G Adventures

Aims
Environmental stewardship and social responsibility is instilled in our company culture.

Economic responsibility
We provide business opportunities to local people by employing local guides and tour operators. The majority of accommodation used on our tours are small-scale, locally-owned hotels. Our tours mainly use public transportation wherever possible and are small in size to keep our impact on fragile sites and communities as minimal as possible. We monitor the sustainability of our tours through traveler evaluations in order to allow for continuous improvement. We support the local economy and business initiatives by visiting locally-owned shops, restaurants, and markets on our tours.

Steps we have taken on land based tours to decrease impact include travelling in small groups, using public transport which minimizes use of fuel and pollution, staying in small scale locally- owned hotels and supporting jungle lodges that are socially and environmentally responsible.

Many tours incorporate community ecotourism projects as a way of supplementing community income and supporting community development projects. Through our non-profit organisation Planeterra we provide support to the projects in the form of donations, expertise, follow up, assistance in quality control and clients. The community is then empowered in regards to responsibility for the management its sustainable tourism-related business in the long term. This form of cooperation is at the core of all our community-based tourism projects.

Environmental responsibility
Some examples of how we are working to minimize our negative impacts on the environment include:

• We offset emissions from all corporate flights, our marine vessel, and encourage travellers to offset carbon emissions by providing an online platform to do so pre-departure.
• We have partnered with Trees for the Future (TFTF), a Washington DC-based organization that has been committed to reforesting areas and planting indigenous species since 1989 and which includes a community development and capacity-building component in Brazilian forests.
• G Adventures’ head office and travel stores are powered by 100% green energy providers (Bullfrog Power) whose power comes from clean, renewable sources like wind power and low-impact water power.
• For 8 consecutive years, we have won the Clean Air Commute Award from Pollution Probe as a result of 100% office participation in a week-long event to raise awareness of using cleaner methods of commuting to work and provide a monthly subsidy for staff who use public transportation.
• We purchase eco-friendly cleaning and paper supplies from a local green product supplier and ensure garbage and recycling bags have a minimum of 15% post consumer recycled content.
• We developed a web-based tour leader information database.
• Our brochures are 100% PEFC certified, from sustainably managed forests.
• We use electronic fax transmissions and pay stubs.
• We donate used computers and equipment to an ReBoot Canada, an organization that refurbishes and donates these items to charities.

Tour leaders provide travellers with information about local environmental issues in their respective regions, and provide suggestions of how we can best protect the local environment and culture. To reduce the amount of waste created on tours, tour leaders also encourage travellers to use refillable water bottles instead of disposable plastic, cotton tote bags, reusable batteries, etc.

Social responsibility
We are members of The International Ecotourism Society and the Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria Partnership, an initiative of the United Nations Foundation, the Rainforest Alliance and the UN World Tourism Organization.

Destination information is included in our destination guide online which covers every country we visit. Information regarding each destination a tour visits is also included in pre-departure information and regional booklets, which are destination-specific guidebooks provided to each traveller. This includes how to be sensitive to the local culture and environment, with detailed tips on how to be a responsible traveller.

Additionally, we include biologists, historians, glaciologists, etc. where useful to provide the most accurate and relevant information about the destination.

We communicate World Heritage sites as features of our tours in Trip Details published on the website, in pre-departure packages, and in regional booklets, which are destination-specific guidebooks provided to each traveller. We also publish our Ecotourism Operator Standards on our website and provide them to tour leaders to inform travelers.

G Adventures supports conservation projects including:

• BearHealth: a circumpolar research project aimed at identifying region specific health effects of persistent organic pollutants (POP’s) and climate change in polar bears to understand the fragility of Arctic environments and ecosystems in relation to human impact factors.
• Charles Darwin Foundation: dedicated to promoting conservation, education and scientific research in the Galapagos Islands. We support the Marine Turtle project in the Galapagos Islands, an ecological project monitoring one of the green sea turtles' most important nesting sites.
• Save the Albatross: Money raised on board the M/S Explorer from our sea chart auction in Antarctica was donated to the Save the Albatross Campaign. This program works towards the conservation of albatross species through research on trends in threatened populations, interactions between albatrosses and fisheries, and the development and use of sea-bird safe fishing practices. We have donated $68,625 to help save the Albatross.

