Here at Macs Adventure, we are delighted to have been awarded 4 stars from AITO for our efforts in providing Sustainable  Walking and Active Holidays!! Responsible Travel and Tourism lies at the heart of the Macs Adventure’s vision for delivering Adventure Excellence and we are very proud to receive recognition for this.   We help our customers discover some of the most spectacular landscapes and communities in the world and we feel it is very important to encourage them to do so in a responsible manner. For the last few years we have been developing and expanding our range of walks according to our M.A.C.S Responsible Tourism Travel Policy: M - Minimise Impact & Maximise Benefit A - Action and Advocacy C - Carbon and Communities S - Sensitive & Sustainable Full details of this policy can be seen on our website   THE GREEN TEAM WITHIN MACS ADVENTURE: We have a dedicated ‘Waste Watchers’ – Green Team (Laura and Kath) who are responsible for all training and implementation of everything Green! Office Policies: Paper: We only buy recycled paper and we reuse wherever possible.  Once it has been reused we recycle it.  Our business cards and letterheads are all produced on recycled paper and we publish on these that we support the Forest Stewardship Council (promotes the responsible management of the world’s forests.) We do not publish any brochures for any of our walks and we have a factsheet for each walk which is no longer than 6 pages long.  We have all our factsheets stored as pdf’s and always email our customers.  We email all accommodation and info packs to customers. Recycle: We use a local Glasgow based recycling team and aswell as paper we recycle cardboard, envelopes, plastic bottles and cans/aluminium tins.  We recycle all our printer and toner cartridges and we collect used stamps from incoming mail to send on to charities.  We have already helped the ‘Save the Albatross Scheme’ by the RSPB who raise money for these birds who are threatened by extinction. Marketing: All our marketing is done online, we don’t support any print advertising therefore trying to reduce the amount of paper wastage.  We send any unwanted mail back that we receive. Stationary/products: Within the office we try to use all products that are friendly to the environment.  We use recycled toilet paper, buy soap refills and don’t use paper cups/paper towels.  We use an environmentally friendly company ‘Tinto Toners’ to refill our printer toners and they recycle any old ones we have. Water:We use ‘water hippos’ in our cisterns to reduce water wastage and we drink locally sourced Scottish mineral water from a local Glasgow firm based just around the corner. Energy: We have a ‘switch off’ policy in place where we always switch lights and printers off every night. Transport: All our staff either cycle, walk or get public transport to work.  We have just installed a bike rack in the office to help encourage staff to get active. Awareness:We regularly have ‘green’ meetings to address any issue or get ideas from our staff on how we can do better. Charities we support: Friends of Nevis – We actively support a local charity based up in Fort William who help maintain Ben Nevis (Britains largest Mountain).  We contribute financially every year and we offer our customers the opportunity to donate to Friends of Nevis through our booking system.  We actively incourage our staff and customers to volunteer on path maintenance and litter pick up weekends.  We also attend the Friends of Nevis Annual Dinner Dance and contribute to the night financially.