Community & Sustainability

Our aim is to continue to build a stronger, more resilient business and to be able to demonstrate our commitment to sustainable luxury travel, ensuring we provide increasing value to our team, our business partners, our clients and our community. 

We have developed metrics that we can track to ensure we continue to improve year on year.  We now have:

• Measured our Carbon Footprint – as at 31 March 2024, our carbon footprint per employee has dropped to 7.03 tCO2e from last year at 8.8 tCO2e.  Through our partnership with Trees That Count we have mitigated these emissions by donating native trees which are planted in local projects. As we do not pay to have our carbon calculation verified, we use the savings from the verification fee to double our carbon mitigation by doubling the tress that we plant.  You can see our donation on the Trees that Counts registry.
• We have set-up a system for our clients to have their itineraries carbon footprint measured and have the opportunity to mitigate these in local programmes.  Over 90% of our clients opt in to our tree programme.
• We measure our donations to the community as a percentage of our turnover to ensure that as we grow our contribution also grows in proportion. In the past year we have donated to several early child care centers around the country, Rural Women and Victim Support in Central Otago, Neighbourhood Watch in Northland and supporting young children in their kayaking to earn the Sir Edmund Hilary Bronze award.  There is a wide geographical spread in our community donations as we encourage each of our team to engage with their local community and provide an annual $1000 investment for them to use in a cause that resonates with them.
• We have measured the amount of investment we make in training and upskilling our team to ensure continued opportunity for personal growth.
• For over 15 years we have operated remotely, with all members of our team working from home and maintaining a work/life balance.  This has allowed us to provide the opportunity to young mothers to return to work and be a stay at home parent if they choose.
• We are inclusive offering opportunity to all races, gender and ability – our current mix is 90% female, 10% male, 62% New Zealander, 38% European.
• We are involved with community driven programmes and have donated time and money to the Hollyford Conservation Trust, money to the Save the Orcas fund, money to Fiordland Pest Control and money to Maori youth programmes.
• We seek feedback from all our clients on our performance and our Net Promoter Score is currently at 95.
• We support and mentor Maori experiences throughout the county providing the opportunity for individuals to share their culture and place with our clients.  This is encouraged in each itinerary.
• We uphold the TIAKI promise and include education about how to travel safely with respect and care through our country in each itinerary.
• We encourage all our team to hold each of us accountable to our Mission.
• We are QUALMARK endorsed, demonstrating our commitment to the Health and Safety of our team and our clients.
• We are involved in the Business Mentors NZ programme offering support to small business owners.
• Our main office is solar powered and operates with minimal paper and zero transport costs
• We are founding members of The Conscious Travel Foundation - a global community, uniting members of the travel industry to reshape the impact of tourism on the world.