B2B INSIGHTS
By John Roberts, Group Director of Sustainability & Conservation, Minor Hotels
5 May, 2026
Walk through almost any outdoor lodge today and you will see the same familiar signals of “sustainability”. Paper straws replacing plastic. Glass refillable bottles lined up neatly in tents. Linen reuse cards printed on recycled paper. These things matter, and they have value. They are visible, easy to understand and reassure guests that their stay is not harming the very landscapes they have come to enjoy.
But I often find myself asking a more uncomfortable question: are we rewarding the appearance of sustainability more than the substance of it?
Guests today are far more sustainability-aware than they were a decade ago. That is a good thing. Many actively choose lodges and camps that claim to be ethical, responsible and low-impact. In outdoor hospitality especially, sustainability has become part of the brand promise. If you are surrounded by rainforest, savannah or riverbanks, guests expect the operation to tread lightly.
The challenge is that what “treading lightly” looks like has become shorthand for a narrow set of highly visible actions. Ban plastic straws and you score instant credibility. Offer refillable amenities and you earn approval. These are tangible, Instagram-friendly signals that say, we care.
Invisible
Yet some of the most meaningful sustainability work happening in outdoor lodging is almost invisible to the guest.
Energy efficiency is a good example. Hybrid power systems, solar arrays paired with battery storage or carefully balanced generator run-times don’t make for glamorous storytelling. Nor do conversations about insulation or icky subjects like biogas from waste. But they all dramatically reduce emissions in remote locations and lessen stress on often fragile local grids.
Water efficiency is another. Behind the scenes, well-designed borehole management, rainwater harvesting, grey water reuse and low-energy treatment systems can make the difference between an operation that quietly strains local resources and one that lives within its limits or provides local benefits.
That said, in all my travels I’ve yet to find anyone who wants to talk too long about waterless urinals.
Ah, humans
Then there is the human side, which is too often overlooked, but arguably the most important.
Fair wages, long-term career development, healthcare access, and safe working conditions for team members are fundamental to sustainability.
In many remote lodges, staff come from surrounding communities where employment options are limited. Investing in training, education, and career progression all create impacts that last far beyond a guest’s stay. But these aren’t things that a guest will enquire about.
I have seen guests ask long searching questions about animal welfare. But they don’t ask about the welfare of the smiling bar man who served them a joke with a cocktail. Or ask about the even less visible teams that clean their rooms or make sure the landscaping is ‘just so’. What is it with us and swept-up leaves? Fair employment opportunity? Sweep away! Quasi-colonial vanity depending on hard labour? Leave me the mulch.
Little or no job security
I have seen lodges celebrated for removing plastic bottles, while their staff live season to season with little job security. I have seen properties that quietly invest in renewable energy, wastewater treatment and local employment for years, yet struggle to be recognised because they are not telling the story in a way that guests instantly understand.
I’ve personally received guest complaints for supplying fully recycled plastic bottles in a solar-powered resort because the staff hadn’t explained that the bottling machine was installed but was awaiting a government hygiene inspection. (The guest had seen solar panels but said we weren’t serious about sustainability because he’d seen — very visible— plastic bottles.… The operator now has certification and the bottles are glass).
Cosmetic fixes
This creates a dangerous imbalance. If sustainability becomes something that must be seen to be valued, we risk steering investment toward cosmetic fixes rather than systemic change. Outdoor lodging, in particular, does not exist in isolation, it sits within ecosystems and communities. True sustainability is about how we extract resources, how we give back and how we share value. Not just what touches the guest’s hand during their stay.
None of this is an argument against visible sustainability. Plastic reduction matters. Waste matters. Guest engagement matters. These actions can open the door to deeper conversations and awareness. But they should be entry points, not the finish line.
The opportunity — and responsibility — for our industry is to broaden the narrative. To help guests understand that the real work of sustainability often happens out of sight: in plant rooms, staff housing, procurement policies and in payroll systems. It is harder to explain. It doesn’t photograph well. But it is where lasting impact is made.
Sustainability does sell. But if we only sell the parts that are easiest to see, we miss the chance to reward and accelerate innovations that truly matter. In outdoor lodging, where nature is both our product and our partner, we owe it to our guests, our teams, and our environments to go deeper — even if it takes a little more effort to tell the story.
APOLA’s sustainability guidelines
This is where APOLA partners and supporters come in. APOLA’s guidelines for sustainability are just that: non-binding guidelines that come with membership. APOLA members are willing to assist face to face, by email, by videoconference, by phone.
The next step up from guidelines, though at a cost, is championed by APOLA’s affiliate member, The Long Run, which provides a framework to all members based around The Four C’s: Conservation, Community, Culture & Commerce (and I would argue a fifth: Collaboration). Such a framework helps members leap the hurdles that stand in the way of a sustainable operation.
The Gold Standard however, the only real way to know, is certification via another APOLA supporter: the Global Sustainable Tourism Council.
Certification from one of the GSTC’s accredited certification bodies proudly displayed at the hotel or lodge entrance or on the website, tells you that the property has invited a sustainability professional to visit them, peel back the layers, and check all the unsexy stuff so that you don’t have to.
After all, you’re here to relax.
