Here at Ololo we’ve always believed that looking after the land is just as important as looking after our guests. Over the past few years, we’ve been on a steady journey towards becoming carbon net zero—a goal that feels more personal than just a box to tick. It’s about leaving this place better than we found it, for future generations of people, animals, and wildlife.
One of the ways we’re doing this is through our black soldier fly farming system—something we’re pretty proud of! All the food waste from our lodge restaurant, staff kitchen and farm get fed to these incredible little insects, which in turn produce a rich protein meal that we feed back to our chickens, pigs and pond full of tilapia fish. Even better, their leftover waste (called frass) makes an excellent fertiliser for our gardens and pastures. Nothing goes to waste here, and we utilise the power of animals to help regenerate the landscape.
We’ve also recently installed a large biogas digester that takes kitchen scraps and animal waste and turns it into clean cooking gas—another step away from using firewood or gas bottles. And then, of course, there’s our herd of 30 Large white pigs, who play an important role in our farm’s ecosystem. They happily munch through any leftover food waste, and eventually provide us with delicious, homegrown pork products for the kitchen. It’s a cycle we’ve come to deeply appreciate—everything feeds into something else.
All across the farm, we reuse every scrap we can—manure from our cows, compost from our mushroom growing, and all sorts of organic waste are worked back into the soil as fertiliser. The gardens here at the lodge thrive on this closed-loop system, and it’s amazing to see how much we can grow using only what’s produced right here.
We’ve also installed solar panels to help offset the energy we use in our poultry brooder and on-farm processing facility. It’s been a great addition—both reducing our energy bills and giving us some peace of mind knowing we’re not drawing from fossil fuels.
And then there’s our water recycling system where all the greywater from the lodge is carefully treated in a bio-filtration system and then used to irrigate our farm’s pastures. These pastures are where our chickens, ducks, pigs, and dairy cows all graze adding their manure and fertility back into the soil which increases carbon sequestration.
This journey towards carbon net zero hasn’t always been easy, but it’s been incredibly fulfilling. Every step brings us closer to creating a truly sustainable space, where nothing is wasted, and everything has its place. We hope that when people visit Ololo, they don’t just experience the beauty of the park and the farm—they see what’s possible when we work with nature, not against it!
