Environmental Projects
As a tour operator in the shipping and aviation sector we recognise that the majority of our negative impact to the planet is in our greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels. Climate change is perhaps the biggest challenge of our time. We have a climate strategy with emission reduction targets that aim to align us with global targets for net zero emissions. We also understand that we cannot avoid emitting greenhouse gases until future fuels and technology come to scale. In the meantime, we are always looking at how we can reduce greenhouse gas emissions on our vessels in our office and products, through our supply chain and on our tours. We actively track the technological developments that create the emission reduction opportunities.
The vessels in our fleet are designed to meet or exceed the latest requirements in terms of environmental regulations, and we have invested in technical improvements to minimise our impact including the instillation of fuel optimizers to improve the efficiency of our fuel consumption, replacing using HFO with the lighter, less polluting MGO and improved rubbish handling to minimise waste. We have invested in a food digestor which keeps food waste and associated emissions to a minimum and all other rubbish is separate. Recycling is used when available at ports. We have also switched to more biodegradable and low toxic products on board including the trialling of laundry plastic microfibre removal and we plan to eliminate the use of all cleaning products containing microbeads. Osmosis machinery has been upgraded to increase efficiency in making water and water nozzles have been installed to reduced water consumption.
Our single-use plastic reduction strategy started a decade ago and is an ongoing commitment. We have dramatically reduced our use of single use plastics across our fleet through the installation of water refill stations on board and the use of supplied re-usable water bottles. In addition, there are no more plastic straws, twizzle sticks, plastic bags, cups, cutlery or individually wrapped food items, and miniatures of shampoo and conditioners have been replaced by dispensers of the same quality brands. The hotel departments are also now offering more plant-based dining options. We engage in beach clean-ups opportunistically all over the world and do our best to reduce our plastics impact. We have also made efforts to reduce our impact on the environment through a reduction in our postal mailings and since 2018 all of the paper used has FSC certification. ‘The Forest Stewardship Council’ are recognised by WWF as the ‘hallmark of responsible forest management’. In addition, we have replaced the polythene that our mailings were sent in with fully compostable potato-starch wrap.