Responsible luxury: Crystalbrook Collection’s bold sustainability move

In 2017, five people came together in Sydney to discuss starting a company that would be known as Crystalbrook Collection Hotels and Resorts.

“We had nothing more than a business name and a mandate from an investor to develop an upmarket, five-star hotel group,” says Geoff York, CEO, Crystalbrook.

“Right from the start, our motivation was to develop a new approach to a hotel group business. We developed a phrase known as ‘responsible luxury’ because we wanted sustainability to be an element of everything we did, and for the guest experience to be enhanced as a result of that commitment.”

In an industry often criticised for generating high volumes of waste, Crystalbrook Collection has taken a sustainability-led approach to hospitality. It was one of the first upscale hotel groups in Australia to replace small bathroom amenities with larger-sized, refillable containers. It also swapped out plastic room key cards with recycled timber ones, and reduced the amount of paper products in guest rooms by 80 per cent compared to the average five-star hotel room.

These practices have resonated with guests, who return again and again to the hotel chain's growing portfolio of properties. According to a 2024 survey with Booking.com, 83 per cent of global travellers feel that sustainable travel is important to them, and 75 per cent want to travel more sustainably over the next 12 months.

“From those five people in a room seven years ago, we now have 900 people across the business,” says York.

The group’s portfolio now includes 10 hotels operating, and in development, across Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia, and the Australian Capital Territory. It also owns and operates a collection of 17 restaurants and bars, three Eléme Day Spas, and Crystalbrook Superyacht Marina in the tourist destination of Port Douglas.

"We developed a phrase known as ‘responsible luxury’ because we wanted sustainability to be at the centre of everything we did."
– Geoff York, Crystalbrook Collection Hotel and Resorts, CEO

Commitment to sustainability

In October, Crystalbrook Collection took a significant step in its sustainability journey when it obtained a Sustainability-Linked Loan (SLL). The innovative financing model ties the borrower's cost of debt directly to their sustainability performance. This incentivises the borrower to achieve ambitious, predetermined environmental targets.

“If we achieve those key metrics, it reduces the amount of money we’re required to pay and frees up capital to explore and invest in more sustainability initiatives,” says York. “In a very cyclical way, that provides us with another additional commercial impetus to go even further.”

Crystalbrook Collection is steadily gaining recognition in Australia for its commitment to sustainability. This SLL incentivises Crystalbrook to meet ambitious sustainability performance targets around minimising water usage, reducing waste and carbon emissions, and enhancing energy efficiency.

York says the structure of the SLL helped reinforce Crystalbrook’s commitments, building on its partnership with EarthCheck, a leading certification, consulting and advisory group for sustainable destinations and tourism. EarthCheck’s tools have enabled Crystalbrook to track its environmental impact more accurately, providing the baseline measurements needed to monitor targets under the SLL framework.

“Since our partnership with EarthCheck commenced in 2022, we’ve been able to pinpoint with greater accuracy our water and energy usage rates, and other key elements across our portfolio. The SLL with CommBank adds a new level of motivation for us.”

It has spurred the hotel group to create fresh sustainability initiatives as it continues to expand its portfolio.

“We are going to renovate a hotel here in Sydney, which will involve demolishing a number of bathrooms. How can we reuse all those broken ceramic tiles that have come off floors? There is a product known as ‘green concrete’ we would like to use — the idea is that the concrete is made from these discarded materials and turned into a new flooring product.”

“If we achieve those key metrics, it reduces the amount of money we’re required to pay and frees up capital to explore and invest in more sustainability initiatives.”
– Geoff York, Crystalbrook Collection Hotel and Resorts, CEO

Innovative partnership

York says the innovative partnership with CommBank arose as a result of a productive, long-term business relationship.

“We were already on a sustainability journey, and the opportunity to receive a reduction on our interest rate was really nice, but it wasn’t our motivation – and I don’t think it can be. You’ve got to be very clear about what you stand for, and in our case, sustainable initiatives are something we’ve always done at our hotels. The SLL is just a fantastic benefit that comes from it. It’s ultimately pushed us further on our drive to enhance our sustainability measures. How can we better get focused on the measurement of those things? And there’s no doubt it has already been very successful for us in that.”

There is now far greater importance on sustainability initiatives in Australia’s business community, says Sarah Lalor, General Manager, ESG and Sustainable Finance, CommBank. She believes the leadership demonstrated by Crystalbrook, supported by their SLL, may influence other players in the hotel industry to invest in sustainability initiatives and deepen existing commitments.

“We’re seeing a real shift where companies are looking to link their sustainability performance to financial outcomes,” she says.

Competitive edge

Lalor says that one of the hesitations she has seen from businesses considering sustainable finance is that they perceive the process to be time-consuming and complex. York says the investment of time has not been onerous.

“It’s not an overnight process, certainly. You do need to have a lot of rigour behind your measurements, and to have really thought out your annual plans for your sustainability journey. It’s not something that you can say, ‘OK, we’re done, we’re perfect at this’. It’s an ongoing endeavour.”

York believes the SLL gives his hotel group a competitive edge. It will facilitate operational improvements and bolster business opportunities, from corporate partnerships to events.

“There is no question that having this SLL is driving our relationships with new companies who have heard about it, and who want to do business with companies like ours,” he says.

“It also resonates very strongly with our customers. One of the competitive advantages of the SLL is the way it allows businesses to differentiate themselves in the market, because it gives an independent assessment to the world of what we’re doing.”