SUSTAINABILITY

CONSCIOUS LIVING


When you’re located in one of South Africa’s oldest fishing villages along the West Coast, and seemingly enveloped by the idyllic Atlantic Ocean, treading lightly and protecting this area for generations to come is not only a natural step but a responsibility. Taking notes from his Swedish roots, Jonas Sandström created Paternoster’s first-ever sustainable guest house and self-catering cottages with strict eco-conscious practices allowing for a guilt-free South African holiday and one without interruptions, as both properties are almost entirely self-sufficient.



 

PRACTICES

NATURE FIRST


 

We know what the power of ecotourism and sustainable living can bring, which is why we have the following practices in place to ensure that our guests have a wonderful stay while mother nature flourishes.

  • All stocked beauty products are not animal tested, paraben-free and support local producers, which you can read more about here.
  • Solar electricity heats the saltwater pool and runs both properties.
  • No bleaches or harmful chemicals are used in our cleaning products.
  • Only local food products and organic cheeses are used for the breakfasts at our guest house.
  • The only products in plastic can be found in the shower for safety reasons, whereby we refill shower gels etc. until they need to be replaced.
  • We adhere to strict recycling.
  • All grey water is used twice by means of an indigenous and sophisticated piping and tank system. All showers, basins, dishwashers and washing machine water is used for irrigation, toilets, filling the swimming pool.
  • All washing is done in-house to save water and reduce our carbon footprint.
  • All roofs have rain harvesting gutters.
  • Our garden and rehabilitated green belt around the guest house have been planted with indigenous plants endemic to the area (this is a constantly ongoing project).
  • We only employ local women at Gonana.
  • We do not keep plastic bottles in our honesty fridge and we promote local small producers of gin, beers, wine etc.
  • Our bread and marmalade are lovingly produced in-house.

Every year we run a sustainability report and inventory to identify how and where we can improve to be even kinder to the environment. Should you have any eco-friendly practices or ideas, please do get in touch with our team as being kinder to the environment is a group effort.