Last updated: Apr 19th, 2023
We’re taking some big steps to make sure our carbon footprint is as low as possible now and in the future. But, what about our past? Well, here’s our responsible journey so far.
We’re focused on reducing our carbon output and being the most excellent environmentalist we can be.
However, we understand this isn’t an easy task for a tour operator, and we don’t claim to have all the answers, but here are some of our wins for planet Earth so far.
Scroll on.
In summer 2022 we installed sizeable solar panels on the roof of our offices in Derby. And since then, they’ve given us considerable renewable energy – meaning we aren’t solely reliant on fossil fuels or non-sustainable alternatives.
We expect to see a gradual increase in the energy they generate, too. Thus helping us contribute more to our greener future.
During the pandemic we stopped producing our vibrant, informative and exciting A4 sized brochures. We also scrapped our paper packs for groups, Why?
Because we saw an opportunity to reduce our energy output, paper consumption and general all round carbon emissions on the product life cycle.
Further, we’re striving towards a paper free work space. One of our stand-out metrics in this area is our Finance team have stopped printing payslips, invoices and many other forms of paperwork. Using Sage, all paper usage for financial elements have been completely reduced to zero.
And another green cut-back is single-use plastics. A great deal of us use reusable water bottles, with our kitchen stocking long-life products like cups and cutlery. Also, loads of us bring lunch from home which vastly cuts our shop brought plastic too!
Another point is our recycling hubs and bins in our car park and throughout Rayburn House. We have cardboard, paper, and plastic recycling hubs as well as corresponding bins on each floor.
Finally, we also have two smart urinals typically saving a combined total of 630,000 litres of water each year.
With their zero use of fossil fuels in maintenance and usability, hybrid or electric vehicles are vital to our reductive journey. And we’ve realised their inclusion in our plan is vital.
So, over the past few years we’ve installed multiple electrical vehicle charge points with our directors leading the way with electric vehicles. Plus, our handymen use electric vans too!
Also, we’ve installed A++ bulbs in our office that dim all by themselves to save energy. Thus, reducing our HQ waste even further.
Cycle to work schemes are used by organisations to cut down on their carbon emissions at the end point. Created by the UK government as a tax exemption initiative, they’re also a tool to help reduce your carbon footprint.
Which is why we’re massively proud to include it within our already achieved projects to reduce our carbon output.
In our aim to buy local, we source milk from dairy farms right here in Derbyshire. This cuts down on several aspects of travel, storage, and production that would increase our carbon footprint if we drank milk from a Yorkshire farm (for example).
Also, where we can, our tours use locally owned hotels and restaurants, which provide economical as well as environmental benefits. Importantly, using the local economy cuts back on our carbon footprint as food, employees, or customers don’t have to travel as far.
Reducing our carbon emissions is our big goal in our positive impact strategy. Obviously, being a travel company means employing certain aspects of transport to get your tour where you need to be.
However, to further minimise our negative effect on the environment we’ve implemented laptop usage for all employees with hybrid working now our most popular way to work.
Not only is our carbon usage reduced, but we get out of the stressful work back-and-forth to focus even more positive energy on making your tour the best it can be.
Separate family holidays might need more vehicles to get independent groups to their destination. However, with school travel more of us travel on the form of transport, usually a coach, to get where we need to be.
Plus, with coach emissions usually 27g CO2 per passenger against the 102g for a long and 133g for short-haul flights – which might be multiple depending on the amount of families – it’s easy to see the positive impact we all make from school tours.
Added to that, coach travel cuts out the travelling to the airport and the per passenger output whilst at the 24-hour terminal. So, that’s also left out of your tour footprint too!
Finally, our in-tour app Vamoos cuts back on the need for paper itineraries, documents and any other form of paper whilst on your school trip as well.
Our sustainability journal is already bearing the weight of many green entries, and we’re excited to share them with you. We’ll be sharing more of our journey soon and the measures we’re putting in place to bring even more of a positive impact. If you want to learn more, please call or email us.
With our Sustainability hub showing some of our green wins, we thought of a few more ways on how to make your tour more sustainable.
We don't have all the answers but this is our open letter on what we’ve done, doing and going to do for our planet Earth.
A carbon balanced HQ, emissions labelled tours and collaboration with global green projects are just some of our long-term sustainable goals.