NZ First for Wellington Café

NZ First for Wellington Café

Wellington, NZ - ZEALANDIA’s Rata café has become the first café in the country to earn all 12 Conscious Consumers badges. Conscious Consumers badges act as independent endorsements for the hospitality industry, accrediting businesses in areas such as community, smart waste, and ethical products.

“The whole team’s worked really hard behind the scenes to run our business as sustainably and as ethically as possible, so it’s great to see recognition of that,” said Catering Manager Mike Dennis.

Rata have implemented many different sustainability initiatives, including an organic vegetable garden, local & free-range suppliers, byo containers, bio-degradable packaging, eco-friendly cleaners and organic composting. There’s more to come too, such as beehives to be installed in November capable of producing 150kg of organic honey a year.

Another idea Dennis has been toying with is an organic orchard, located outside the ecosanctuary’s predator-proof fence.

“That [an orchard] is one idea,” said Dennis. “There’s a lot of hoops to jump through to get something like that underway though. It’s one of those things – you could say ‘well, we’ve got all 12 badges, we’re done’, but there’s still so much more we can do. Im pretty excited to see where else we can take this.”

ENDS

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