What We Do

Having adopted a Responsible Tourism Policy for our overseas operations, we feel being responsible in the office is equally as important as in our destinations, to ensure we minimise our impact on the environment.

We have undertaken an environmental audit of our office practices and encourage employees to consider new ways to the reduce carbon footprint of the office.

To reduce our carbon footprint we will offset all the carbon emissions from any staff air travel to The Gambia.

WE ARE COMMITTED TO:

Reducing Waste

Avoiding printing every document - we promote electronic filing/ we printing double sided where possible
Email rather then sending letters where possible - this is not always appropriate but is quicker and saves paper
Use the larger printers - they are more cost efficient
Each department, looks at how much waste they generate and how they can cut down on this e.g. re-use scrap paper in a printer tray for internal use only.

Recycling

We recycle as much as we can but if not possible, try to dispose of things in an environmentally friendly manner.

We recycle:

• Toner cartridges
• Batteries - we use rechargeable
• Paper, newspapers, magazines, envelopes
• Stamps - collect in departments and give to admin
• Milk bottles, plastic bottles and other plastic packaging
• Cardboard
• Food and drinks cans

Saving Energy/Water

Lights - All lights are turned off at night. We also consider whether we need light on or not during the day.
Hot Water - Our hot water dispensers are a lot more efficient than kettles.
Water Coolers - We have installed timers to ensure these machines are not working out of hours.
Air conditioning - This is often necessary but uses a vast amount of energy. So for it to work as efficiently as possibly, we keep all windows and doors closed otherwise we will waste energy. The temperature is set at 23 degrees. The air conditioning system automatically turns off at the end of the day.
Central Heating - This system automatically turns off at the end of the day.
PCs and Macs - These are switched off at the end of the day to save electricity and reduce the risk of fire.
Hippo bags in toilet cisterns - To conserve water, we have installed Hippo Water Savers in our cisterns to reduce the amount of water used to flush each toilet by about 3 litres (about 1/3 of a tank) but still allow the toilet to flush effectively. Read more »

Using Fair-Trade/Environmentally Friendly Suppliers

Where possible we source fair-trade or environmentally friendly supplies as this supports vulnerable farmers.

Putting Something Back

Elephant Pump Well - We have changed our water coolers from bottled to filtered tap water. Having contracted these machines from Aquaid meant we sponsored the construction of an Elephant Pump Well in the Manicaland Province in Zimbabwe. Read more »

Easter Alternative Gift - Each year the Company give members of staff an Easter egg. Unfortunately these are usually wrapped in enormous amounts of packaging so instead, in 2008, we decided to donate 500 chicks to Chettikulam in Sri Lanka to give the community a new income source. The chicks will provide families with vaccinated chicks that will provide eggs and meat for them to eat and sell. We still celebrate but with fair trade mini eggs and hot cross buns. Read more »

Car Sharing

Sharing a lift to work not only saves money, but more importantly, protects the environment from further pollution. We have introduced a car share scheme within the Company as well as posted details of the scheme run by Hampshire County Council on the intranet. Where possible, why not share a lift to Whitely at lunchtime with people in your department?

Using the lift

Every Friday we ban the use of the lift (except for moving stock and emergencies)

Bike to Work

The Company has signed up to the Government's Workcycle initiative that encourages employees to cycle to work and enables them to purchase a bike at a reduced rate; this in turn reduces the number of vehicles on the road and their carbon emissions, as well as getting our employees fitter.

Please email us with any Responsible Tourism feedback you may have »