Once inside the rooms, guests can fall asleep on 100 percent organic cotton sheets under breathable microfibre duvets, and slip their feet into slippers made from coconut fibre, which are home compostable. The staff uniforms are designed by Nelson’s Tamzin Hawkins using only natural fibres.
“As the uniforms lose their colour over time, we will re-dye them,” says Farley. “Rather than throwing them out they can be reused on an ongoing basis.”
Audi shares that commitment to reusing and recycling, with the General Manager of Audi New Zealand Dean Sheed saying the company is proud to be on a journey towards becoming carbon neutral. Audi’s commitment to sustainability goes hand-in-hand with its commitment to innovation, which is at the heart of everything it does.
“We wake up in the morning wanting to do things differently, to do things better, and to be progressive in what we do,” he says.
Doing things better in the 21st century means looking at the whole value chain of producing a vehicle right from the early design stage through to how it performs on the road.
“As an example, the e-tron GT which we’re launching next year was wholly and solely designed virtually,” says Sheed. “Normally you’d have lots of prototypes and spend lots of energy and resources designing the car. So the amount of input going into that car including metal, clay and time, educed dramatically. So, sustainability is about our value chain and about the things we use.”
Materials used are increasingly chosen with the future in mind, they include water-based paints, lightweight aluminium which is fully recyclable and recycled plastics.
“We try and minimise wastage in the build process, but also make sure we have a low consumption car during its life with the owner and importantly at the back end of the car when it comes to the end of its useful life. We can recycle and reuse so most of our cars are around about 90 to 95 recyclable in some shape or form. When we talk about the EV range, their batteries are recyclable as well.”
Audi believes sustainability can be achieved without compromise, and is continuing to push boundaries around its other pillars; performance, design and innovation
“We connect innovation and sustainability together, because one actually advances the other and takes us to a better place in the world, “says Sheed.