Responsible Tourism
Awareness of the world and what it takes to be a responsible and ethical
traveller is becoming more and more widespread. Here at Wilderness Expertise
we are doing all we can, both at home and overseas to ensure that everything
we do has as small an impact as possible on the environment and communities
we work with.
No area of our work is so unimportant or so humble that we cannot try to do it more responsibly. We recycle paper, plastic, glass and cardboard, banana skins, and even staff! We take great care not to damage vulnerable environments by our visits and are piloting a scheme in 2007 where we are going to see if we can bring all the rubbish accrued by an expedition team back to the UK at the end of expedition!
We are also the original skip-guerrillas and routinely go out scavenging. Asking permission first, we have managed to salvage wood and additional shelving units for the office, and a rather handsome filing cabinet. We’re giving the Wombles a run for their money…
We use paper that is manufactured from 100% wood free ECF (Elemental Chlorine
Free) pulp sourced from sustainable managed forests. This paper is totally
recyclable and manufactured within an ISO 14001 accredited mill, also conforming
to EMAS (Eco-management and Audit Scheme), and is one of the first papers
to carry the FCS (Forest Stewardship council) certification.
We give small sponsorship to local and international charities. This mostly involves huge hardship on behalf of our staff – one has run the 250km Atacama Marathon to raise money for Water Aid, and one staff member has rowed across the Atlantic to raise money for cancer charities.
Although our cars are the normal gas-guzzling cars that everyone has,
we do have a car-sharing scheme where staff are rewarded for sharing journeys.
We are also investigating the possibility of using cooking oil as fuel
in our next generation of cars!
