Arabella Golf Resort Mallorca has introduced new sustainability initiatives under its three-year Environmental Strategic Plan, accelerating its journey towards 2050 climate neutrality.
As the Balearic Islands’ largest golf resort – featuring 63 holes across four courses (Golf Son Muntaner, Golf Son Vida, Golf Son Quint, and Palma Pitch & Putt) alongside two luxury hotels (Castillo Hotel Son Vida and Sheraton Mallorca Arabella Golf Hotel) – the resort’s latest environmental developments include:
Autonomous Mowing Technology
Golf Son Muntaner – a European Tour Destination venue and host of the 2022 Mallorca Golf Open and 2023 Mallorca Ladies Golf Open – has elevated its maintenance operations with two GPS-guided autonomous mowers operating with millimetre-precision navigation across its fairways.
By using alternating mowing patterns that encourage uniform turf growth, the dual units optimise fuel efficiency, reduce mowing overlap, and ensure tournament playing conditions year-round. Operating quietly overnight, the machinery guarantees an uninterrupted player experience during peak daytime hours.
The ‘Circular Orange’ Project
Building on the resort’s established ‘Cercle’ wine initiative, this circular model – developed in partnership with Tirme and Fruita Bona under the FINHAVA programme – transforms organic waste matter from hotel facilities into nutrient-rich compost. The compost directly nourishes 1,500 local Mallorcan orange trees, returning fresh organic juice to resort guest tables.
In its three-month pilot phase alone, 75,000kg of collected organic waste yielded 24,000kg of natural compost and generated 14,547 kWh of green energy. This closed-loop process successfully prevented 9.6 tonnes of CO2 emissions.
Sheraton Mallorca Carbon Neutrality
The Sheraton Mallorca Arabella Golf Hotel is taking its final steps towards full carbon neutrality through comprehensive facility electrification, renewable energy integration, and hotel-wide energy efficiency protocols.
To offset remaining baseline emissions from 2023-24, the hotel partnered with Bosques Sostenibles on the Villaoril Project in mainland Spain, supporting the planting of 341 native trees across deforested land. As they mature, these trees will capture approximately 66 tonnes of CO2 through long-term atmospheric sequestration, enabling the hotel to achieve verifiable carbon-neutral status.
Sandra Benbeniste, the resort’s dedicated Sustainability Manager, commented: “Introducing these three new initiatives is a crucial step forward as we work towards our interim carbon reduction targets – aiming for 12 percent total emissions decrease in golf operations by 2028 and a 15 percent reduction across our hotels by 2029 – on the journey to our long-term goal of climate neutrality by 2050.
“These new projects build on our wider environmental strategy, from operating on 100 percent renewable electricity with on-site solar panels, fleet of electric buggies, and zero-emission guest shuttles, to safeguarding local water resources by irrigating our courses with reclaimed wastewater. Together, these actions reinforce our long-term commitment to leading the global industry in sustainable golf course management and eco-tourism.”
Aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the resort was recently honoured with the Circular Economy Award 2026 by CAEB (the Confederation of Business Associations of the Balearic Islands).
All three 18-hole courses hold GEO Certified® status – the only golf courses in Mallorca to achieve this distinction – backed by international EMAS auditing and ISO 14001 certifications. Additionally, both five-star hotel properties carry Green Key seals that guarantee the highest quality standards.
Francisco Vila, CEO of Arabella Hospitality España, added: “Our vision is to demonstrate that luxury hospitality and environmental stewardship can seamlessly co-exist.
“Every sustainability measure we introduce delivers a direct, tangible benefit to our guests, whether that is playing on tournament-quality turf nurtured by 100 percent reclaimed water, or enjoying zero-kilometre gastronomy grown using our own circular organic compost. Sustainability sits at the very heart of everything we do, and we are proud to set a global benchmark for modern eco-tourism.”