Park Hyatt Maldives Hadahaa achieves Silver EarthCheck Certification

(incentivetravel.co.uk): Park Hyatt Maldives Hadahaa, which opened in the pristine and undisturbed Gaafu Alifu Atoll in April 2011, is delighted to achieve Silver EarthCheck Certification – making it one of the few resorts worldwide to gain such recognition. 

Park Hyatt Maldives Hadahaa was the first property in the Maldives to follow the EarthCheck Planning and Design Standards during construction, which resulted in the resort becoming bronze benchmarked in 2009 by EarthCheck – the world's leading sustainable travel and tourism certification organisation. Following an extensive audit in 2011, the resort has now reached the programme’s coveted Silver certification.

As the Hyatt Group’s first sustainable tourism development, one of the primary objectives was to ensure that the resort was planned, designed and constructed in an environmentally sensitive manner. In addition, it also required that during operation, the resort should take great care to minimise its effect on the environment, enhance the Maldivian experience and to be as energy efficient as possible.

Park Hyatt Maldives Hadahaa was highly commended by EarthCheck for the resort’s strong environmental and social responsibility programme, in particular for having an established system for energy conservation, coral and endangered species protection, solid waste management, using natural materials, community initiatives, and the resort’s dedication to guiding and encouraging local agriculture. 

The audit also identified local employment at the resort exceeds the Government requirements – one of the few properties in the south of the Maldives, it has dramatically increased employment opportunities in this region of the country.

Arabella Willing, Resident Marine Biologist and EarthCheck Coordinator commented:  “As one of only three resorts in the Maldives to have reached this level, we are extremely proud of the achievement and are delighted that our ongoing commitment to the environment has been recognised by EarthCheck. We are aware that we have a big responsibility to continue our growth as a sustainable company, and we will therefore continue to work closely with EarthCheck to maintain and develop our environmental and social responsibility programmes.”
 

This achievement follows the recent launch of the Hadahaa Community Project, which enables employees to continue to contribute to their communities despite living away fromhome, demonstrating their commitment to Hyatt Thrive, the company’s global corporate responsibility platform.