As a company, we have always tried to take our environmental responsibilities seriously. We want to do everything in our power to avoid destroying the places to which we send our clients and from which our livelihood is derived. We do not send large numbers to any given country and we honestly believe that ‘low impact’ tourism can be both sustainable and beneficial to local communities. Our aim is to give something back to the countries we feature.

Climate change
We are aware that the holiday flights our customers take are damaging for the environment and therefore we have come up with the following scheme.

Although the science of climate change, in particular the overall impact of aviation, is not yet fully understood, there is increasing recognition that carbon dioxide (CO2) produced by aircraft fuel emissions is contributing to climate change. One return flight to Buenos Aires in Argentina results in approximately 2.37 tonnes of CO2 being released into the atmosphere.

 
Sunvil can help you compensate for some of the damage these emissions cause. The scheme is straightforward. Donations will be invested in projects, in tourism destinations, primarily aimed at delivering sustainable development benefits but with some associated savings in CO2 emissions.

On your holiday confirmation invoice, you will notice that we have added a per person charge (which will range from £7 to £15 per person depending on the country) which represents an average cost of a contribution towards offsetting the CO2 emissions of a flight to any given destination (the actual amount will vary slightly depending on the routing). This is, of course, a matter of personal choice – should you not wish to do so then please simply deduct this amount from your final balance. We do not claim to be offsetting the carbon dioxide associated with your flights but we are making a contribution to sustainable development in some important destinations.

We would also encourage you to consider other things that might reduce your own emissions at home and work. For instance at Sunvil, all our staff air travel is offset and we also ensure that we turn off all lights, computers and screens before closing the office. We are reviewing our whole operation with view to taking further action. Hopefully any small steps will have a positive knock-on effect which will go some way towards safeguarding the planet.