Sustainable Policy | Ace the Himalaya

Introduction

Ace the Himalaya is a responsible trekking and tour operator that aims to leave a positive impact on the environment, culture, economy, and society.

Therefore, we are committed to promoting sustainability. Concern for the environment and promoting a broader sustainability agenda are integral to our company’s professional activities and management.

We aim to contribute to economic, environmental, and social progress to achieve sustainable development and to help our clients achieve responsible trips. Therefore, we follow and promote good sustainability practices, to reduce the environmental impacts of all our activities and to help our clients and partners to do the same.

Ace the Himalaya is committed to delivering excellence in sustainability and our sustainability policy is based upon the following principles:

To address the customer needs and serve them accordingly to make their trip memorable of their lifetime
To comply with, and exceed where practicable, all applicable national legislation, regulations, and codes of practice.
To integrate sustainability considerations into all our business decisions.
To ensure that all staff are fully aware of our Sustainability Policy and are committed to implementing and improving it.
To maintain and enhance the quality of the environment where we operate.
To make clients and suppliers aware of our sustainability commitments, and encourage them to adopt sound sustainable management practices.
To review the current performance and continuously move forward to improve our sustainability performance.
To ensure accountability and transparency in our sustainability performance.

This Sustainability Policy identifies our core values and areas of sustainable practices throughout our business operations.

Our Core Values

Human Rights and Labour Standards

Our company supports human rights as described in the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, and we follow national labor standards across our operations. We have a Human Resource policy that describes our internal employment standards in detail.

Environment

Our company aims to boost the positive impact on the environment through our continuous sustainable practices. We are responsible for avoiding the potential negative impact on the environment through our operational activities.

Fair Business Practice

Our company is committed to fair business practices through accountability and transparency in its activities. We apply high standards of honesty and integrity consistently across our operations.

We operate according to our corporate values and are committed to preventing corruption and bribery in all its forms and do not tolerate it in our business or in those with whom we do business.

Giving Back to Locals

We have broader objectives to give back to the local people where we operate. We empower the local people, focus on the optimum utilization of local resources, and support the community through community homestays, charities, and donations.

We take it as our responsibility to promote education standards by helping to build schools and hostels, distributing stationery supplies, organizing teachers’ training programs, and child sponsorship.

Sustainability Management in the Company

Our company considers sustainability as part of its structure.

Sustainability Coordinator

Our company has appointed a Sustainability Coordinator, who actively works with the management team, to coordinate, and implement the sustainability policy and the action plan. The coordinator updates the management team on the progress of the implemented policies and actions, and the status of the objectives and formulates recommendations for the next steps.

Name: Nijesh Budhathoki

Job title: Sustainability Coordinator

Contact: +977 9803235725, +977 9767798309

Roles and Responsibilities of the Coordinator:

Prepare plans and actions to improve the sustainability of the product that we offer.
Ensure a general understanding of sustainability and our Company policy among all company employees.
Research the product development and ensure it meets the requirements of sustainability principles.
Conduct the meeting among the administrative team, guides, and other employees for the group discussion and decision-making on sustainability operations.
Prepare policies for administrative teams, guides, porters, accommodation providers, transportation providers, and other supply chains.
Oversee our Company action plan and gain input and support from colleagues for its implementation
Report regularly to the management on sustainability progress and challenges within the Company
Support internal and external communication regarding our Company’s Sustainability Policy and actions.

Access to the Policy

The sustainability policy is properly analyzed by the company management team and is accessible to all employees, suppliers, and the general public.

Sustainability is a standard topic on the agenda of our office meetings. A summary of our sustainability policies is communicated on our website.

Sustainability Action Planning

Sustainability is a dynamic process. With clear targets, actions, measures, responsibilities, and time planning, our company has different action plans periodically. These action plans are developed after discussion among all the employees. Every employee can take the initiative in developing action plans.

Monitoring

The responsible sustainability coordinator organizes the meeting once a month with the internal management team and twice a year with guides and other field members including cooks and porters under the supervision of the Managing Director to monitor and evaluate the implementation of the sustainability policy and action plan and discuss any new ideas.

The company also holds post-trip meetings with the clients for their feedback on behalf of the company. During the meeting we discussed the service from our guides and porters, the implementation of the sustainability agenda from our guide, porters, accommodation providers, and Transport Company.

