Sydney is my stomping ground. I know the best suburbs for authentic Indian spices. The cheapest service station for my weekly refuel. And, I usually treat the streets of Barranagroo as a destination to meet friends for dinner, not somewhere to sleep.
But, no matter how much of a local you are, there’s something about a staycation that makes your city feel fresh. Especially when said stay offers a real opporunity to connect with nature without treking too far from your CBD office.
Such was what was on offer at Novotel Darling Square. A contemporary 230-room hotel buzzing with a hive of good – and very green – ideas. Literally.
Un-bee-lievable welcomes
The first sign that this hotel takes sustainability seriously was a jar of honey, in my room. The better part is the story behind it: the Novotel Darling Square now keeps its own bees on the roof.
They’ve only been in residence for about two months, so this is a colony still finding its proverbial wings. But, the location is brilliant. The hotel sits beside the Chinese Garden of Friendship, so the bees have a green buffet on their doorstep.
Katarzyna Szydlowska-Baran (AKA Kasia), the hotel’s Director of Sales & Marketing, told me that my jar came from the same supplier but not yet from these hives. The hotel’s own honey is on the way, and so, I’m already planning my return trip.
More than just the bees
In a city packed with paddock-to-plate/farm-to-fork/nose-to-tail restaurants, Pumphouse, the hotel’s almost-onsite eatery (it’s just next door), tells a sophisticated sustainability story.
The menus show where the seafood comes from, whether Australian, imported or mixed sources, along with the estimated carbon footprint of each dish.
At least 25% of the menu is plant-forward too, with dishes that centre on vegetables and legumes, so you won’t face a sad side salad if you’d rather skip the seafood.
Behind the scenes, the kitchen team trains in ocean awareness, sustainable seafood sourcing and traceability. It all adds up to a hotel that treats every meal as a small chance to back healthier oceans.
The greenery also carries through. There are two micro-farms, one in the hotel and one at Pumphouse, supplying herbs for the kitchen and the cocktails. A supplier just around the corner wheels fresh plants over on trolleys and swaps them out regularly – so the food miles are about as short as they get.
Walking through the lobby, it’s impossible to miss just how many plants there were. According to Kasia there are more than 400 across the hotel, watered weekly by a dedicated team.
In the room
The green thinking in my seventh-story room upstairs is low-key luxe. Minus the lecture.
My favourite touch was the hourglass in the shower, a little timer that shows how long you’ve been standing under the water. It’s a gentle nudge rather than a guilt trip, and it turned my morning shower into a mini game.
Elsewhere in the room, the familiar “keep your towels” prompt is there without any drama, and there’s no single-use plastic to be found. The hotel has been free of it for about two years, which matters given how many guests pass through every day.
Food without the waste
Perhaps a byproduct of being a member of the “finish what’s on your plate” generation, one of my pet peeves is food waste. And fortunately, the founding fathers of Novotel Darling Square must have been raised circa 1981 – 1996 too.
Kasia told me the hotel’s breakfast menu is still buffet-style. But not the copious pile-it-high (and throw it away) kind I remember from a gluttonious girls trip in Vegas.
Instead, portions are counted and mindful, with top-ups for anyone who’s still hungry.
As she put it, food waste is one of the things a hotel can control most directly. And while I definitely did not scrimp on multiple serves of made-to-order omlettes, fresh pastries and DIY pancakes, it felt good to know that all that all that wholesome food was nurturing my tastebuds as much as it was my consience.
The bigger picture: whales and WWF
All Novotel Darling Square’s works towards a greener stay sits within something larger.
On 27 July 2026, Novotel announced a partnership with WWF-Australia, the first market expansion of the global WWF partnership that began in 2024. It supports the Blue Corridors initiative, which maps the ocean “superhighways” whales use to travel between feeding, breeding and resting grounds. It also backs WWF-Australia’s goal of protecting 100 million hectares of ocean in the Southern Hemisphere. As someone who grew up on this coastline, that one landed for me.
The numbers from Novotel’s second Ocean Impact Report are impressive.
In Australia, 90% of Novotel hotels comply with Accor’s single-use plastic policy, and 80% of the local network is eco-certified by a third party, with the remaining 20% in progress. Globally, more than 1,600 chefs have completed WWF Sustainable Seafood Training, and more than 3,200 team members have done Ocean Awareness training. The hotel also has someone dedicated solely to sustainability, and Kasia was upfront that some initiatives are already certified while others are still waiting to be implemented. I appreciated the honesty.
Why I’ll be back for the rooftop honey
The best bit of my overnight urban escape at Novotel Darling Square was that none of it felt like a compromise.
Kasia was clear that guests can only be encouraged, not forced, and that the hotel still has to deliver great service. It does. I never felt I was giving up comfort for a cause, and I left feeling like I’d had a proper getaway without leaving my own city.
Novotel Darling Square isn’t claiming to have solved sustainability. But, it’s doing a lot of small things well. And the bees are the perfect emblem: modest in size, hard-working, and quietly making the whole place sweeter.
You don’t need to make a big swarm to make a difference. Sustainability here isn’t a honey-coated marketing line, and the whole stay was the bee’s knees. I’ll be back to taste the rooftop batch.