Through our commitment to responsible tourism, in 2003 we developed a non-profit organization, the Planeterra Foundation, as a way for our travellers and our company to give back to the people and places visited on our tours. Through fundraising efforts and donations from travellers, the organization supports approximately 30 community projects, local non-profit organizations and international charities. The projects focus on the areas of health, education, community development, environmental conservation and employment skills training. This includes street children’s projects in Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia, a humanitarian service organization in Belize, a schools and nature program in Cuba, a short-term loan program in Honduras for women to start their own small business ventures, educational opportunities in Guatemala, a preschool in South Africa and many more. The organization supports the work of several international charities, including Plan Canada, Seva Canada Society, Charles Darwin Foundation and Wells of Hope and maintains relationships with Conservation International and The International Ecotourism Society.

Funds are raised through traveller donations and fundraising. G Adventures pays all administration fees which means that 100% of each individual donation goes directly to the Planeterra’s programs. Each year, we continue to support and develop new partnerships with more community projects and community-based tourism initiatives worldwide, extending our support from projects in Latin America, to additional projects in Asia and Africa.

Here are some examples of Planeterra’s community development projects:

• Kenya Water Project – installation of water tanks in a remote village in western Kenya.
• Mbanga Primary School, Tanzania- construction of a new classroom.
• Shalati Community Project, South Africa - assistance with the building of a pre-school for children who have lost parents to HIV/AIDS
• Salaam Baalak Trust, India – provision of support to street children in New Delhi.
• Nepal Water Project – installation of water tanks in five village schools.
• Adelante Foundation, Honduras – provision of short-term micro-credit loans to women to start their own small business ventures.
• House of the People of the Sun, Peru – purchase of a permanent home for street children in Cuzco.
• Hogar Granja Sucre, Bolivia – support home for abandoned children in Sucre.
• ASVO, Costa Rica - scientific research, data collection for the sea turtle conservation project.
• Cornerstone Foundation, Belize - hot lunches for children and a weekly food drop off program for the elderly, disabled and terminal patients.
• Seva Canada Society, Tibet - 1 week microsurgical eye camp in a rural region of Tibet in 2008 and 2009.
• Foundation for Nature and Humanity, Cuba - supports Schools and Nature program.
• Open Windows Foundation, Guatemala – provision of educational opportunities to over 1,000 children.
• Wells of Hope, Guatemala - access to clean water in rural Guatemala through drilling wells.

Last year we were able to give the gift of sight to over 200 Tibetans who had been blinded by cataracts, at a “sight camp” in the remote village of Chabcha. Over 400 others with eye conditions received medical exams and were treated. In addition to funding the Chabcha camp, we also provided surgical equipment for the local hospital and training for local doctors. We will be funding an additional camp in Tibet later in the year.

We have also been able to respond quickly following natural disasters in the areas in which we operate. In the immediate aftermath of an earthquake that devastated th town of Pisco, in southern Peru, we raised over $130,0000 in donations from travellers and staff. Our local offices collected camping gear, clothing, supplies and food, which were then delivered directly to the site of the disaster.

Here is one such example of how we work with local communities to develop self-sufficiency, employment opportunities and preservation of cultural heritage:

In 2005, we developed and offered practical training courses for the Ccaccaccollo community of Peru. Today 165 men from the community are working for us as porters and cooks on the Inca Trail. We developed a women’s weaving project with the wives of our cooks and porters. Passengers can meet the women to learn about the weaving process and purchase high quality textiles directly from them.

A percentage of money earned by our porters and cooks and the women weavers goes into a community fund which is used to fund initiatives such as fixing up the school and providing clean drinking water.

Past donations have included construction materials for a building that is used for women to weave indoors when it is raining and as a place for community meetings. Other support includes funding a three-day dental clinic and purchasing eight Alpacas so the women have a continuous supply of wool.

By working with the Ccaccaccollo community we are providing work for the men, encouraging women to be proud of their cultural heritage and enabling them to benefit from tourism in a way that avoids negative social and cultural impacts.

In our local office areas, we hold events in support of the community including the following:

Christmas in the Community: Each year, we host a Christmas in the Community party at a local community centre. Over 300 youth from low-income families, ages 6 to 12, are provided with a turkey dinner, a gift, and participate in arts and crafts activities run by staff, friends and family.

Getting Dirty for Earth Day: Every year we hold clean-ups in our office locations around the world. This year we worked with a local community centre on their community gardening efforts by planting flowers, trees, and prepping plots for vegetable planting.