Red Sea diving holidays

Carbon reduction

Your holiday will help support local people and conservation. We must also reduce CO₂. Learn about the CO₂ emissions of this holiday and how to reduce them.

- Sourcing locally grown or produced food (with lower food miles)
We are based in a desert, far from any farm but we do support the local organic farm initiative set up in nearby Nuweiba. We buy all our fruit and veg locally, supporting independent businesses.

- Offering vegetarian/plant-based and low dairy foods (which reduce CO2 emissions)
We cater for all types of diet including vegetarian, vegan and anyone who is lactose intolerant and require low dairy foods, many folk choose these diets to help reduce CO2 emissions. We also recommend local vegan places, we have 2 superb ones in town: The Vegan Lab and Marine Garden, which is run by a lady who volunteers for Sea Shepherd.

- Reducing transport emissions - encouraging rail, public transport, walking, cycling, electric cars; and designing itineraries that reduce internal flights
Many of our guests come from Cairo and therefore drive here or take the bus. Once they are here, we encourage the use of bikes, via local hire shops which is a great way to get around Dahab.

- Using renewable energy - either generating it yourself (solar) or switching energy supplier
Solar power is not yet available easily for businesses of our size, but we are constantly monitoring it and will be investing as soon as it is available and viable.

- Reducing energy use - energy efficient buildings, heating, air conditioning, fridges, hot water, low energy bulbs, laundry, etc.
Our Garden rooms are energy efficient as they are built with a curved design which reduces the heat, and the need for AirCon.
We also ask that guests keep their A/C at 27-28 not below as this puts less strain on the environment and is better for them too. We also reserve the right to turn off their A/C if they have left it on when they go out.
We use energy efficient lightbulbs throughout the club.
Laundry is done locally, by a family run business, which means there are full loads.
All our laundry is dried naturally in the sun ?

- Hiring local staff & guides to reduce international travel
All our staff are local, our team have family living in Dahab and use bikes to go back and forth from work to home. Our Bedouins staff all live locally too.

- Anything else you have thought of (we'd love to learn more)!
We are constantly looking at way we can be more eco-friendly and have listed many above. Our next big project will be Solar Power, which is starting to become more possible in Egypt and let’s face it, we have more sunny days than any other country, so hopefully it won’t be long until this is supported for small businesses like our very soon.

Environment

We have managed to STOP using plastic water bottles..we provide glass bottles with purified, filtered water throughout our club. Glass re-filable water bottles are provided in the guests rooms and we have water stations available 24 hours a day for re-filling. We do ask guests to bring their own re-filable water bottles for their own personal use but do also sell vacuum cooler bottles 500 ml if they forget or don’t have any. Even our restaurant will only sell water from glass bottles to outside guests and we also provide a fill up service for a small fee, for guests not staying with us.
We employ Egyptian, Bedouin and Nubian workers here, they are our chefs, team members, dive instructors, safari guides meaning that a wider range of people benefit from our guests. We feel a massive responsibility to the environment we work in, as it is so precious.

We are not flighty dive club owners just looking to make a fast buck and move on. Our home is here in Dahab and we are raising our family here too (now two girls & a boy) since 1997.

All our children are very aware of how precious this environment is and as they are bi-lingual, they are able to chat away to the locals about why it is wrong to fish, why not to throw rubbish in the sea etc which, when coming from a kid, is most effective.

We pick up any rubbish we see both underwater and above water too...on every dive.

The very fact that we dive with small numbers (4-1 ratios) also means we can instruct more effectively about environmental impact issues like, good buoyancy, tidy equipment (not dangling and hitting reefs) no sand kicking (stopping the reef feeding). We also are passionate about our fish and pass on lots of aquatic information to each customer. We believe you will leave us a better, more responsible, non coral bashing, informed, and environmentally aware diver and person.

We recycle all our waste; food items go to our goats, bottles, cans and plastic are collected here in our recycle bins and taken to re-cycle units in Dahab. Environment notices are posted in rooms and welcome folder to be more aware of the local best practices.
Cotton shopping bags are provided in each room to remove the need for plastic.
We encourage our guests to bring their own bottle and re-fill it at one of our water points, saving a massive amount of one time plastic use.
We are asking our guests to not use standard sunscreen which is causing harm to the reefs and advise the best types to not cause damage.

Community

By employing local staff we help a much wider number of people...here in Egypt most families still rely on the main breadwinner, so by making sure this person is employed and well paid, we ensure that whole families, which rely on this income are supported too. By paying them a fair wage and passing any tips on to them, we are not taking advantage...our staff are like our family to us.
We recommend the local restaurants, because as well as having our own, we want our guests to go and enjoy meals at one of the may locally owned places.
Our diving groups often go out for the day, which means utilizing a beach cafe, so we encourage our guests to eat and drink there too as they are using the facilities.
Our overnight safaris use local boats and boat operators and once at our destination we use local transport, shelter and food preparation.
We support local environmental causes such as the famous 'Don't mess with Dahab' campaign aimed at reducing plastic use.
We encourage guests to buy locally made items rather than imported items and there are so much talented crafts in Egypt, sold in the local gift shops. We offer a small discount upon showing they are from our club, via their key fob or business card.