We at The Cape Verde Experience have always been aware of the impact of tourism on the immediate and worldwide environment, which is why we’ve always strived to be a ‘green’ company. We continually endeavor to negate any detrimental impacts our business has on our destinations whilst sustaining long term environmental and social benefits.
We have designated a Sustainable Tourism Manager who monitors our strategies both in our UK office and in our destinations and ensures that staff and customers are aware and involved with sustainable matters.
Having adopted a Sustainable Tourism Policy for our overseas operations, we feel that being responsible in the office is equally as important, in order 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 reduce the carbon footprint of the office.
We are committed to:
Reducing Waste Avoiding printing every document, promoting electronic filing, printing double sided where possible. Use the larger printers - they are more cost efficient.
Reusing Scrap paper, batteries (we use rechargeable), we have organised a book swap in the staff room.
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, paper, newspapers, magazines, envelopes, stamps, and cardboard.
Saving Energy / Water Lights - All lights are turned off at night. We also consider whether we need light on or not during the day and use energy efficient bulbs where possible. Hot Water - Our hot water dispensers are much more efficient than kettles. Air conditioning - This is often necessary but uses a vast amount of energy. So for it to work as efficiently as possible, we keep all windows and doors closed. We endeavour to keep the temperature at no more than 23 degrees and automatically turn off the system at the end of the day. Central Heating - This system automatically turns off at the end of the day. Computers - These are switched off at the end of the day to save electricity and reduce the risk of fire.
Using the lift As we are based in a second floor office the draw of the lift is inevitable. However, every Friday we ban the use of the lift (except for moving stock and emergencies).
Car Sharing Sharing a lift to work not only saves money, but more importantly, protects the environment from further pollution. We have also introduced a car share scheme within the Company as well as posted details of the scheme run by Hampshire County Council on our internal intranet.
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.
Community Development Fund: The Community Development Fund was set up by The Gambia Experience with the aim to not only raise funds to help Gambian communities but to also empower these communities to help themselves. This year the donations we raise will be given to the ‘Light Up a Village’ initiative, bringing much needed solar power to rural villages in The Gambia. Read more.
Resort Offices: It is our policy wherever possible to recruit local staff in our resort offices and use local suppliers.
Local suppliers: Where possible we work with our suppliers and encourage them to be more sustainable in all aspects of their business.
We are committed to providing our clients with comprehensive background information on all aspects of our products and destinations and have developed a 'code of conduct' to engender Sustainable Tourism.