Sustainability Initiatives
Ethical, Responsible And Sustainable Travel
Over the years, our operations have steadily moved toward ensuring our practices are ethical, responsible and sustainable. We aim to balance our purpose and profits in order to positively impact the people and places that create our business environment.
Our trips give us the chance and opportunity to encounter many of the wonders nature has to display. At all times, our teams will take care to limit our impact on any life we meet, whether in the water, or on land. The onus of 'taking only photos and leaving only splashes' is a core sentiment that we as international visitors and stewards of the environment will always strive to exemplify. This is a long term plan - however, that doesn't mean small changes can't be made in the immediate future, which will move us onto the right path for positive change. The World Travel and Tourism Council propose the below roadmap for progressing business toward nature positive organisational change. Responsible travel provides a demonstrable way of redistributing wealth throughout value chains and communities.
Source: Adapted from ‘Action Your Nature Positive Pathway’ (ANIMONDIAL, 2023)
Assess And Define
Reduce And Restore
Once we have assessed and defined our impact we will prioritize our action plan to ensure we commit resources in the most beneficial way.
AVOIDING where possible any negative impact on the environment.
REDUCE any operational impacts that cannot be avoided and balancing these with restoration activities. RESTORING degraded habitats through localized partnership schemes and financial support directed toward both short and long term restorative activities.
Finally and as a last resort where substantial change is currently unavoidable we will mitigate our impact through REGENERATIVE nature enhancement elsewhere.
Monitor And Report
Collaborate And Communicate
We have a growing network of suppliers, using stakeholder mapping we will identify key partners who share visions of a sustainable future and encourage transitions and change through partnership incentives. In communicating our plans and journeys we will keep stakeholders included in transitions through internal and external communication. We will also encourage partnership collaboration to work together toward more sustainable operations.
Environmental
Our business has always valued the excitement and challenge true adventure affords us. It is our responsibility to ensure that while we evolve and grow, we always do so in a conscientious way. We do not have all the answers. This is important to bear in mind. Yet that also shouldn't stop us from striving to improve our global operations, chiefly in relation to the impact we have on our environment and the wildlife we share it with.
To learn more about how we intend to do this, please read on below. Alternatively, you can refer to our Sustainable Travel page for a more concise roadmap of what's to come.
Nature Net Positive
In 2023, we will not only be committing to Net Zero ambitions in the short term, but also making further plans to give back to the environments we operate in - more than our operations impact upon them.
We will begin by auditing our Scope 1, 2 and 3 GHG emissions and, in the immediate future, we will start making changes to limit our current impact.
Again, we should reiterate that we've a long way to go! We remain committed to positive movements and effective change, intent on finding measured gains for the environment and supporting global initiatives.
Carbon Mitigation
1 - Firstly, we will eliminate (where possible) any and ALL operations that produce greenhouse gases that can be replaced by cleaner processes or technologies.
2 – If elimination is not possible, we WILL (as much as is operationally possible) reduce our usage of all practices that generate emissions.
3 – When and where possible we WILL substitute any and ALL operations that produce greenhouse gas emissions, instead offering viable and available alternatives.
4 – Finally, if elimination, reduction, or substitution is not achievable, we WILL compensate any negative emissions that are still present in our operations. We will do this by engaging in carbon offsetting schemes with the goal of not only becoming carbon neutral, but carbon positive.
We have committed ourselves to the goal of becoming Carbon Neutral as soon as possible and have been working on a 3-year plan to do so. We will achieve this in a number of ways, following science based targets and the Institute for Environmental Management and Assessments (IEMA) strategies for greenhouse gas reductions
Social
SwimTrek seeks to create partnerships, supporting our suppliers in navigating their own sustainability journeys with aligned action always in mind…
Communities Instead Of 'Customers'
Our aim is not only to enjoy and explore a new amazing destination, but to engage with people who know the place better than any visitor can. The concept of 'SwimTrek' has changed from a business to a movement. The idea of sharing experiences in new open water environments, with small groups of strangers, has become a way of life that we care deeply about. A core part of this is the link with the communities and environments that we visit, which is integral to our operations overseas and closer to home. We aim to join in with a global advocacy movement of responsible tour operators, using our voice to generate awareness and community engagement, highlighting initiatives aimed at tackling global environmental challenges.
