Our Environmental Commitment

You will be informed on check-in that the AC will work only if you put your key fob in the switch at the entrance. AC's are HUGE consumers of electricity. We ask you to not play with the switch to get around this system. We use large capacity AC units that cool the room in a very short time. We respectfully ask you the same for the lights. Kindly turn them off when you leave the room. Be particularly careful to turn off the balcony lights as these are often left all day and night until someone notices them.

We offer you the option of hanging up your towels after use. If the towels are hung up, we will not wash them till you leave them on the floor. The sheets are also changed once in three days unless requested otherwise. We have planted Pemba Grass, a hearty specimen that stays green much longer than normal grass, even without constant rainfall. This way, watering can be minimized. Our pond water is a closed system and our pools are a mix of fresh and saltwater which is chemically treated every evening to make sure it is safe for our guests.

Besides ensuring a lot of greenery to enhance the beauty of the environment, we also ensure we plant lots of oxygen giving leaves. Additionally, we are working on expanding our vegetable gardens located at the back of the property. We use the fresh basil and some of the vegetables from our gardens to your table, or in the case of the mint, in your mojito!

All of our fruits, vegetables, and meats are produced and purchased locally. Many of our fruits and vegetables arrive every other day in the bicycle baskets of the local sellers. The fish suppliers bring fish and seafood directly from the boats on the days when the Chef doesn't go to the fish market in Nungwi. It gives us immense joy that not only is our produce fresh, but we also contribute to the growth of the local economy.

No kidding, we followed them to ensure that they're dumping the garbage a government approved dump site.

The unfortunate offshoot of feeding 150 to 200 guests every day, and about the same number of staff, is a lot of kitchen waste. We started composting to not only use all that waste effectively but also to make a safe and natural fertilizer for our gardens.

We started this on the suggestion of one of our guests. We separate the used tea bags from the rest of the waster and dry them out in the sun. Once dry, we douse them in kerosene and store them in a container. These tea bags make terrific firestarters for our barbeques.

Makuti Christmas Trees? Our gardens and housekeeping team work hard to ensure that all of our decorations for the holiday season are local. If you get the opportunity to come to stay with us during late December and early January, we hope you enjoy our trees made from woven palm fronds, with spray painted gourds that are hung on them. You will also find yards and yards of chain made from palm leaves. We also have beer can and beer bottle trees for the bars. Good use of locally available products and some recycling too!

Zanzibar has not been in the tourism industry long enough to have senior managers. Hence, we have an expatriate management team. However, we have few Kenyans and Tanzanians in our junior staff. The majority of them are from the island, and many are from nearby Nungwi and surrounding villages. We are proud of their development and continue working with them to ensure that one day, we have a local senior management staff as well.

 

We hope you enjoyed learning a little about our efforts to be responsible corporate citizens of Zanzibar. Should you have any suggestions for other initiatives, we'd be delighted to hear them.

 

-The Management and Staff of Royal Zanzibar Beach Resort