SUSTAINABILITY POLICY

SUSTAINABILITY POLICY

SUSTAINABILITY POLICY
For Wilderness Patagonia, a sustainable world is one in which people enjoy a happy and healthy life and live in a framework of respect for the environment and wildlife. We look for this in every region in which we operate.

The Northern Patagonia and Southern Patagonia offices play an important role in achieving our overall purpose of preserving and protecting our ecosystems for future generations. We achieve this through continued efforts to reduce our ecological footprint and to improve the lives of our people and neighboring communities.

“Wilderness Patagonia was created with an end in mind, sustainability as the axis, both in environmental, cultural and economic terms. As a company we have a central role to play in improving the conditions of the communities in which we live and work. That is why our corporate mission highlights sustainability as the axis: Improving the lives of our guests by providing unique travel experiences, with a deep connection with nature and people, through a close and personalized service while generating wealth and development. regional conserving and protecting Patagonia and the planet ”- Carlos Pelli – Founding Partner of Wilderness Patagonia – Travel Company.

Among the main initiatives and concrete actions we can highlight:
We are iron cultures of the development of regional economies, we use and promote the culture of local buying as the axis of genuine economic development.

Our sourcing policy prioritizes local producers and supports sustainable suppliers, privileging them over the competition.

We collaborate directly in the development of the towns and places we visit and assist them in preserving the regional cultural and natural heritage.
Our products promote respect and appreciation of local culture and identity.

Environmental education is an element that characterizes us from the beginning and is a key element in the services we offer.
We are the first Patagonian company to adopt the international standards of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council – GSTC as a means of making our commitment to the environment transparent. We measure, evaluate, constantly improve our services based on these guidelines, we mitigate and offset our CO2 emissions, we reduce the use of single-use materials and we provide all the information we have.

We minimize the generation of printed promotional material, prioritizing friendly and low-impact dissemination and promotion alternatives.
We take care of resources and minimize the generation of waste at source, applying international guidelines and standards.

CARE OF THE PLANET
Wilderness Patagonia contributes to the sustainability of our natural environment through the application of principles that reduce our negative impact and improve the areas in which we operate. These include reducing our use of fossil fuels for energy and transportation, sustainable water management, proper waste and recycling management, ethical food purchasing, a preference for sustainable materials, and an awareness of how our operations affect the integrity of our regions’ biodiversity. .

CARE OF PEOPLE
Wilderness Patagonia works hard to promote the good health and well-being of guests and staff alike, creating safe and fair working conditions, fostering local identity and heritage, and supporting local economies.

ZERO CARBON IN OUR OPERATIONS
Wilderness Patagonia recognizes that climate change is a major challenge that requires global change and that it is our responsibility to reduce carbon emissions in all of our operations as much as possible. In fact, our ultimate goal is to be carbon neutral. To achieve this, we prioritize the energy efficiency of our urban operations and offices, as well as delivering the maximum amount of energy using cutting-edge technology and renewable energy.

Most of Wilderness Patagonia’s carbon footprint results from dependence on fossil fuels which, when burned, contribute to the emission of more greenhouse gases that the Earth’s natural systems can process, which in turn is resulting in consequences. catastrophic environmental worldwide. Once the problem has been diagnosed, we are actively seeking a change towards renewable energies, with the installation of capacitors and the acquisition of renewable energies when the networks make this possible.
However, it is not always possible and therefore, we dedicate a percentage of all our operations with guests to the acquisition of emission mitigation bonds and to active reforestation with native plants. At Wilderness Patagonia we register and monitor our carbon emission resources monthly, and we carry out periodic analysis of the carbon footprint.

SUSTAINABILITY IN THE USE OF WATER
Water scarcity is a major challenge in many parts of the world, and particularly in some of the regions in which we operate. Wilderness Patagonia depends on healthy water systems to maintain the company’s operating cycle.

The first step towards responsible water management is knowing how much we consume and how we consume it, and for this reason we are working to guarantee constant monitoring of this resource. We live in a privileged region of the world, where the water is mostly fresh and drinkable. Fresh water is an essential element of our approach and we use this finite natural resource in operations in a conscious way.

ZERO WASTE
At Wilderness Patagonia we aim to make everything circulate again in our ecosystem, in the same way that it does in nature. We strive to get as close as possible to sustainable natural replication by reducing waste at source, reusing where possible and ultimately sending zero waste to the landfill. Landfill dependence leads to negative outcomes with complex ecological consequences, such as the spread of disease, contamination of watercourses, and unnecessary waste of precious resources
Our goal is to reduce waste in two ways: first, by carefully considering what to procure, and second, by proper recycling. Much of our recycling, such as glass, plastic, metals, paper, and organic waste, goes to community agents with the Bariloche Waste Pickers Association, among others.

A successful company project virtually eliminated the use of plastic bottled water from our operations, preventing thousands of bottles from entering the landfill circuit.
Guests (and staff) have stainless steel or glass containers that are refilled in our equipment that dispenses high-quality Patagonian mineral water.
It is a firm commitment of our company to eliminate as many other single-use plastics as possible in all our operations.

OUR GUESTS HELP DRIVE CHANGE, BUT ALSO CAN ACCELERATE
Wilderness Patagonia is committed to building a financially sustainable conservation model that ensures the development of its projects. We believe that our operations will continue to generate sufficient revenue to maintain the contributions to the different projects in initiatives that we carry out.
To achieve our purpose of protecting large areas of Patagonia we need partners: people concerned about the future of conservation in the region and who would like to become a partner or adopt a specific project in one of our programs. We can always do it with additional capacity in education, or in reforestation, but we are not limited to it. In our community work we could do much more: invite additional students to train for the upcoming tourism, or sponsor more development programs, establish smaller businesses in the community, and build an environmental awareness and training center.

If you want to become a project partner or take on the funding of a project in its entirety, please contact us for more information and a list of possible programs you could be involved in. Contact us at [email protected]