The Travel Potential
Travel and tourism provides the demonstrable ability to redistribute wealth globally. When done right this can serve to support and regenerate livelihoods and environments.
Our Social Pledge
- We support local communities that enable us to deliver our trips, as well as local suppliers (hotels, boats, meals...)
- We pursue equality and diversity across our trips and commit to setting and publishing employee diversity metrics, which ensure representative voices throughout our business
- We commit to supporting community initiatives that align with SDG's and the 'natural capital' approach to responsible tourism
- We commit to publishing sustainability metrics on each of our tours. This will in turn highlight where we need to make improvements on an annual basis
- We will continue to strive toward operational excellence, creating a safe workplace for all employees and contractors ensuring all personnel have the tools they need to operate in a safe environment
Partnerships
Our natural capital approach involves Communication and Collaboration with our global network of suppliers. We are taking small steps to bring about long term change, engaging with suppliers to improve operating practices and limiting the negative effect on the environment.
We work with over 300 suppliers in over 50 locations in more than 20 countries. We view this as a challenge rather than a burden and we're not one for shying away from challenges. One step at a time we are committed to the journey. The hardest part of the swim is always the first stroke.
As part of our audit and assessment process we will annually assess individual suppliers' emissions and waste as part of our focus on Scope 3 emissions. Our ambition is to create partnership schemes, which engage suppliers as stakeholders within this process. We have a growing database of suppliers, using stakeholder mapping we will identify partners of shared purpose, who reflect our vision of a sustainable future. We will encourage further transitions and change through partnership incentives and KPIs to be reviewed in annual audits.
In communicating our plans and journeys, we will keep stakeholders included in transitions through internal and external communication. Also, we will work to encourage partnership collaboration and collaborate more closely toward increasingly sustainable operations.
The swimmers that join us, the communities we visit, the staff we have the pleasure of working with and the suppliers we partner with, make the business what it is. We cannot thank each of you enough for your dedication and commitment, dedication and participation! We look forward to joining with you on this next phase of the journey.
Governance
Governance, Risk and Compliance
Championing integrity as we scale we aim to adopt principles of best practice. It is our community that make us what we are, and with this in mind we seek transparency in governance and control ensuring stakeholders are represented and that we create an inclusive, equitable and sustainable working environment for all.
As a core function of our community and as we scale we will strive to improve our focus on business Transparency, stakeholder accountabilities, organisational independence and processes and procedures to ensure ethical behaviours are the norm.
We aim to join a global movement re-imagining the future of business that balances purpose with profit. To do this we are striving for a globally accepted accreditation that assesses Corporate and Social Responsibility and Sustainability through BCorp Certification.
B Corp Certification
Our aim over the next 3 years is to gain BCorp certification.
After extensive review, BCorp certification aligns its values with our core community beliefs. The BLab applies its organizational assessment and focus across 5 pillars and provides us with a roadmap to instigate year on year change. The BCorp movement is exactly that, it is not stationary, nor does it represent and end goal.
As an aspiring BCorp organisation we envision a global economy that uses business as a force for good. This economy is comprised of a new type of corporation - the B Corporation - which is purpose-driven and creates benefit for all stakeholders, not just shareholders. As B Corporations and leaders of this emerging economy, we believe:
'That we must be the change we seek in the world. That all business ought to be conducted as if people and place matter. That, through their products, practices, and profits, businesses should aspire to do no harm and benefit all. To do so requires that we act with the understanding that we each dependent upon another and thus responsible for each other and future generations.'
Aiming to build an inclusive, equitable and sustainable economy for the long term, SwimTrek is committed to becoming BCorp certified in the next 3 years. Benefit corporations are a new way of doing business that assess an organization across 5 main pillars.
For more information on SwimTrek's sustainability mission, please refer to our Responsible Travel page...