The mantra of ‘Sustainability Does Not Mean Sacrificing Luxury’ has driven the Balgownie Estate owners and management team to create this low environmental impact venue with superior service and facilities.
From inception, Balgownie Estate Vineyard Resort and Spa has not only aspired to a high level of environmental responsibility, it has also actively sought innovative ways to achieve this goal.
Key design elements used at Balgownie Estate Yarra Valley include; self sufficiency of clean water (tank water making up 850,000lt of water annually), sewerage purification and recycling (conserving 7million litres of water annually), insulation (of rammed earth construction), and flow through ventilation (significant reduction to air-conditioning).
When it comes to fresh food produce, 80% of the herbs produced and a large amount of vegetables and fruit consumed in Rae’s Restaurant and at the resort are cultivated and grown on the property.
As a sign of their commitment the Resort in 2010/11 upgraded their TV’s to LCD TV’s, have replaced all incandescent globes with compact fluro, upgraded all flood lighting to environmentally friendly LED lighting plus anticipate replacing all external public area lighting with LED by the end of the financial year.
Staff involvement and commitment has been integral to the implementation and success of every initiative and this is led by example from the property owners, Des and Rod Forrester and General Manager Anthony Brown. Balgownie has created their own ‘Environmental Committee’ which is made up of one member from each of the 6 departments and chaired by the resorts Chief Engineer. They meet Monthly and report back to all staff and also input to the monthly ‘Green News’, an in-house publication which is placed all guest rooms.
This is the second time that Balgownie Estate Yarra Valley has received the AHA Excellence Award in recognition of outstanding environmental initiative in addition to receiving the R.A.C.V. ‘Green Star Ranking’ for environmental practices.
“Balgownie started by committing to an exceptional plan with a sustainable vision. We then lay the foundations and created an environment where innovation is nurtured. It has meant that Best Practice in Environmental Sustainability can not only be achieved, but has been continuously embraced and expanded by our team who are inspired by it.” .
