Sustainability at Viceroy Bali

No Single-Use Plastic

The earth is our home. You will find no single-use plastic bathroom amenities in the room, nor in Cascades Restaurant or Apéritif bar. We make use of ceramic refillable carriers which are made organically and locally sourced for shampoo, conditioner, and shower gel, which are refilled by our staff as positive contributions to mother nature.

The resort filters all of its water to a safe drinkable standard, which has dramatically reduced the use of single use plastic bottles, especially as many guests bring their own refillable water bottles these days.

Reusable water bottle

Provided in your room is a thermal water bottle (wonderful to keep your water cool!), which can be filled up directly from any refill points in the hotel, or directly from the tap (we’ve filtered our water to international drinking water standards).

We do hope that even though we provide glass water bottles from Balian to be used throughout your stay (a fantastic sustainable company which has recently been awarded b-corp status)

Sourcing and waste

We could not be more thrilled to announce that we have an organic garden in the grounds of the hotel, of which we welcome guests to walk around with the chef. We use natural compost and manure to fertilize and grow plants and flowers. The organic garden facilitates us to grow, care and harvest vegetables for our kitchen. It promotes health as our kitchen ingredients will not have a chemical residue that would enter your body if not thoroughly washed away. Besides that, it also produces superior taste.

Native flora include orchids and mushrooms which grow naturally throughout the hotel and are maintained by our full time gardening team, who come from local and surrounding villages.

Suppliers are advised and requested to not wrap all produce in plastic. Internally, we use reusable bags. Plastic straws are no longer in use.

Garbage is split into organic and non-organic; the bins have no plastic bags to minimize the waste of plastic, the 2 food bins are integrated in the working area.

Many trimmings in the kitchen are being used for garum, lacto fermentation, pickled, kombucha, in order to preserve and add more depth/layers to our menu

We cook our own staff meals, using the vegetables or trimmings from the menu items.

We work with solar energy and installed an induction stove that only uses the energy we require. There is no wastage of wake flames or gas.

The Tomatoes entrée at our restaurant Apéritif is an example of one zero-waste dish

As much as possible, we apply a zero-waste rule to every cocktail we make. Our famous “Tamarillo Negroni” is a great example. We begin by infusing local tamarillo to the classic apéritif cocktail using the sous vid technique. We then recycle the leftover tamarillo into pate de fruit as a garnish to the end result.

We have a special section in our bar menu for non-alcoholic beverages (mocktails) which are produced from our zero-waste program. We create tepache from pineapple skin, ginger beer, and various kind of kombuchas.

Protecting our natural environment

During the construction process we either built around the natural vegetation or relocated trees and bushes. The natural waterways were kept intact, especially the subak system used in the padi rice fields next to the resort and around Apéritif.

We installed an extensive sewage treatment which allows waste to be processed via an eighteen step organic process, and ready to put clean water back into the local river, which is a huge improvement for villages downstream.

Throughout the property you will find solar panels

Our Air conditioning system has a dual purpose with the waste energy used to cool; inversely heating the water at the same time

Employee and guest initiatives

When rooms are not occupied the A/C is switched off. We set it to 23 degrees before arrival. When guests go out we ask remind them to switch it off where possible. Our rooms have double glazing installed with special glass to reflect strong sunrays to allow rooms to be kept cooler without the need of blasting the A/C

We remind guests upon check in on the process of wanting their linen/towels changed via a card in the room

Employee and guest initiatives

We ask our employees to share transfers, try and walk to work if close, or use bicycles. Many employees are from the local village Nagi which allows them to easily walk in.

Using local supplies for tours is very important to Viceroy and we recommend our guests to get out there and ‘experience Bali’ – this might be through a guided walk around the padi rice fields, a dance lesson or blessing by a Balinese priest to name a few – this helps money flow through the right channels and go directly to local guide and drivers

Once a month we have a cleaning session around the surrounding village Nagi and the road leading up to the resort.

A large part of our team (37%) is formed from our local village Petulu with the remainder coming from surrounding villages of the hotel. This helps us to ensure our guests receive a genuine Balinese welcome and hospitality throughout their stay.

The majority of our villas and public areas are built in traditional alang-alang (thatched roof) which requires high maintenance. To keep the alang-alang in good condition we work with local craftsmen for regular maintenance

Working with charities

We work closely annually with the Bali Children project. One such event raised 227 million Indonesian Rupiah (approx. 15,000 USD), which is supporting kids through high school, which two have now graduated and attending college.

In 2020 during COVID border closures we started working with The Plastic Exchange and its founder I Made Janur Yasa who has been nominated as CNN Hero of the Year. The Exchange is a sustainability movement that empowers communities to change their waste behavior through dignity-based exchange systems that result in cleaner, healthier environments. We have helped them financially and through providing Rice for Plastic in our local village monthly. To date they have collected 928,000 kg of Plastic from Bali island.

We partnered with Rotary Club for the children’s helmet initiative where we purchased 500 children’s helmets and donated to the poorest primary schools in our region.

We financially supported and encouraged the younger Balinese generation at Design school to create zero waste dresses as part of a competition, out of recycled plastic.

Cultural considerations

Internships are prioritised for Indonesian/local community students like Shara who joined us in August 2022 working in the marketing department – she’s been promoted to a full time position as of December 2022.

Many Balinese follow a strict Hindu religion, alongside deep-seated cultural traditions meaning time needed for praying, ceremonies and rituals. There is active encouragement to maintain these practices.

As a mark of respect for local culture and tradition, every Thursday each team member is required to wear local dress (kebaya for women) and men wear a white shirt and a batik or songket kamben with an overlay called the saput. The saput typically has a decorative border and is usually white or patterned. The dress is completed with a sash and a traditional headdress called the Udeng.

We actively encourage guests to visit the several UNESCO World Heritage sites close to the hotel; the Tegallalang Rice Terraces with their unique watering system and how they demonstrate Tri Hita Karana, which is the Balinese philosophy of life that prioritizes harmony in three aspects which are:

– Harmony with nature
– Harmony with other humans
– Harmony with God

Depending on the season we hold regular Balinese dance performances in our restaurant CasCades. It’s important to keep this tradition alive.

During special Balinese ceremonies we encourage in house guests to take part so they can further appreciate the depth and authenticity of the culture. There is a temple onsite at the hotel.