From kitchen scraps to community gardens and native wildlife preservation, MHR’s New Zealand hotels’ compost and Save the Kiwi campaigns turn simple actions into big impact. Guests can participate by reducing food waste or opting out of room servicing, helping protect the Kiwis and nurture local green spaces.
Millennium Hotels
And Resorts
New Zealand
Turns Waste Into
Compost And
Protects The
Country’s Kiwi
Millennium Hotels and Resorts (MHR) New Zealand’s three Queenstown properties, Copthorne Hotel & Apartments Queenstown Lakeview, Copthorne Hotel & Resort Queenstown Lakefront, and Millennium Hotel Queenstown, are diverting food waste from landfills and transforming it into nutrient-rich compost for the local community through a partnership with Waste to Wilderness.
The mission for this partnership is ambitious: divert 80% of Queenstown’s hotel food waste, converting some 1,200 tonnes of organic waste annually into compost. This supports over 1,000 family vegetable gardens each year, removes the carbon impact equivalent to 1,200 fossil-fuel vehicles from the roads, and contributes to native reforestation projects.
To date, our Queenstown hotels have collected 149 bins containing 10,430 kg of food waste—saving 73,010 kg CO₂-equivalent emissions. Beyond compost, the initiative has inspired creative products such as self-watering planters made from recycled jerry cans and mycelium seed golf balls, while $10,000 from compost sales supports the local charity Kiwi Harvest.
Meanwhile, MHR’s New Zealand hotel has continued its Save the Kiwi partnership, now in its third year. Guests who opt out of daily room servicing on multi-night stays help conserve water and energy, and the funds are redirected to Save the Kiwi’s national protection and breeding programme in Napier.
In 2025, MHR NZ hotels donated over 32,000 “kiwi meals” to the initiative. Highlights include the hatching and naming of a kiwi, MaCK, in February and staff participation in planting 1,500 native trees in June to restore kiwi habitat north of Auckland.
From transforming food waste into fertile soil that nourishes communities to protecting one of New Zealand’s most beloved native species, MHR’s NZ hotels are proving that thoughtful actions ripple far beyond their properties. Every compost bin collected, every guest opting out of room servicing, and every tree planted is a tangible step toward a greener, more resilient future to show that even small choices can create lasting, meaningful impact.
