Dubai’s Atlantis, The Palm resort and Aquaventure World waterpark have each achieved EarthCheck Gold Certification, a testament to five years of continuous excellence in
sustainability practices.
This marks the first time both properties have earned Gold status following a rigorous audit across all areas of operation.
In addition, Atlantis The Royal has attained EarthCheck Silver Certification following its inaugural audit, just one year after opening its doors.
These achievements position Atlantis Dubai amongst a select, global group of sustainable tourism operators that are certified to EarthCheck’s Company Standard.
Paul Baker, President of Atlantis, said: “Achieving EarthCheck Gold for Atlantis,
The Palm and Aquaventure World, and EarthCheck Silver for Atlantis The Royal, is a proud moment for Atlantis Dubai.”
“We remain diligent across the destination to increase our sustainability efforts every year, as we continue our journey to become a leader in responsible tourism. These accomplishments reflect the hard work of our teams and underscore our ongoing commitment to do business in ways that are good for both people and the planet.”
EarthCheck is recognised as the world’s leading scientific benchmarking, certification, and business advisory group focused on travel and tourism. It helps businesses, communities, and governments to evaluate their environmental footprint, improve sustainability and ultimately enhance business performance.
Atlantis, The Palm and Aquaventure World has spent the past 5 years implementing and refining sustainability initiatives that have led to the current Gold Certification, while Atlantis The Royal demonstrated outstanding commitment by achieving Silver Certification in the first auditing year for the property.
The EarthCheck certification process is driven by a dedicated Green Committee, which works tirelessly to report high volumes of data backed with supporting evidence. The Green Committee has representatives from high-impact business units across Atlantis Dubai in order to drive maximum change.
Atlantis, The Palm, Aquaventure World, and Atlantis The Royal were required to report data for the year 2023 on waste management, energy and water conservation strategies, and community contributions, amongst others. With exponential improvements over the years, some of the notable achievements as commended by EarthCheck include:
- Atlantis, The Palm reduced Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions per room night by 27.1% – this is attributed to 2,172 solar panels that contribute 1.18 MW of renewable solar energy to the destination’s electricity use.
- Freshwater systems across Atlantis Dubai are integrated with specialised filters, which contribute toward significant water savings, up to 90%.
- Innovative recycling programmes across Atlantis Dubai include discarded oyster shells made into coral reef structures to support marine health, cigarette butts recycled into valuable building material and discarded soap transformed into new soap and donated to communities in need.
- Food waste management practices include the installation of Winnow AI Technology to measure and reduce food waste, which has resulted in more than 40% reduction of food waste from buffets across the destination.
- Atlantis Dubai has partnered with Seafood Souk to use the SFS Trace digital platform to enhance seafood traceability in its commitment to 100% seafood traceability by December 2024.
- All restaurant menus consist of a minimum of five dishes where the main ingredient is locally sourced, organic, or certified sustainable.
- Atlantis Dubai recycled more than 1,144 tonnes of cardboard, glass, paper and plastic in 2023.
- In the destination’s commitment to eliminating single use plastic water bottles, filtered water stations have been installed across Atlantis, The Palm and Aquaventure World.
- 126,600L of used cooking oil across Atlantis Dubai was recycled into biofuel.
- Aquaventure World switched from single-use wristbands to reusable RFID-enabled silicone wristbands that enhanced guest experience while reducing waste to landfill by eliminating 1.9 million single-use wrist bands since launch in September 2023.
- 100% of paper products including office paper, tissues, retail bags and paper-based food containers used at Atlantis Dubai come from FSC certified sources.
- Atlantis Dubai is the first resort destination in the Middle East to be accredited as an IBCCES Certified Autism Centre. More than 90% of guest-facing colleagues from restaurants, rooms and housekeeping and lifeguards are trained in autism and sensory awareness.
- All marine animal experiences are underpinned by research to determine the educational value of the experiences and guest learnings through pre and post experience surveys.
- Atlantis Dubai contributes $1 USD from every marine animal experience participated in by a guest to support partners driving conservation and sustainability.
Atlantis Dubai continues to push boundaries to become a more efficient, effective, and responsible organisation. EarthCheck’s in-depth process for certification further highlights the destination’s commitment to accountability while ensuring continuous improvement of operations toward environmental and social sustainability.
