Since Authentic Adventures was founded, we have always tried to operate in ways
that minimise the environmental impact of our activities whilst maximising the positive
benefits to the local communities and regions to which we travel.
Many of our itineraries are in remote areas with sparse employment and depopulation;
our trips make an important economic and social contribution.
Our chosen activities – painting, photography, walking and singing – have, by their
nature, minimal environmental impact. That said, we do everything we can to ensure
that we are operating in a responsible and sustainable way wherever possible.
We are committed to using guides who live in the holiday area so you benefit from
the depth of their local knowledge and our own staff travel is minimised.
If staff travel across Europe is needed, for example for research, then we try to
combine as many trips as possible to minimise the frequency of travel and get the
maximum benefit from each trip.
Our local guides ensure that our guests are taken to the heart of the communities
they visit.
We keep our groups to a small size to minimise the local impact.
We combine groups wherever possible. For example, painting and walking or painting
and photography. As well as offering you flexibility, this enables us to share airport
transfers and transport within the week.
On our holidays we try to keep transport to a minimum, choosing suitable locations
that are a short distance from the hotel.
We use local transport firms wherever we can, rather than large national or multi-national
chains.
Wherever possible, we use local, family-owned hotels and restaurants. They in turn,
are employing family members or local people and using largely regional produce,
grown and bought locally. In this way, profits are kept in the area visited. Moreover,
we believe such businesses provide a much more authentic, enjoyable holiday experience
for our guests.
While nearly everything is included on an Authentic Adventures holiday, we encourage
guests to buy souvenirs that are locally produced to ensure that again, as much
money as possible goes into the local economy.
We encourage our guests to learn a few words of the local language as well as gain
an understanding of the culture and history of the area.
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Day-to-day office life
All office stationery is made either from recycled paper or paper from renewable
sources. In turn, we recycle paper, as well as glass, plastic, cardboard, printer
cartridges, and obsolete office equipment. We try to use the minimum stationery
in day-to-day office administration.
We use only low energy light bulbs and encourage staff to turn lights off, lower
the heating settings and switch off idle equipment. In the kitchen and toilets we
use fair trade and eco-friendly products and all appropriate waste is taken home
for composting.
Flying
We have no illusions about the lessthan- green aspect of flying to our destinations.
For this reason we are developing more itineraries in the UK. This year we have
introduced a French trip that is easily accessible by rail.
Recent agreement between the major European rail companies should simplify rail
travel across Europe in the future and we aim to offer more rail travel as an option.
Carbon offsetting
We counteract the environmental impact of our activities, particularly our flights,
by offsetting all the carbon emissions of our flight-inclusive holidays and all
flights taken by our staff.
We do this through our affiliation with Climate Care. Additionally, we are constantly
looking at ways that we can reduce our carbon footprint.
If you would like to offset the carbon emissions of your flight you can do so very
quickly and easily by visiting:
ClimateCare.org
Once on the website you simply enter your departure and arrival airport and the
online calculator will tell you within seconds the carbon emissions of your flight
and the amount you would need to pay to offset them.
This is not expensive – a flight between London and Barcelona would produce 0.3
tonnes of CO2 and would cost on average £2.47 to offset.Your contribution goes towards
a range of schemes designed to reduce CO2 globally, including the development of
new greener technologies, the creation of energy efficient projects and reforestation.
If you decide to go ahead, you can pay securely online. The ClimateCare site is
one of several excellent websites giving advice on travelling responsibly and lessening
our carbon footprint in all aspects of our daily lives.
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