Environmental Sustainability

About Us

Our part to play in the region

Abel Tasman National Park & Nelson Bays

Here at Abel Tasman Sailing Adventures our views on sustainable tourism are very important to us. We aim for our impact on the environment to be as minimal as we can. We want to enhance your understanding and interaction with the beautiful Abel Tasman environment in which we love to work and play.

Being sailing yachts, which harness the wind for our main propulsion, we are very much an environmentally interactive activity. So getting it right and doing our best to look after our space in the best possible way matters to us. By choosing sailing you are choosing the low carbon footprint option to explore the Abel Tasman National Park.

We are a Carbon Positive certified business. Our carbon footprint has been measured and have offset 125% of the CO2 emissions from our business operations: Electricity, Waste, Flights, Driving, and Fuels. We also included all private vehicle use for the owners - often we run business errands in private time, just the nature of small business, so decided to make sure we captured everything in the offset. We have also included our staff travel to work.

We are Qualmark Enviro Gold rated, are committed to Tourism Industry Aotearoa Sustainable Tourism, and were founding members of the Nelson Tasman Sustainable Tourism Charter. Through these we have looked at our business operations, at what we do well and ways we can do things better. We now have formalized views with written policies, have regular reviews and are externally audited annually.

We are always looking for ways to improve and really welcome your feedback.

Carbon Positive Certified

We are happy to say we are CARBON POSITIVE certified. This means we have measured and offset 100% of the CO2 emissions from our business operations: Electricity, Waste, Flights, Driving and Fuels.

As a family owned business our work and personal lives are often blended, sometimes work errands are run in our personal vehicles, so to make sure we capture all our carbon use we have included all our private vehicle use as well.

Tiaki Promise

New Zealand is precious, and everyone who lives and travels here has a responsibility to look after it.
The Tiaki Promise is a commitment to care for New Zealand, for now and for future generations.

By following the Tiaki Promise, you are making a commitment to New Zealand. To act as a guardian, protecting and preserving our home.
Nau Mai, Haere Mai Ki Aotearoa, Welcome to New Zealand.

Sustainable Tourism

We are part of the New Zealand Tourism Sustainability Commitment, which establishes 12 Business Commitments that individual businesses can achieve.

These Commitments have been developed by industry for industry and cover the areas of economics, visitor, community and environment.

Fuel Efficiency

The great thing about being a sailing yacht is our main propulsion is the wind! Why use the engine when you can cruise along the environmentally friendly way. Of course there are times we need to use the engines, in these times we do our best to keep any fuel consumption to a minimum.

Our engines are 20Hp & a 60Hp outboards, these are regularly maintained to keep them running sweet and clean – it helps that the boss is a marine engineer by trade. Engine fuel consumption per engine hour is logged and monitored.

Our company vehicles are also regularly serviced and the fuel consumption is logged and monitored.

Locals Supporting Locals

We always try our best to source local products and services, supporting local businesses where we can. The Nelson/Tasman region has fantastic locally produced food and great wines and craft beers, so we don’t have to look too far.
We enjoy getting our youth out on the yachts and offer great rates for schools and community groups.
Supporting local community groups, schools and sports clubs with prizes, fund raising; support in rubbish collections on our beautiful beaches and waterways; offering mentoring and a bit of public speaking.
We are on local community boards and involved with a good handful of community advisory groups.

Waste Reduction & Recycling

Buying in bulk where we can helps cut down on packaging
We provide water on board – lovely local tap water; sorry we are not encouraging plastic bottle water. We have refillable souvenir bottles available for purchase. The juice we provide also comes in the bigger size packets for us to share – no need for wasteful individual serve containers.
Toilet paper is brought in bulk and made from recycled paper (not recycled toilet paper!)
Yes we recycle glass, plastic, paper, metals, oil, batteries – whatever we can.
Food scraps go onto the compost and keep the worms and garden happy.
Black water disposable exceeds the minimum maritime regulations.

Energy Efficiency

Approximately 90% of our operation is ‘off Grid’! Our yachts produce their own energy through solar and wind generation. This powers our batteries, winches, electrics – no need for mains electric power. Low power consumption is the key and LED lightening is great for this. Simplistic operations mean we don’t need power hungry gadgets, air conditioning or machinery. The Nelson home based office is powered with Solar Photovoltaic System (solar electricity). Laundry is washed using solar heated hot water and great Nelson sunshine for line drying.

Water Usage

Our boats only carry so much water, so efficient and sparing use is important. With our overnight trips this is our chance to educate you that you don’t need to have 20 minute showers or leave the tap running while you clean your teeth. We use salt water, not fresh, to flush the boat loos. The water from the laundry is recycled onto our garden keeping it green and helping to produce fresh veges and pretty flowers.

Pollution prevention

When we have to buy cleaners we buy the eco-friendly stuff. Or none at all – have you tried the Enjo system? No chemicals.With hull maintenance we make sure no nasty stuff gets into the ground or waters by collecting any scrapings off the hull. We operate under strict Maritime regulations and have a big manual of our company’s Policies and Procedures.

Proud Members of the Abel Tasman Birdsong Trust

The Abel Tasman Birdsong Trust aims to protect and enhance biodiversity and improve the visitor experience in Abel Tasman National Park. It is a Charitable Trust, formed in 2007 and registered with the NZ Charities Commission, and the Inland Revenue Department as a charity. It is separate from the Department of Conservation and commercial tourism operators in the Park, but will work closely with them and the local community, on local projects for local benefits.