Sustainability

Travel is one of life’s greatest pleasures, providing exciting and enriching experiences that form memories of a lifetime. But while tourism has the potential to provide significant positive impacts for destinations, impacts can also be detrimental. Sustainable Tourism is about finding a balance between these positive and negative impacts, ensuring that overall tourism is ‘net positive’, not just for tourists, but for all those who live in tourist destinations, and the natural environment that sustains them.

At Lilypad, sustainable tourism principles are at the heart of our accommodation business. Having worked in sustainability all our lives, we have invested a lot of thought and energy into minimising the environmental footprint of our activities, and dispersing the social and economic benefits across the Bellingen Shire Community.

We provide a luxury stay at Lilypad, but that doesn’t have to come at an environmental cost. Some of our environmental initiatives include:

• We proudly operate 100% of our home and business from stored solar energy
• We have reviewed all of our waste streams, both solid and liquid taking the following measures:
  • We’ve eliminated any unnecessary solid waste and single use plastic,
  • We only purchase recycled and recyclable products for your use
  • We provide comprehensive recycling bin options for your use
  • We operate on a natural reed bed septic system to treat sewage
  • We provide eco-friendly toiletries and only use eco-friendly laundry and cleaning products
  • We do not use any herbicides or pesticides on the property
• We operate our home and business using only collected rainwater
• We actively track wildlife populations on the property and its surrounds, and continually enhance biodiversity at Lilypad through selective planting and habitat creation

Considering social impacts, you can be certain to enjoy a peaceful couples retreat at Lilypad whilst contributing positively to the Bellingen community. We ensure this through a variety of means:

• We make all efforts to contribute to the local community by purchasing our products from local businesses and suppliers wherever possible
• We provide detailed information and showcase local businesses and markets, to encourage you to get out and explore all that Bellingen offers
• We highlight areas that are environmentally sensitive or culturally important in the information we provide, and communicate how you can minimise your impacts

Choose to be a sustainable tourism champion in Bellingen by staying at Lilypad Luxury Cabins.