The Sawday’s Impact Report 2023
Renewed purpose, clearer challenges, bigger goals
Sawday’s was founded, back in the 90s, to champion a different way of travelling, focused on human connection, the environment and building communities. Throughout the creation and growth of our three brands – Sawday’s, Canopy & Stars and Paws & Stay – we’ve kept that focus, becoming industry leaders driving towards a greener, more personal world of travel. We became employee owned, founded a charitable trust, and gained B Corp certification, but we knew there was more we could be doing.
That’s why 2022 saw us digging even deeper. We created a new role, Sustainability & Impact Manager, and charged that person with a massive task – to take working better to whole new levels. A large part of this was an enormous research project which showed us the scope of our carbon emissions and the first steps in bringing them down, but we also began to tackle accessibility of both our properties and our sites, made changes internally and launched bold new initiatives like capping the number of places we represent in areas that suffer from overtourism. We’ve always believed in sustainable and low impact growth, but unfortunately some of the travel and tourism industry has an insatiable appetite for expansion which is fuelling overtourism. We believe tourism can, and should, be done in a way in which communities are positively supported and not subjected to environmental damage, crowding and housing issues.
Our impact is not something that will ever stand still. It’s part of how we work and will always adapt and evolve. It’s also a conversation that involves experts, partners and other companies, all of whom support and challenge us as we examine what our business can do for people and the planet. This report is a snapshot of where we are now and what we’re looking to achieve in 2023. In some areas we might fall short, in some we may exceed our targets and in others we might change direction based on new thinking or advice. What we will never do is stop pushing forwards in every way we can.
Mike Bevens, MD
What’s next? 2023 Goals
We’re challenging ourselves to do more in every area. Alongside our ambitious Net Zero target, we’ll be doing new conservation work, picking up speed on our accessibility project, continuing to examine our internal practices while also funding and supporting a range of causes. It’s going to be a busy but brilliant year.
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