The Celtic Cross at North Berwick Harbour
Our business depends on the maintenance of the beautiful local environment we operate in. Scotland is a fantastic country and a stunning place to enjoy a cycling holiday in. As such, it is vital for us to be proactive in encouraging others to have as little impact on that natural environment as possible. We therefore designed a sustainability policy to guide our development and operations, the main details of which are published below:
- Our accommodation and activity suppliers are environmentally conscious and have well established practices. If we have to use operators who do not exhibit sensible sustainability practices, we will encourage them to develop these. If they do not develop them, we will reconsider our relationship with that operator.
- Staff and Tour Managers partake in a training programme that is delivered annually. This is to help them understand their environmental responsibilities and to communicate them to our clients. We will inform staff, customers and the public about our environmental policies. All our customers are briefed on our sustainability policies on the first night of each tour, our policy is posted on our website and each tour carries a card advising clients on how to minimise the effects of their actions on the environment.
- During the tour, tour managers will continue to inform and educate our customers about protecting the environment.
- We will participate in community initiatives that care for and improve our environment. Where possible we will source local products for our tours and employ local people for our head office site and for our tour guides. We monitor significant environmental indicators on a weekly basis, and aim to achieve reductions in waste production, energy use and fuel consumption.
- We have adopted a waste minimisation, reuse and recycling system. Currently we re-use paper for printing in the office. All office documents are internet applicable and we expect with future IT developments (e.g. posting documents on our website) to significantly decrease the amount of paper used. Surplus food from tours is redistributed e.g. to food banks or to users of the same accommodation. We recycle all we can in the office. We review environmental matters in our regular monthly meetings.
