Our commitment with sustainability and the environment

 

Our sustainability mission is to maximize the positive impacts of our trips, minimize and compensate for the negative impacts, both in terms of internal office management, logistics of our trips, suppliers selection and the sensibilization of our clients, by providing immersive and inspiring trips in a responsibly sustainable way, which promotes the value and the conservation of both natural and human, material and immaterial heritage.

 

 Why the S-Cape Travel tours are sustainable in themselves?

• We offer an experience where the client soaks in the culture of the place, rather than offering trips that encourage destination collecting. We choose quality over quantity.
• Accommodation is carefully chosen to be local, many of our hotels are family-run and small and are not owned by large chains.
• A very high percentage of our accommodation is in rural areas, where tourism has a positive impact in terms of development rather than areas of high tourist pressure.
• Our trips are always walking or cycling, this is part of our company philosophy. We do not offer quad biking, motorbike tours or other highly polluting activities because we want to promote sustainable tourism and we avoid all activities that do not comply with these values.

Travelling has an impact like every other human action, and we can’t help that. Nevertheless, what we can do is working on making this impact as positive as possible and compensate for the negative aspects. 

Sustainability is a priority to us, it’s like caring about your own home. We feel responsible for the world we live in, for contributing to safeguard the environment we live in, to grant and develop equal rights for all humans and cultures on earth, to support an economic system that creates value and equally distributes it and at the same time safeguards the resources it is based on, in order for the future generations to inherit and evolve them. 

We have always worked on sustainability and paid attention on limiting the negative impact of our trips, yet what we were lacking was a systematic approach based on the process “plan, implement, check”. 

 

We have committed ourselves to:  

Sustainability Management and Legal Compliance 

• Having a trained sustainability coordinator and sustainability team
• Networking and sharing experiences, training materials and best practices about sustainability with our partners
• Supporting local/national sustainability initiatives (nature protection / community development projects)
• Creating and implementing an evaluation method of the sustainability performance of our suppliers
• Having a sustainability mission, policy and action plan to guide us and which identify long/medium/short term goals and how to achieve them
• Implementing an evaluation system to monitor the goals’ achievement

Social Policy and Human Rights 

• Creating specific role descriptions and company general goals and providing fair working conditions, training and development that match the role of each member of staff
• Regularly measuring employee satisfaction

Procurement 

• Reducing disposable and consumable goods, reducing waste and scrupulously differentiating it
• Reducing paper use to what is compulsory by law or strictly necessary
• Using recycled paper for all printed materials in the office
• Making use of green cleaning materials
• Gradually migrating to a sustainable energy supplier
• Monitoring energy consumption and implementing ways to reduce it (e.g. giving preference to low energy equipment when possible, using a switch-off computer system etc...)
• Using recyclable toners and biodegradable ink
• Training all members of staff regarding sustainability and issuing sustainability guidelines, having in mind the 3 objectives: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle
• Introducing a staff travel policy and employee incentives to promote the use of green transport/reduce transport
• Applying sustainability criteria in the purchase of our merchandising products
• Gradually replacing printed paper with digital platforms where the travel information is available to our clients (App, digital tracks, PDF documents, etc...)

Holiday packages and communication – transport, accommodation, activities and tour leaders 

• In designing our itineraries and planning logistics, minimizing the use of private transport, promoting public transport solutions
• Releasing a sustainability policy for each supplier category that promotes certification and/or the improvement of the supplier’s sustainability performance, by giving preference to certified/sustainable suppliers whenever possible in terms of prices, quality and logistics
• Embedding sustainability clauses in the contract conditions of our partners, which shall include the protection of local natural and human resources, fair working conditions, child protection, the repudiation of forced labour, sexual exploitation and discrimination of any kind
• Creating training contents/guidelines and suggesting solutions to improve the sustainability performance of our suppliers, including tour leaders
• Hiring qualified professional tour leaders granting fair working conditions
• Regularly communicating with our B2B and B2C clients regarding our sustainability policy, goals and results, promoting sustainability practices at home and on holiday
• Encouraging our clients to adopt environmental conservation actions and respect for local populations during their trips, through roadbooks, destination manuals and social media content (where available)

Action Plan

And we have an Action Plan in which we set out the tasks with a deadline to be met. In the year 2024 we have completed a series of actions that we had proposed to make S-Cape Travel a more sustainable tour operator. Some of them are:

• Training of employees in sustainability
• Reduction of paper by reusing used paper on one side for internal documents and recycled or FSC paper for all other printing
• Reducing energy in the company by installing LED bulbs and automatic hibernation and shutdown modes on computers and printers
• Reduction of printed materials for customers by implementing the use of the Guibo App which provides detailed travel information
• Encouragement of public transport (train and bus) on trips, both in customer arrival information and within packages
• Working together with the accommodations for a progressive improvement in terms of saving resources, water and energy

 

The S-Cape Travel group is working on the TraveLife Partner label (committed to international sustainability standards). By joining the TraveLife program, we have implemented a systematic process, which shall receive approval by an external, accredited company. The next goal will be that all agencies accomplish the “TraveLife Certified” (excellence in sustainability). In general, we aim to always improve our sustainability performance. It will be a gradual work that we will carry out by setting goals, implementing and revising strategies and actions.

Travelife is a three-stage certification program for tour operators and travel agents:

1. First stage: 'Travelife Engaged' - Stage where S-Cape France, S-Cape UK and S-Cape The Netherlands are.
2. Second stage: 'Travelife Partner' - Stage where S-Cape Greece is.

 

         3. Third stage 'Travelife Certified' - Stage where S-Cape Spain and S-Cape Italy are.

 

How can you be sustainable while travelling

• Limit the use of plastic wherever possible. To avoid buying bottled water, always take a refillable container with you
• When shopping, take a tote bag or put things in your day pack, instead of using plastic bags
• Limit your use of air-conditioning as much as possible. If in use, please choose a temperature within 5 °C of the outside temperature. Apply this practise in your car as well
• When packing, bring appropriate clothing for the trip and limit what you bring
• Take short showers instead of baths
• Let hotel staff know if you wish to use your towel for another day
• Use public transport to reach the destination
• At bars/restaurants, prefer dishes prepared with local ingredients: better for the environment AND the local community
• If you visit a protected area, you may consider making a donation or buying a book in the park shop
• Support local business when buying groceries or souveniers
• Communicate with locals and know more about the area and life
• Respect wildlife, flora and fauna
• Respect local history
• Travel in low season
• Travel to lesser known destinations
• Do not litter and take your rubbish with you until you can dispose of it properly, preferably in the recycling bins
• Keep the following sequence in mind: 1. Reduce, 2. Re-use, 3. Recycle