The numbers at Headwaters Glenorchy Eco Lodge speak for themselves.
Around 1600 sensors
400,000 litres of water saved each year.
18 x 75-metre-deep closed circuit ground source bores.
Walls thicker than 30 centimetres.
45 tonnes of organic waste diverted from landfill.
A flourishing garden with 100 fruit trees, 92 varieties of herbs and vegetables, and 300kg of produce.
Sixteen beehives producing 200kg of honey.
589 solar panels delivering 192kW at peak.
Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) 222kwh
An annual net-positive energy and a water saving footprint.
But the numbers don’t tell the full story.
Earlier this month, Headwaters claimed both the Excellence in Sustainability award and the overall Supreme Award at the 2025 Queenstown Chamber 2degrees Business Awards - recognition not just of incredible technical achievement, but of a regenerative ethos woven through every aspect of the business.
The judges described Headwaters as "world-leading and purpose-driven … sustainability with heart, strategy and serious impact". They praised the team’s focus on continual improvement and its commitment to generating environmental, social and economic benefit for the wider community.
"We were absolutely delighted and thrilled," says General Manager Kylie Broxton. “The Sustainability Award is one that we really pride ourselves on. We had our fingers crossed for that one. But the Supreme Award was an absolute surprise - not a single person at our table was expecting it."
The accolades reflect seven years of refining and proving a model of hospitality built on regenerative design.
American philanthropists Paul and Debbi Brainerd founded the lodge with the vision to create a thriving and regenerative triple bottom line business model that is environmentally and financially sustainable, and which gives back to the local community and the wider world.
Ahead of its time, the lodge was built from a recycled woolshed and sustainably harvested timber, the first-ever accommodation facility designed and certified to Living Building Challenge (LBC) standards - the world's most rigorous and comprehensive sustainability guidelines. It was the first of its kind to harness the power of one of the South Island’s largest solar gardens.
"We’re actually looking to expand the existing solar farm early in 2026,” says Head of Maintenance John Pope, who is responsible for the hands-on continuing evolution of the lodge's power, heat, water and waste systems.
“The panels have naturally started to show degradation over the years – but we’re still getting around 170+kW on our best days now, so we’re going to add approximately another 20kW. That’s 47 new panels.”
The solar and battery storage system powers not just the lodge and 14 chalets, but the entire multi-business site - including the restaurant, Mrs Woolly’s General Store, camping ground facilities along with a commercial market garden and climate-controlled greenhouse.
Headwaters’ buildings are designed as complete energy systems, combining super-insulated construction with passive solar design and a ground-source heat pump system.
In winter, water is pumped down 75m-deep into the ground source bores and returns to the surface at around 13 deg C, where it is boosted by a heat pump to 50 deg C, before being stored in thermal stores and used to warm rooms, underfloor heating and hot water. In summer, evacuated solar tubes on roofs capture the sun’s heat too, a hybrid system ensuring the lodge runs on the cleanest available energy at any moment.
"We're always trying to find little ways to improve our efficiency as we go," John says.
Water is treated with the same care. Rainfall is harvested, filtered and UV-treated for drinking and showering, while composting toilets and efficient fixtures halve overall water use. All greywater is naturally cleaned through the lodge’s three-stage wetland system - supported by the use of organic, low-phosphorus guest products - before being reused for irrigation. It’s a closed-loop approach designed to minimise impact while maximising resilience.
Meanwhile, the kitchen garden is now coming into its third season, comprised of outdoor growing beds, a beautiful potting shed and a state-of-the-art greenhouse, tested in Alaska.
"Our chef DJ is very passionate about garden-to-plate, so he has taken the lead for the kitchen garden," Kylie says. "And we have an incredible kitchen gardener, Sandra. It's fantastic to see her walking across the road with her cart filled with micro greens and salads and all sorts of goodies out of the garden."
There are also more than 100 fruit trees, donated by a guest impressed by the lodge’s work, along with a thriving bee community. And the lodge also supports New Zealand’s first community composting facility, developed in partnership with Queenstown Lakes District Council. This includes e-bike kerbside collection and compost donation to Glenorchy community nursery. It has diverted 45 tonnes of organic waste from landfill.
All those systems enable the lodge to operate as a civil defence hub for the local community, fulfilling a crucial regenerative tourism need in a town at the mouth of a river delta, subject to flooding, and with the risk of a SF8 earthquake.
Education about sustainability is also at the core of Headwaters operation, whether that's for the guests, locals, students or visiting experts.
"This is tourist accommodation but also an invaluable sustainability site," John says. "That was always part of Paul and Debbi's plan, for us to become a little bit of research center behind the scenes. We’d love to welcome universities, people who want to study sustainability, other operators, to come and see what we do."
