Gauteng families have been escaping to this North West resort since it first opened in 1979, and it caters for all tastes and ages with its variety of accommodation, F&B and leisure options. The resort is massive – in fact, it’s probably better to describe it as a self-sustaining small town, as it operates and manages its own water, waste and energy systems. The resort is quite isolated, and in a rural space, which not only means that the resort needs to be self-reliant, but that there’s an onus on the property to be responsible with the resources it uses.

The resort also has a large amount of people on-site every day, which puts additional strain on resources and waste management. The resort employs about 6 500 staff (900 of whom live permanently on site with their families) and can sleep just over 6 000 guests in its four hotels, chalets and Sun Vacation Club. And that’s not to mention the visitors who visit the resort for the day.

Thankfully, Sun City was an early convert to sustainability, adopting a sustainability programme in 2004. In 2009, an environmental department was established with four full time positions, and today the department has grown into a five-person team, with documented system procedures and regular audits ensuring that, across the board, standards are stuck to.

Sun City’s journey to become a sustainable destination was “an enormous challenge, when looking at the dynamics of the resort’s infrastructure, facilities and activities,” says Danie Boshoff, the Safety, Health and Environmental Manager for the resort, in the introduction to Sun City’s Sustainability Booklet. The resort formed Sun City SHE Committees – 13 committees, one from each department – to assist the sustainability department with implementation, and today Sun City is an ISO 14001: 2015 certified company.

The property has won numerous awards for its sustainability initiatives, and is often visited by government departments for educational visits and to learn from the initiatives that have been implemented.

The Sun City resort has a number of facets to its water management plan. The on-site waste water treatment purifies 2 mega litres of water a day, which is then used for irrigation together with rain water that’s harvested through the storm water drain system.  A sustainable irrigation procedure eliminates irrigation during the heat of the day, and rain sensors are used on newer systems to prevent irrigation cycles from running if the soil has sufficient moisture content.  There is also zero tolerance for leaks – teams act swiftly when leaks occur to prevent losses.

Running for the last 10 years, Sun City’s waste management system runs like clockwork. The resort has had many compliments on the condition of its recycling facility and landfill site and spent R3 million to upgrade the recycling facility and add new technologies, such as a food digestor. While it currently recycles in excess of 65% of all waste, there’s a goal to have zero waste to landfill in the year 2020. The management system sees waste separated at source and then, once taken to the recycling facility on site, sorted further and then balled.

One of the resort’s biggest concerns as its facilities are so reliant on electricity, Sun City has made great energy savings over the last few years. They’ve also invested a considerable amount into energy saving projects and all electrical usage can be easily audited, analysed and controlled through a monitoring system. Areas that used a large amount of energy were identified, and were placed on a load shedding schedule to reduce overall energy usage. These key areas included heat and water pumps, air conditioning and heated swimming pools. Solar panels have been placed in the staff village, equating to around 22% of the total energy use in the village. 15 000 energy-sapping lightbulbs around the resort were replaced with energy efficient versions, and gas is used where possible to reduce electricity usage.