Responsible Tourism & Sustainability Policy

Responsible Tourism & Sustainability

Our Mission to Sustainability

NaviAsia Singapore aims to contribute to a sustainable society and to sustainable tourism. Our objectives are to reduce negative environmental, socio-cultural and economic impacts of our product by adapting our travel policies and standards. We support our suppliers towards higher sustainability standards and we stimulate more awareness among our customers and motivate them towards more sustainable travel behaviour.

1. SUSTAINABILITY MANAGEMENT

NaviAsia Singapore commits and aims to:

Ensure there is an appointed team member coordinating our sustainability initiatives who has access to and is accountable to senior management staff in each operating destination;
Ensure the sustainability coordinator will be in charge of action planning, monitoring and evaluation;
Keep our sustainability policy up to date and reporting on the progress of sustainability management within each operating destination;
Have a dedicated team comprising of key positions to support the implementation of our sustainability efforts in each operating destination;
Have sustainability guidelines and assessment system in place to identify the sustainability performance of key suppliers/partners;
Have sustainability action plan with clear targets, actions, measures, responsibilities and time planning;
Develop sets of procedures to monitor and evaluate the implementation of the sustainability policy, objectives and targets;
Ensure company’s transparency in sustainability by public reporting and communicating;
Ensure all employees are fully aware of our Sustainability Policy and are committed to consistent implementation and improvement

2. ENVIRONMENT & COMMUNITY RELATIONS

NaviAsia Singapore aims to commit to practice environmental protection and enhance community relations by ensuring the enforcement of following practices:

Reducing the amount of disposable and consumable goods used in our operations, and when this is not possible, will reuse and recycle as much as we can;
Employees are to be provided with re-useable bottles to avoid one-time use bottles being purchased;
Wastes are to be recycled through the utilization of recycling bins that are accessible to all employees when reduction is not an option. Plastic, paper, glass, compostable waste and batteries can be placed into separate recycling bin;
Setting double-side printing as default option and documents that have been printed on one side are to be reused to print personal documents on the remaining blank side;
Encouraging employees to use ink efficient printing settings to reduce ink consumption. Our printer enables us to monitor paper and ink usage so we can share monthly reports on use reduction;
Printing name cards on environmentally friendly paper, with a printing company that works with a certified environmental management system, if locally available at reasonable costs;
Purchasing of sustainable goods and services, office and catering supply, giveaways and merchandise. Preferably locally sourced to reduce CO2 emissions and provide employment opportunities for local companies;
Purchasing products in bulk, to reduce the amount of packaging materials;
Ensuring energy saving from air conditioning units, lights, screen monitors, printers by switching off or unplugging at night and at weekends;
Purchasing energy efficient equipment and devices whenever available at reasonable costs.

3. TRANSPORTATION & STAFF TRAVEL

NaviAsia Singapore aims to ensure that the vehicles used for our services do not cause more than average pollution. We do our best to reduce the average pollution level as we deem transport is an important factor to sustainable tourism. We commit to this by:

Selecting the most sustainable option when selecting transport options for any providing services while taking price and comfort into consideration;
Giving preference to transport suppliers which are committed to providing sustainable local transportation alternatives;
Working with our partner to plan and launch a fleet of Electric Vehicles (EV) as transport options for transfers and excursions in our operating destinations;
Encouraging employees to use public transportation whenever possible;
Looking into a preferred carbon offset program for employees’ business travel which we also aim to offer this option to our services for our clients in the future

4. PARTNERS

NaviAsia Singapore commits to communicating its sustainability goals and objectives to key partners in order to motivate them to greater sustainability and make sustainable development concrete to all stakeholders within our business. We commit to this by:

Selecting new partners who are truly implementing sustainability in their tourism policy;
Raising awareness among key partners by encouraging and motivating them to participate in sustainability trainings;
Paying attention to the local benefits of communities when selecting local accommodations and their social policy for employees;
Informing key partners on the Travelife and national tourism standards;
Evaluating the sustainability practices regularly of our key partners to ensure their practices are truly sustainable;
Informing key partners about the sustainability policy and that they are expected to comply with it and/or communicate it to final customers where relevant

5. ACCOMODATION

NaviAsia Singapore is committed to:

Ensure accommodation suppliers are made aware of our key sustainability goals and objectives;
Ensure standard sustainability clauses are being integrated into contracts with accommodation suppliers and signed accordingly;
Motivate and encourage partner accommodations to become sustainably certified;
Offer multiple accommodation options and include traditional local homestays wherever possible to provide a deeper cultural experience, whilst benefiting to local communities;
Ensure the rights of children are respected and safeguarded by having the accommodation suppliers to agree on the sustainability clauses that focus on child labour, anti-corruption and bribery, waste management and protection of biodiversity

6. EXCURSIONS & ACTIVITIES

NaviAsia Singapore ensures that all preferred excursion suppliers are aware of our sustainability objectives and encourage them to adopt a responsible approach. We value animal and community welfare extremely high and aims at excursions that only leave a minor footprint. We are safeguarding the authenticity of the communities and the natural environment, and are strongly against harming wildlife and polluting the environment. We commit to this by:

Not offering any excursions that harm humans, animals, plants, natural resources such as water and energy, or which are socially and culturally unacceptable;
Not offering any excursions in which wildlife is held captive, except for properly regulated activities in compliance with local, national, and international law;
Not partnering with suppliers that offer excursions or activities involving harvest, consume, display, sell, or trade of wildlife species;
Promoting and advising clients on excursions and activities which directly involve and support local communities by purchasing services or goods, traditional crafts and local (food) production methods;
Promoting and advising clients on excursions and activities which support local environment and biodiversity such as visiting protected areas or environmental protection projects;
Considering sustainability aspects in the selection process of new destinations and possibly offer an alternative, non-mainstream destinations;
Not selecting destinations in which tourism leads to structural negative local effects;
Complying with legally based spatial planning, protected areas and heritage regulations;
Supporting initiatives that improve the relationships between accommodations and local producers
Forbidding souvenirs which contain threatened flora and fauna species as indicated in the CITES treaty and the IUCN ‘Red List’; historic and archaeological artefacts (except as permitted by law)

7. MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS

NaviAsia Singapore ensures clear and constant communication and high protection to our clients and will never promise more than what we or the destination can deliver or provide a false impression of the destination in which it works. We take full responsibility for our actions and strive to create a positive impact through our activities on the environment, clients, employees and communities. We commit to this by:

Ensuring that clients’ privacy is not compromised;
Monitoring and ensuring active compliance with the spirit of the law, ethical standards and international values;
Making products and prices information clear, complete and accurate, with regard to the company and its products and services, including sustainability claims;
Providing information of the destination, including sustainability aspects, which is factually correct, balanced and complete;
Communicating relevant sustainability issues to our clients in the destinations they visit and provide options for those who wish to donate or give back;
Providing clients with full support throughout and have guidelines in place in the case of emergency situations by keeping a point of contact available at all times;
Measuring systematically client satisfaction by gathering feedbacks and take into account the results, for service and product improvements;
Having clear procedures in case of emergencies and complaints from clients