Sustainability

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Learn more about how Arc Guiding is working to protect the environment and be more sustainable.

Arc Guiding aims to help people explore and connect with nature. Sounds great, but improving sustainability in the outdoor and adventure industry isn’t as easy as you might think…

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Think global, act local

Although the climate crisis, pollution and sustainability are all vast global issues, they are all felt at the local level too. That’s why Arc Guiding believes it’s important for individuals and businesses to look to where they can make a difference at home.

So, wherever we can, we aim to support local businesses and colleagues. For example:

  • Accomodation providers
  • Private taxi companies
  • Outdoor shops (even though we can get better prices online)
  • Ski and bike hire
  • Land owners and managers
  • Local user groups, eg: Badenoch and Strathspey Trail Association (visit their Facebook page).

More small steps include lending and reusing items, getting involved with local projects and supporting Gaelic culture. It’s all about ‘thinking globally, acting locally’. This is particularly important as local communities look to recover from the COVID pandemic.

Book activities

‘Leave No Trace’

Leave No Trace is an important sustainability principle for all Arc Guiding activities

‘Leave No Trace’ is a training and education programme designed to teach people how to minimise their impact on the environment, especially during outdoor activities. Arc Guiding embraces their sustainability ethos and we aim to encourage best practise wherever we travel in the outdoors (for example, we don’t leave any kind of litter, ever). Malcolm O’Reilly has their ‘Awareness’ certificate and we encourage anyone working with us to adopt the same principles. You can find out more at the Leave No Trace Centre for Outdoor Ethics.

Valuing wildlife

Arc Guiding improves the sustainability of wildlife watching by minimising disturbance

Clearly, we love wildlife! And, in fact, by paying to be guided by Arc Guiding, you are helping to promote the value of wildlife and environmental sustainability.

It’s no secret that the Cairngorms National Park is a hot-spot for many nationally rare species and one of the main reasons we have signed up to the Cairngorms National Park Brand Charter.

We aim to promote and protect Scotland’s nature by:

  • Recording and reporting important wildlife sightings to various conservation databases.
  • Removing litter wherever we go – even if it isn’t ours.
  • Travelling in ways which minimise or eliminate disturbance to wildlife. You would expect this on our wildlife watching activities, but we also apply this to ski touring and mountainbiking too.
  • Avoiding the use of ‘sound lures’, particularly in breeding territories.

Arc Guiding equipment and sustainability

Wherever possible, we aim to repair kit before replacing it outright.

Reduce, reuse, recycle

For a long time, most of the outdoor industry has focused on mass-producing high performing, high quality gear, but with little thought for it’s carbon footprint, lifespan or disposal. That is definitely changing, but we can also make buying decisions to help things along.

So, for example, we aim to reduce expenditure to essential equipment, reuse whatever disposable items we can and recycle wherever possible. Here are a few examples of what we are doing:

  • Buying alloy instead of carbon fibre equipment, where it makes sense (despite the advantages and dropping price of carbon fibre!).
  • Opting for ventile cotton, wool, bamboo and recycled nylon wherever possible.
  • Using biodegradeable solvents and wax-based lubricants and proofing agents (eg: for skis, bikes, waterproofs)
  • Buying from companies with a strong sustainability ethos.
  • Using gear for as long as we can before it becomes inefficient or unsafe.
  • Rechargeable batteries for gadgets such as GPS and torches.
  • Avoiding buying the newest designs just for the sake of it.
  • Laminating maps to reduce paper wastage.
  • Recycling old outdoor boots and clothing where appropriate
  • Reusable plastic bags or wax cloths for food wrappings
  • Wherever possible, choosing items with a smaller carbon footprint and/or a longer lifespan.
  • Buying items made in the UK, where we can.
Excellent UK-made outdoor gear is there to be found, and more sustainable too

Repair and reproof

Outdoor kit tends to be expensive and gets plenty of wear and tear. As far as possible, we aim to repair and reproof clothing and equipment in-house. This maximises its lifespan and performance and also cuts down on the accumulation of unused equipment. Where needed, we will employ local companies for repairs.

Sustainability behind-the-scenes with Arc Guiding

Wherever possible, we reduce, reuse or recycle in our office. That means minimising waste, buying local where we can and recycling as much as possible. It’s a bit of a balancing act, to be sure, but we do what we can. We look to use low-energy, local, sustainable and low-pollution options wherever we can. To try and reduce unnecessary travel and wasted resources, we are going to further explore the use of remote meetings and virtual/online training for clients.

Various steps we are taking individually at home include cutting down our consumption of red meat, buying second-hand where possible and limiting domestic wood burning.

Mileage and vehicles

The widespread change to electric vehicles is coming. The rugged and remote Scottish Highlands makes this a bit of a challenge, but the technology and facilities are slowly improving. We are comitted to adopting hybrid and/or electric vehicles where possible.

Tour guiding has traditionally involved long (albeit beautiful) road journeys. Getting into beautiful, remote places is still a big deal for us, but we have always been aware of the need to be consistent here. Does it always make sense to clock up huge mileage in the name of embracing nature? We will always bear in mind our mileage when creating itineries and choosing locations. If there is a closer location that is just as good and if we can justify spending longer there, then that’s where we will go. And we will always prioritise getting into the wilds away from the car (even for just a little bit).

And we will consider using local private hire or public transport where it is available.

Arc Guiding promotes mountainbiking for all levels because it's a great sustainability choice.

So, this is an overview of the various ways Arc Guiding aims to improve the sustanability of our activities, minimise our carbon footprint and keep things local. Zero Waste Scotland is a great source of information in this regard. Much of this is small steps and apparently tiny changes. However, we believe that if ever there was a time for even tiny steps in the right direction, it is now.

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