:
| PRODUCT | DESCRIPTION | NET RESULT |
| Hair & Body Zero Bar | Made using no water, with a dollop of avocado and argan oil, to replace liquid shampoo and liquid body wash | Minus two plastic bottles and two plastic caps |
| Hand Bar | Replaces the soap bars and made with a dollop of coconut and sunflower oil | Minus two plastic flow wraps |
| Body Cream | Enriched with shea butter and packed in recyclable aluminium tube and cap made from recycled plastic | Minus plastic bottle |
| Shower Cap | Made using corn starch | Minus plastic flow wrap |
All products are now packaged in Forest Stewardship Council certified cardboard packaging that is completely recyclable. If guests choose not to recycle the packaging, however, it poses no threat to rivers, oceans and landfills.
The Zero bars also reduce the carbon footprint of the supply chain, as previously the liquid products meant trucking water around the country.
As stock of the existing amenities runs down in hotels, it will be replaced with the new environmentally-friendly range.
Guests will be encouraged to take their amenities home with them and a Zero Bar ‘Bar Saver’ tin may be purchased at reception if needed. Just think, no more liquids to declare at airline check-in counters and reduced weight of hand luggage!
This move will cut over two million pieces of plastic from landfills per year.
Other CLHG sustainability efforts include
Energy: In 2019, the group rolled out a large-scale solar panels project at 25 hotels at cost of R20m, with a combined energy output of approximately 1.45 megawatts of power or 10% of the entire group’s energy requirements.
Cage-free eggs: In January 2020, the group announced its commitment to move to 100% cage-free eggs throughout its operations by 2025. This will include shell eggs, liquid eggs and processed products that contain eggs. The group has partnered with Humane Society International-Africa (HSI-Africa) on its journey towards offering eggs and egg-products sourced in a more welfare-friendly manner across all of its hotels, affecting some 1.4-million eggs consumed per year.
Plastic: In addition to the new amenities range being launched, the group is rolling out hydration stations at its hotels offering a free alternative to plastic water bottles. Filtered, magnesium-enriched water is now available for all guests.