Sustainable Travel

Sustainable Travel and Tourism 

We ask all our guests to put these action points into practice when they travel:

• Choose to travel by train, bus, or other public transport where possible.

• Respect the mountain environment by leaving no trace.

• Only travelling on marked paths to reduce trail erosion.

• Offset flights with organisations like Carbon Footprint.

• Be mindful of choices and avoid single use plastics and travel with a reusable bottle.

• Choosing local, seasonal food.

We also recommend that guests keep kit to a minimum and closely follow the Kit Lists provided for each of our itineraries. We advocate keeping new purchases to a minimum and consideration to hiring or borrowing additional kit.

Creating Sustainable Holidays

Protecting mountain landscapes for future generations is intrinsic to our work. Sharing that knowledge with guests whilst reducing our collective impact is at the heart of everything we do.

From the inception of the company we have strived to protect our wild landscapes and adopted the principals of Leave No Trace. 

While in the mountains we:

• work with small groups to reduce the impact of noise and visual pollution

• promote healthy lifestyles and staying active outdoors

• require that guests do not leave litter even biodegradable items

• behind pick up litter, which has been left by others on the trail

• strongly discourage shortcuts that can cause path erosion

• advise guests not take souvenirs, such as flowers, from nature or leave picnic remains for the wildlife

• ask guests not to pollute water sources when answering a call of nature

Whenever possible in creating our trip itineraries and infrastructure, we:

• encourage our team to work remotely

• support communities by using family run hotels

• use local providers for any extra activities requested by our guests

• use the local train and bus networks

• encourage guests to share transport to trip meeting points

• buy locally produced food for packed lunches

• encourage drink/food stops at remote facilities to support the owners

• do not 'include' packed lunches as experience demonstrates they create too much waste

We also:

• think carefully about our routes and where possible promote ‘less travelled’ trails

• ensure our guides understand and promote our sustainable travel policy 

• book with accommodation providers who share our love of the environment

• promote winter ski journeys, which do not require ‘built’ infrastructure such as ski lifts

• use local ‘guest travel cards’ that add funds to local communities through tourist taxes

Our Commitment to Sustainable Holidays 

As part of our commitment to sustainable holidays, we proactively work towards reducing the impact of all of our trips. We have also launched our Low Impact collection. These sustainable holidays offer rewarding adventures with less impact on the environment.

Tracks and Trails are a Derbyshire based company, and as part of our ongoing commitment to protecting wild spaces and promoting sustainable travel, we are proud to be Corporate Members of Derbyshire Wildlife Trust. We are directly supporting projects focused on rewilding, habitat restoration, climate action, and community engagement.

As part of our engagement with Derbyshire County Council’s Million Trees project we were responsible for planting over 500 trees.

As individuals, our team pay close attention to the environmental impact of our work and that extends from being mindful of how we travel to avoiding individual use plastics. We endeavour to work with companies whose sustainability ethos matches our own when creating our holidays, including hotels, refuges, guides, and sponsors.

All our guides have been briefed about and understand our sustainable travel and environmental policies and many take part in local scientific studies to monitor any changes to the mountains we adventure in. 

Sustainable Travel Partners

• The Guardian - We are proud to have been named as an Outstanding Green Travel Company by The Guardian as a company where a transparent degree of environmental monitoring has been demonstrated.

• The Better Business Act – we are a member of this organisation that is dedicated to changing Section 172 of the Companies Act and making companies to proactively reduce their carbon emissions.

• Zellar Sustainability Platform – we work with Zellar to plan, activate, measure and report on our sustainability journey. This enables us to measure our impact and create realistic plans for sustained change.