Environmental Issues HOTting Up

Environmental Issues HOTting Up

10 July 2008 - House of Travel, New Zealand’s largest privately owned travel company, announced today its largest outlet, House of Travel Wellington Group has become the first travel provider in New Zealand to achieve carboNZero certification.

House of Travel has 90 outlets throughout New Zealand and has a specialist corporate arm Orbit Corporate Travel and three Adventure Travel stores in New Zealand.

The carboNZero certification covers House of Travel Wellington, Orbit Corporate Travel Wellington and Adventure Travel in Wellington and House of Travel Lower Hutt.

Owner operator Paul Rennie says being a New Zealand owned and operated organisation brings with it strong responsibilities when it comes to doing business the right way.

“Being locally owned and operated allows you to look at the way you operate your business from end to end. How we impact on the environment is incredibly important to us and something our staff have got behind with huge enthusiasm.”

Mr Rennie commented that in order to be able to meet the needs of their customers, particularly their corporate customers wanting to reduce their carbon footprint, they needed to be on board and understand what was involved.

“While off setting travel whether it be for business or leisure is part of it, they process allows you to really look at what you do in normal business practices as a company and then how you can reduce this.”

Mr Rennie said all suppliers from stationery to hotels came under scrutiny as they looked at reducing waste and the impact on the environment.

“It’s about being able to offer our customers better options with lower environmental impact and in addition to that from a corporate perspective incorporate this into our clients' travel policies.

"The knowledge and support we have gained from the carboNZero programme ensures we evaluate and monitor preferred suppliers on their own environmental practices and armed with this, we can share these findings with our clients - encouraging emission reduction across the industry.”

House of Travel has outlets in Auckland, the Waikato and Christchurch currently involved in becoming accredited through the carboNZero programme.

ENDS

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