RESPONSIBLE BUSINESS

Arcadia Expeditions has developed and refined its position on Sustainability and Responsible Tourism with advice and guidance from travel industry sustainability experts. This has allowed us to embed sustainability values into the business from its inception and incorporate Responsible Tourism initiatives into the daily operations of the company.

In order to lay solid foundations for our approach, we have developed a comprehensive set of policies, guidelines and actions that will maximise our positive social, economic and environmental impacts in the destinations that we operate in.

Arcadia operates under the guidance of our Sustainability Action Plan, which outlines our ambitions through clear and regionally defined targets, strong governance and accountability and through the frequent monitoring and independent evaluation of the positive impact we are having.

We have created three key themes that detail our Sustainability and Responsible Tourism initiatives:

At Arcadia Expeditions we understand there is a great deal more that must be done and improved upon. However, we endeavour to be industry leaders in responsible and sustainable travel and will be striving for ever-greater impact in the years to come. We look forward to sharing this journey with our travellers and partners.

We value all feedback, the good and the bad, on our Sustainability and Responsible Tourism practices. With this in mind, we have set up a dedicated email address: sustainability@arcadiaexpeditions.com. We would be delighted to hear from you, our valued travellers, to learn more about what is important to you and how Arcadia Expeditions can make the world a better place.

Being a relatively compact company, Arcadia’s co-founders directly lead and oversee the group’s Sustainability and Responsible Tourism commitments; taking it upon themselves to drive global initiatives, deliver best practice and identify ever-expanding ways Arcadia can embed responsible and sustainable travel in all we seek to achieve.

Naturally, a cornerstone of the all the company’s activities is a dedication to legal compliance and fair business practices concerning all of our stakeholders – this includes compliance with national and regional sustainability standards, rules and regulations. The company ensures it is aware of and up-to-date with all international, national and local legal requirements concerning its operations. Furthermore, Arcadia Expeditions adheres to a strict ethical code that is relevant for all employees and partners.

Particular areas of focus for the business are:

• Anti-bribery and corruption safeguards
• A concern for the health and safety of all employees and partners
• Fair labour practices and continual investment in employees
• Environmentally-friendly operating standards

With regards to its consumer practices and stewardship, Arcadia hold a firm belief in the mantra of ‘Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Repurpose and Recycle’.

Offsetting Carbon Emissions

While Arcadia actively uses telecom and telepresence to reduce unnecessary business travel, some occasional travel is required. In these instances, Arcadia offsets the carbon emissions of its staff’s business flights. We also offset all the flights of our team of Expeditions Leaders.

Arcadia carbon compensate only through projects that are Gold Standard approved, which are seen by many NGO’s (such as WWF and the David Suzuki Foundation) to be the most stringent standard for carbon offsetting. We have chosen projects that target renewable energy as we believe that this addresses the central structural issues that cause climate change – that is, the world’s reliance on using fossil fuels for energy. We support projects that are based in two of the destinations we travel to. Both benefit local populations in addition to cutting carbon emissions:

During the initial stages of crafting Arcadia’s itineraries, we selected several charities, foundations and social enterprises to become an integral part of our journeys. These groups were selected for their effective commitment to people and planet, as well as their transparent business operations.

In addition to the social and environmental benefits that these relationships offer, Arcadia believes that by weaving these mutually beneficial experiences into each of our itineraries, we greatly enrich the experience for our travellers and help create more informed and engaged global citizens. By introducing travellers to the stories and wonders of the world, we also seek to create a more respectful global community. By designing authentic experiences, we open the eyes, hearts and minds of our travellers – allowing them to taste, hear, see and feel the lives, struggles and successes of others. In doing so, we encourage empathy and break down ‘us’ versus ‘them’ stereotypes.

Below are a sample of some of the grassroots projects Arcadia work with that protect the environment and help the sustainable social and economic development of local communities in the destinations we travel to. ‘Arcadia Sponsored Projects’ are directly financially supported by Arcadia Expeditions, whilst our ‘On-Expedition Projects’ are supported by including visits to these projects during our expeditions with the purpose of raising awareness amongst our travellers. We invite all of our travellers to join us in support of these important projects.

Arcadia is passionate about minimising the negative impacts that tourism may cause. A pillar of the Arcadia Expeditions travel philosophy is our belief in small group sizes. Some of our tailored journeys have a maximum capacity of 12 travellers, while others are capped at 16. Not only does this minimise the negative impacts on the destinations we visit, but it also provides a more immersive and intimate local travel experience.

All Arcadia travellers are provided with cloth bags and reusable water bottles at the beginning of their expedition to help them avoid single-use plastics such as plastic shopping bags and disposable water bottles. Obviously, these bags and bottles can be kept by our guests and used further to minimise waste on their onward travels or when they return home.

To further avoid single-use plastic, Arcadia does all it can to identify and make stops at water refill stations. Further to this, Arcadia instructs its in-country partners in all destinations to provide large tanks of potable water for group vehicles. We also encourage the hotels and lodges that host our groups to provide safe and reliable water at refill stations. These simple but effective measures can have a considerable impact and drastically reduce the amount of waste generated during each expedition. It also has the added benefit of helping our partners operate in a more sustainable manner.

Importantly, we want to make sure that as much money as possible generated from our expeditions stays in the destination. We aim to work with local guides and purchase from a range of local suppliers to ensure the economic benefits of travel are spread amongst the local communities in the destinations we visit. Where possible, we avoid using large international chain hotels, and instead work with locally owned properties. We like to include communities in our itineraries that are off the tourist trail, allowing an injection of cash into areas that are often overlooked and in need of development.

In addition to supporting a number of local grassroots projects during each expedition, we also provide a ‘Tips for being a Responsible Traveller’ booklet to each of our travellers. These are distributed electronically before their expedition commences and cover useful information on cultural differences, ethical issues, recommended consumer practices and guidance on environmentally-friendly travel.