Bales Worldwide supports environmental management and recognises that small businesses can contribute to appropriate environmental schemes very effectively.

We aim to follow the Government's Environment and Greener Living policy frameworks for recycling and waste management.

Whilst conforming to all existing environmental regulations, laws and codes of practice, we regard these as setting the minimum standards of performance and will strive to do more.

We have undertaken to help every member of Bales staff to understand and to implement the relevant aspects of this policy in their day-to-day work through the regular communication of objectives, action plans and achievements.

At Board level, the Environmental Manager has specific responsibility for policy development, co-ordination and evaluation of performance. Bales is committed to minimizing the impact of its operations on the environment by means of a programme of continuous improvement.

Bales Worldwide were awarded ISO 14001 in July 2007 by Quality Management Systems (QMS), an international organisation speicalising in implementing management systems.

Environmental Policy Statement

Bales Worldwide is committed to managing actively all environmental aspects that it can realistically influence and control in all parts of its business. These environmental aspects are periodically reviewed to optimise performance. We aim to:

  • Reduce the amount of waste that is produced
  • Make the best use of waste that is produced
  • Choose waste management practices that minimise the risks of immediate and future environmental pollution and harm to human health

We also aim to:

  • Commit to practices which support responsible and sustainable tourism
  • Encourage, where possible, suppliers and clients to support responsible and sustainable tourism

Environmental awareness is communicated to all Bales Worldwide employees and associates through Bales Worldwide processes and office operations. Our Environmental Management System has two main components:

  •  Bales Worldwide Internal Operations
  •  Bales Worldwide Responsible Tourism Policy

Bales Worldwide's Internal Operations

Bales Worldwide’s office operations are managed to minimise the environmental impact where possible. Energy consumption and the use of consumables are monitored. We aim to minimise pollution and waste and to recycle wherever possible, including packaging, paper and printer cartridges. These activities are promoted to office staff and visitors by “switch-off” posters and the presence of recycling bins.

As part of our annual business review processes, our office operations are also reviewed so that we can continuously improve our environmental performance and maintain alignment with our key partners.

Bales Worldwide encourages travel by public transport wherever practicable, thus minimising the need for use of transport facilities. Any necessary business travel is always undertaken in line with our clients’ policies to avoid unnecessary adverse environmental impacts.

As an Organisation we do not:

  • Discharge to the water
  • Bulk store harmful substances
  • Distribute toxic or very toxic goods
  • Incinerate waste
  • Discharge manufacturing by-products to the atmosphere
  • Distribute or use any GM organisms or biological processes
  • Use anything capable of emitting radiation into the environment

As an Organisation we do:

  • Recycle waste wherever possible
  • Require where applicable all of our paper suppliers to certify that paper/timber is from sustainable forest not from rain forest
  • Use external and internal electronic mail delivery and read acknowledgements to reduce paper usage.
  • Encourage our suppliers to implement environmentally sound policies and favour suppliers who demonstrate they are taking action to minimize their negative impact on the environment.
  • Supply full and thorough information on our environmental policy to any interested parties.
  • Integrate environmental concerns in our day to day decision making.
  • Actively seek to make improvements in our environmental control.
  • Actively pursue waste reduction.
  • Recycle ink and toner cartridges. 
  • Strive to reduce our energy usage through turning off lights, pc's and electrical items at the end of each day.
  • Seek to address our impact on the environment through the adoption of a sustainable procurement policy which includes:
  1. Using recycled stationery whenever appropriate
  2. Setting the default on our photocopies to produce double-sided copies
  3. Discouraging the printing of electronic documents unless necessary
  4. Wherever possible, having “paperless” meetings
  • Consign waste office paper for recycling and re-use old paper to print internal documents, print on both sides and print multiple pages on one sheet of paper where practicable.
  • Carbon neutralise all our staff flights.
  • Ensure all members of staff check that IT Equipment and other items of electrical & electronic equipment is set to auto standby and powered down at the close of the working day. Monitors to be turned off if anticipated non-use is more than 5 minutes. Where practicable. Specifically Bales Worldwide Servers are NOT to be turned off as they are required 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days a year.
  • Use a 'please consider the environment before printing this email' strap-line on staff emails :

Bales Worldwide's Responsible Tourism Policy

Hotels

  • We encourage our clients to stay, wherever possible, in environmentally friendly accommodation. Bales Worldwide use a number of eco-friendly hotels, lodges and parks in a number of destinations, such as:
  1. Finch Bay Eco Hotel in Galapagos – has unlimited water supply, as the hotel has its own desalinization plant. This ecologically oriented hotel also boasts innovative garbage processing and recycling programs. The entire infrastructure as well as the activities are totally oriented to a concept of true ecotourism in a pristine natural environment.
  2. Reserva Amazonica Lodge - Located in the heart of the Amazon Rain Forest, adjacent to the Tambopata national park, the lodge was opened in 1975 and since then performs innovative sustainable use of the Amazon Rainforest: scientific based tourism since 1978.
  3. Amazon Ecopark – This Jungle Lodge is a touristic, scientific and educational property, created and directed by a private initiative back in 1991, opening its doors to the public as an Ecotourism Lodge in 1995.
  4. Hato El Cedralm, Venezuela - Hato El Cedralm is a beautiful cattle ranch and an important tourist centre for the growing ecological and adventure tourism.
  • We always prefer to use hotels and accommodation which have environmental policies in place regarding issues such as the reuse of towels and sheets, electricity and water usage etc.

Clients

  • Bales Worldwide is in partnership with the ‘Know Before You Go’ campaign, which aims to help our clients be more environmentally responsible when travelling.
  • We ask for feedback and suggestions from our clients through a post-trip welcome hall call or questionnaire on all our agents, guides and hotels. This is so we can not only improve their service but also aid them in becoming more responsible.

Ground Agents

  • We use agents which commit to responsible / sustainable tourism practices.
  • We always prefer to use locally owned ground agents, as this greatly benefits the local economy of the destinations we travel to.
  • Bales Worldwide also always employs local guides and drivers. This helps generate income that will remain within the country’s economy as well as providing a more authentic insight and experience of each of our exciting destinations.
  • In addition to feedback from country specialist visits, we ask all our ground agents to keep us updated on any information regarding the development of sustainable tourism programmes in its locality. This is so we can continue to explore new environmentally friendly tours/accommodation etc to recommend to our clients.
  • We encourage all our ground agents to use local products and services in preference to imported ones, in order to help ensure the sustainability of the destinations we travel to.

Destinations / Charities we support

  • We provide and promote a wide range of environmentally friendly tours in a range of destinations.
  • We are dedicated to supporting responsible and environmentally friendly charities such as:
  1. The Galapagos Conservation Trust
  2. The Neotropica Foundation in Costa Rica
  3. The Travel Foundation
  4. Friends of Conservation

These charities are dedicated to helping local environments by putting a stop to threats facing wildlife and habitats. Therefore, helping to preserve and sustain a wide range of species and the destinations which they reside in.

  • We also partake in a ‘Bales Worldwide Tsunami Appeal’, where we raise money to support different areas that were affected by the Tsunami. In 2006, we raised £8500 in order to build a pre-school in the Hambantota District of Sri Lanka.

Future Aims

  • Here at Bales Worldwide, we are always striving to find new ways in which we can help the environment. Having recently appointed an environmentally manager, the company can now focus on further developing our environmental policy.