Our ecotourism policy

As responsible tour operators we offset all our business carbon emissions, making all our tours carbon neutral, using the Carbon Balanced Programme of the World Land Trust. We include all our tour carbon emissions, together with the carbon emissions from our office. We take steps to minimise our carbon footprint, including regularly servicing our tour vehicle and driving conservatively.

In addition to offsetting our own carbon emissions through Carbon Balanced, we help to save the rainforest on our guests’ behalf by supporting the work of the World Land Trust saving tropical forests and other threatened wildlife habitats. This not only benefits wildlife, but also benefits us all - figures vary, but rainforest destruction by burning releases around 120 – 160 tonnes of carbon dioxide per acre.

For every guest on one of our all-inclusive holidays or private short breaks we save 200 square metres of rainforest, whilst for our every guest on one of our day tours we save 50 square metres of rainforest. These rainforest acres will help to reduce the negative environmental impact of our guests’ travel to Orkney. See our rainforest acres page to see how much rainforest we’ve saved on our guests’ behalf.

We encourage our clients to offset the carbon emissions caused by their travel to Orkney by using a recognised carbon offset scheme such as that provided by Carbon Balanced Programme of the World Land Trust

We only use paper from Forestry Stewardship Council certified sources for our brochure and other correspondence.

Our brochure and tour information is also available as downloads from our website, removing the need for printing and saving resources. We conduct as much of our business as possible via email, reducing unnecessary paper use. We do not employ unsolicited bulk marketing techniques and therefore do not send out ‘junk mail’ – our literature is only sent to those who request it.

We use local suppliers wherever possible, and the hotels we use serve local produce where available, thereby reducing food miles.

We respect the sites we visit and minimise damage by visiting sites with small groups, a maximum of only eight people, and timing our visits to avoid busy periods. Our groups keep to marked paths as appropriate and keep a respectful distance from wildlife and birds, to minimise disturbance.

Our groups are encouraged to ‘take only photographs and leave only footprints’

We visit the smaller islands of Orkney in order to spread the benefits of tourism to our more economically fragile areas, thereby helping to maintain a viable community in these islands.

We support the work of the Orkney Tourism Group to develop and maintain sustainable tourism in Orkney, whose mission statement is: ‘Orkney Tourism Group will contribute to the growth of a quality tourism industry in Orkney by providing leadership, representation and support that helps tourism operators to develop and prosper in a sustainable manner’

We recycle wherever possible and use low energy light bulbs throughout our office.