Ecological Restoration

Hobbiton Movie Set’s dedicated gardening team have planted almost 3000 native seedlings around the movie set and surrounding farmland.

The primary focus of these revegetation efforts have been along the riparian margins to aid in improving water quality, bank stability and sediment control. At Hobbiton’s request the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) provided a water quality assessment of the lake in 2018 and following this report a series of strategies have been introduced to improve and maintain waterway health.

We are committed to continuing our revegetation efforts at a wider scale.

Maintaining biodiversity is a key focus of our efforts to protect and enhance our environment at Hobbiton Movie Set.

We ensure a wide range of native plant species are selected to provide important habitat for native fauna, as well as supplying targeted feeders to support our native bird species.  Our gardens also provide excellent conditions for a range of pollinators. The gardening team carefully select plants that attract populations of bees and butterflies who play an essential role in supporting the ecosystem through pollination.

We continue to monitor and manage pest species through trapping programs.

We are committed to ecological restoration and will continue to promote biodiversity.

Waste Management

Hobbiton Movie Set measures waste generated by visitors and staff and has on-site waste management programs to ensure waste is being disposed of responsibly. By measuring our waste production we have been able to target specific areas to reduce our contribution to landfill.

In 2017 we introduced a range of compostable packaging alternatives that are now composted on site. Our compost system has undergone development to ensure it is able to effectively break down compostable materials our visitors and staff produce. By doing this, we prevent around 80,000 takeaway cups from heading to landfill each year. Our compost system has successfully decomposed of compostable products, food and green waste produced on site, producing soil that will keep our gardens on the Movie Set thriving.

All non-compostable food packaging has been replaced by carefully-sourced plant-based alternatives made of materials such as bamboo fibre, paper, and Bioplastic made from Polylactic Acid (PLA). This material has a carbon footprint of up to 75% less than traditional packaging materials.

All waste generated by our visitors is processed at our on-site waste sorting facility. This facility allows us to hand sort and separate all compostable, recyclable and general waste items appropriately. Our sorting facility has streamlined our waste management process and has contributed to a reduction in our contribution to landfill. 

We are committed to minimising our waste and will continue to measure what we produce.

Hobbiton Movie Set encourages all departments to employ a strict purchasing policy to avoid consumables that are not compostable or recyclable. This policy will also aim to promote locally sourced goods to minimise excess packaging and transport. By having purchasing policies we are able to ensure that goods provided to us are sustainable, responsibly sourced and have less of an environmental impact.

We will aim to replace all materials with compostable or recyclable alternatives, and will strive to always select the environmentally conscious alternative.

Community Involvement

Hobbiton Movie Set encourages community involvement and support wherever possible. Our team have recently volunteered for clean-up events and revegetation initiatives, have hosted educational sessions with local primary schools, and have developed a Community Partnership Program to provide support for other community initiatives.

We will continue to support our local community and promote initiatives that support the environment.

Hobbiton Movie Set Chief Executive, Russell Alexander says “Our Going Green initiative is an integral part of our corporate responsibility and we believe it is extremely important to make the effort to minimize our impact on New Zealand’s precious environment. Our aim is to become as self-sufficient and sustainable as reasonably practicable. Our plan is to utilise our surrounding area and farming roots with a number of further steps to be taken over the next few years.
We look forward to becoming even more environmentally friendly in the future and taking our visitors on this journey with us.”

For more information on Tourism Industry Aotearoa's Sustainability Commitment please click here