Sustainability has been a fundamental principle that has significantly influenced the creation, development, and ongoing growth of Hyperborea. As a tour operator, it’s important to adopt sustainable practices in order to protect the Icelandic nature and create positive social and economic impacts in the communities we serve.
Sustainability is defined as meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. This means that we should all strive to operate in a way that minimizes negative impacts on the environment, promotes social and economic development, and ensures that our operations are economically viable in the long term, and meet some of the Sustainable Goals of the United Nations (SDGs).
Hyperborea takes practical steps to prioritize sustainability. For instance, we recycle all waste at the office, and the coffee including paper, plastic, cans, bottles, and compostable waste. We encourage our team to do so out in the field as well. In our tours we avoid strictly the use of any single-use plastic item, we raise awareness of the tourists regarding climate change and the way it has affected Icelandic nature, and many more. Our guides remove all waste from the tour areas we operate in and dispose of any waste found in the area, even when that waste isn’t connected to the operation of our tours. More details on the practical steps we take as tour operators can be found in the Sustainability Policy page of the website.
Once the company starts growing, and we will be able to afford it, we will purchase a hybrid car so that we can minimize our carbon footprint even more. We have this amazing privilege here in Iceland to travel sustainably by using the hydropower and geothermal energy and we are really looking forward to that.
It is important to realize how crucial is for all of us to focus on responsible tourism, and tourists themselves play a big role to play in it by creating the demand for such responsible measures. By selecting sustainable tour operators, you as a tourist can help to create a demand for sustainable tourism practices and encourage other tour operators to adopt more sustainable practices as well.
Together we are making tourism better
Written by: Semina Diakopoulou