Green-minded vacations
Our vacations are good for you, but also for the planet.
For every week booked, Jonas makes a donation to an environmental sustainability project. environmental sustainability or social sustainability project.
Never before has the issue of environmental protection been so high on the agenda: it is a global issue, but at the same time it affects us all as individuals. The future of the Earth is in our hands; what tomorrow will bring depends above all on what we do today. Preserving nature means anticipating the future by acting in the present: each of us can contribute to maintaining or restoring balance with the environment through the proper use of environmental resources and clean behavior.
The answer lies in small everyday gestures, with a commitment to optimizing consumption, limiting waste, and adapting one's lifestyle with a view to respecting the environment.
It doesn't take much, but every little bit helps, and never more so than in this case: only by understanding our potential and responsibilities and raising awareness among others to do the same will our intervention be effective.
Our commitment in this regard must be active every day and become part of who we are, even when we are on vacation:
When traveling, we come into even closer contact with nature, places, and
different cultures, but these must be visited and experienced with respect and
protection. That is why Jonas promotes clean behavior for responsible and respectful travel.
Furthermore, since 2024, we have been part of the First Mile project. The mission is clear and compelling: to make sustainability an integral part of the tourist experience, from the beginning to the end of the journey.
We want every group that travels with us to be happy because traveling naturally makes people happy, social because sharing the journey is stimulating, but above all green, because now more than ever, traveling must have a positive and sustainable impact.
What shall we do?
We are not just preachers; we want to educate the people who travel with us about good practices, but first and foremost, we are attentive and active in these behaviors ourselves.
We spend most of our days in the office, where contact with nature is seemingly limited, but where in reality many behaviors take place that have short- or long-term repercussions on the environment. It was not easy to focus on what these practices are, as they are now so intrinsic to our daily lives that they may seem obvious, but when we stop to think about them, they are of strategic importance. We therefore want to share them to make people realize that with little effort, we can really achieve a lot.
- We are well aware that resources are not unlimited, and that saving raw materials and energy is possible through separate waste collection: plastic, paper, glass, and organic waste. We do it at home, so why shouldn't we do it at work? In an office, waste production can be substantial, but we are all committed to proper disposal, consulting the guide if we don't know where to put the material.
- Global paper production is constantly increasing every year: notes, printouts, and photocopies—how many sheets of paper are used in the office? Technology has certainly helped us, but there is still more we can do. We have abolished the printing of documents for booking purposes, preferring digital archives, and any faxes arrive in digital format. If we really have to print something, we favor double-sided printing and reuse discarded sheets and/or sheets printed on one side only for taking notes.
- Every year we take part in the M'illumino di meno initiative, favoring natural light (we are lucky to have a very bright office!) over artificial light, and turning off electrical equipment and lights when not needed. Our PCs go into standby mode when not in use for long periods of time.
- We are healthy 🙂 Many of us are non-smokers; those who live in the city come to the office by bike!
- We prefer reusable products, such as rechargeable batteries and cotton towels instead of paper towels.
- Starting this year, we are working with Banca Etica: with the savings collected, this bank finances organizations operating in social cooperation, international cooperation, culture, and environmental protection.
- We plant trees while searching online. How is this possible? By using Ecosia, the search engine that uses the revenue generated from advertising to plant trees in Ethiopia, Brazil, Indonesia, Spain, and many other biodiversity hotspots. The browser extension is free to add.
Our holidays
Since 1988, your vacations have been our vacations, and we put all our passion and experience into creating them. We use the means of transport we love most, because they allow you to move slowly and fully enjoy the places you visit, rediscovering the pleasure of getting to know places and people you feel comfortable with, while respecting the environment.
We have always sought to prioritize ecology and sustainability in the area, through our choice of accommodation and other services, selected from among local providers. We share with our guides and skippers a commitment to optimizing consumption, limiting waste, and adapting our lifestyle with a view to respecting the environment: each in their own way, in small everyday things, from saving water to collecting waste, from consuming seasonal and local products to many other small practices, on vacation and beyond.
Season after season, year after year, we strive every day in the hope of transferring and sharing responsible behavior, with one big goal: to learn to respect and enjoy this beautiful world.
To crown this commitment, in 2018 we won the Green Travel Award, which GIST reserves for the five companies that have distinguished themselves in the implementation and promotion of sustainable and responsible travel.
Furthermore, we do not stop at what we already know, but are always curious and ready to learn and improve: in 2022, Laura and Andrea from our team obtained the qualification of Sustainability Manager as part of a sustainability certification process by one of the world's leading organizations that certifies tourism companies committed to the sustainability of their products. In March, Silvia obtained her Greece Green Expert diploma, an e-learning program in collaboration with the Greek National Tourism Organization to promote sustainable and responsible tourism in Greece.
But how does all this translate into our vacations?
• We organize vacations using low-impact transportation, such as bicycles, boats, or walking. Soft mobility is non-polluting, fun, and allows you to visit places that are often inaccessible by other means.
• We encourage the use of public transport to reach our holiday destinations, providing timetables, routes, costs, and all the information needed to make it easier for those traveling with us to leave their cars at home wherever possible. If this is not possible due to a lack of public transport, we promote car sharing, facilitating the formation of car groups. Traveling in a group is more fun, and sharing starts with the journey!
• For cycling holidays, we rent bikes exclusively through local rental companies to promote the local economy but above all to avoid the constant travel between Italy and the rest of Europe of vans loaded with bicycles.
• Where possible, we prefer sustainable facilities that support the green economy, such as B&Bs, farmhouses, and hotels that operate ethically and promote the local area.
