Environmental ACTIVE-ism

 

For hiking guides like ACTIVE the environment is the star attraction - so it's just good business sense to look after it.

At ACTIVE we’re very lucky in that, unlike many other businesses, it’s in our direct financial interests to protect the environment. So environmentalism is something we’ve done since day one. But with today’s travellers becoming more aware of the local and global impacts of their trips, we thought it was important to try to paint a picture of what the good, bad and ugly effects of a trip with us are.

In truth the question “What is our impact?” is mind bogglingly difficult for a guiding company to answer; different trips, seasons, guides, clients, vehicles and even different weather can produce wildly varying results. In the end any statistics we came up with really would be of the “lies and damned lies” variety. So this isn’t an “audit” so to speak. It’s just our thoughts on how what we do affects where we live. We’ve tried hard to keep it free of green-wash jargon but if you’d like specific details - just give us a ring.

 

OK, bad news first. Getting to New Zealand from the West Coast of the USA, for example, consumes about 300 litres of aviation fuel and produces 700kg of carbon dioxide per person (depending on what type of aircraft and how many passengers it’s carrying). In itself that’s not the end of the world; it’s about the same as driving an SUV around town for a week. But we do think it’s worth doing a few things to counteract the damage. Opting in to your airline’s carbon offset programme is a good start, as is flying with an airline that’s investing in renewable fuels (Air New Zealand for instance). But we reckon the best thing you can do is to take it as motivation to change your lifestyle in the weeks leading up to your trip – bike or walk to work and you’ll easily offset the flight’s emissions and oil consumption, plus you’ll be super-fit for the trip!

 

ACTIVE’s trips usually travel around the countryside in small Toyota Coaster buses. These run a 4.2L 24v turbo diesel engine (actually it’s the same engine that’s used in a popular SUV) which is about as efficient as it gets for a bus. The exact fuel consumption varies but we figure it must be about a tenth the amount of fuel and carbon as if everyone drove their own cars around the countryside. We’d be a little more efficient per-person if we drove bigger busses, but those bigger groups would have more of a negative impact when it came time to go hiking (plus travelling in big groups isn’t as much fun). We figure the Coasters are the best balance between economics, environmental impact and social dynamics.

This year we’re going into biodiesel, modifying some of our buses to run a 20% mix of recycled cooking oil. It’s early days for this sort of programme in New Zealand’s South Island; the supply is small and the distribution network is sparse but we figure if you want to see renewable fuel systems improve, you need to vote with your feet and your wallet – so we’re buying in.

 

Travel in wilderness areas: In wilderness areas we try to tread as lightly as possible following the seven “Leave No Trace” principles. These have been standard practice in the New Zealand bush for decades:

1. Plan Ahead and Prepare
2. Travel and Camp on Durable Surfaces.
3. Dispose of Waste Properly
4. Leave What You Find
5. Minimise Campfire Impacts
6. Respect Wildlife and Farm Animals
7. Be Considerate of Others
   
   

We choose to stay with independently owned hotels wherever we can (mainly because they’re just nicer than the chains!). But also because the people who own these hotels live in the towns where their businesses operate, so they are naturally more motivated to look after the place and do the right thing.

 

We’re very lucky in terms of water in New Zealand. Our mountain ranges and maritime climate means we have a relatively large supply of rainwater and our small population means there’s a fairly low demand. These conditions also mean that in most of the places we go you can drink straight from the streams – and we intend to keep it that way!

 

New Zealand’s consumer electricity comes from either wind- or hydro-power. Locally these have some problems; visual pollution and habitat change for instance, but they’re definitely the lesser evil. When you’re in New Zealand (or any country for that matter) you can help by not encouraging the power companies to increase their capacity by minimising your demand on the system. That can be as simple as switching off the lights when you leave your hotel room and turning appliances off at the wall.

 

Some parts of our trips are entirely human powered. On various different trips we explore Nelson Lakes National Park by foot, Marlborough Sounds by bike and Milford Sound by kayak, which helps the environment and your waistline and makes for an awesome trip!

 

We always shop for fresh, locally produced food that’s had less processing and comes in less packaging. Our guides generally do a couple of shops on the road in towns like Hokitika and Queenstown, which puts money back into the communities we travel through.

 

The South Island of New Zealand is a big place with a small population – that’s one of the reasons it’s cool to see, but the downside is that many towns aren’t big enough to produce the economies of scale needed for a decent recycling programme. Whereas the main cities can recycle materials like polystyrene, in small, remote towns it’s just not a goer. To get around this we try to minimise packaging and we’ll transport our recycling to the next big town wherever possible.

 

Historically most of our customers have wanted to receive a physical brochure before booking a trip with us, so we’re quite reliant on printed material. But with the advent of gadgets like iPads and Kindles we’re working on ways to publish more digitally. If you prefer emails and digital documents over old-school mail just let us know.

 

The Department of Conservation (DOC) is planning to start a native tree nursery in Okarito as part of the 2010 Year of Biodiversity programme. Okarito, on the West Coast of the South Island, is one of the first really special places we started introducing to visitors so we’ve been working with DOC to plant more native trees in the area. Once the nursery is completed, we’ll support the project financially as well as pitching in from time to time with the planting when we’re staying in Okarito, as well as encouraging our guests to get involved. If you’d like to help or learn more, let us know.

 

New Zealand, like most modern countries has an ongoing conservation debate. Different parts of the community would like to see our national parks either locked up as pure wilderness or dug up as mines. We believe that sensible tourism is the best compromise. By showing off our environment we get to earn money from our natural resources without consuming them.

We don’t expect you to believe that tourism is pure as the driven snow – we put petrol in our tanks just like the coal miners do – but we feel it’s the best way to provide an economic incentive for conservation… so that hopefully we’ll still be here to welcome you back to go hiking with your grandkids.