Corrective measures

In case we identify any discrepancies between planned targets and actions, such as delays or obstacles, we will discuss with our team what measures we can take to overcome these and achieve the desired result. We will make an alternative plan and continue accordingly.

Sustainability in Office Operation

Energy

Energy from the main grid comes from hydropower.
Our office follows a strict “switch off” policy and all staff is responsible for switching off any lights and equipment that is not in use.
We use energy-saving light bulbs (CFL / LED) across the whole office and only switch on lights when really necessary.

Water

The office supplies purified drinking water in 20L bottles for office staff and clients.
We measure the number of drinking water bottles we consume every month.
Glasses and water bottles are available at the office and also brought by the staff themselves.
We inform all our staff not to adopt water-wise methods.
Our guide drinks water from natural sources after purifying them or boiling water from teahouses instead of bottled water and we recommend doing the same to our clients as well.
Whenever we use water for washing dishes or cleaning the office, we reuse this water for flushing the toilet.
We place towels in basins instead of paper rolls.
We have installed flush toilets that have the option of half and full-flush
The wastewater is properly supplied to the government drainage system.

Paper

We use electronic mail to send documents, trip dossiers, and other information.
Our company only works with FSC and/or ISO-certified paper.
We prefer Lokta paper where possible (e.g. for printing visiting cards), etc.
We send invoices and important documents via email as PDF files instead of paper invoices and files.
Paper is always used on two sides by printing on both sides.
Centralized on the “Save the Environment, Think Before You Print” policy, we encourage our staff and clients to print only if it is highly necessary.

Waste

Our office minimizes waste in all possible ways.
Biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste is separated and sent to Kathmandu municipality.
Place dustbins in all the working areas to collect plastic and waste.
Minimum use of plastics and non-biodegradable waste as far as possible.
A local private recycling company collects paper, glass, and plastic.
For all other waste, our office makes use of the government waste collection system.
The usage of batteries is kept to a minimum.

Health & Safety

Ensuring safe working conditions for staff, guides, and porters.
Emergency protocols for unforeseen events and natural disasters.
Insurance for the employees and travel insurance are mandatory for the visitors.
A fire extinguisher is available in the office in a place accessible to all staff.
First aid kit is available in the office in a place accessible to all staff.

Training and Education

All our guides are certified license holders and eligible to assist tourists as Trekking Guides.
Wilderness First-aid training is practiced each year.
Our guides are provided with a pair of garbage bags to collect waste during the trek.
Our clients are informed about sustainable trekking practices before and during treks.

Giveaways

We helped build many houses, hostels, and schools in the Gorkha District of Nepal where most houses and schools collapsed during the devastating earthquake in 2015.
We provided food, construction equipment, and tents to earthquake-stricken people and staff during the 2015 earthquake.
We provide duffle bags, neck gaiter, and sun hats to every client as a souvenir.

Transportation

We regularly check our vehicles with the Department of Transport Management and use them once they provide us with the green sticker.
Our drivers are accessible to our sustainable policy and code of conduct.
We send all our vehicles for servicing regularly and are checked before going to the drive/ride.
We have been using an electric vehicle as our experiment and soon we will replace our fossil fuel-using vehicles with electric vehicles.
We minimize official travel for office staff. When traveling abroad, flights are offset where possible.
We encourage our office staff to use bicycles, ride on a sharing basis, and use of public transport.

Food

Preference is given to locally produced and organic food.
Catering is selected based on varied, nutritious, and hygienically prepared food.
When using catering, our company provides reusable boxes for food transport to avoid the use of plastic, aluminum, and paper wrapping.
Food waste is kept to a limit.

Tea & Coffee

Our office serves Nepalese tea and coffee, which is widely available.
Where possible organic and/or fair-trade tea and coffee are preferred.
We have organized a coffee farming campaign by planting 15,000 coffee plants by August 2019 in collaboration with local NGO Sambhav Nepal.

Cleaning Materials

Where possible, our office is cleaned with mild detergent and only water.
Necessary detergents are used to ensure hygiene and sanitation in the office.
We minimize and substitute the use of harmful substances, including pesticides, paints, and cleaning materials by harmless products and processes.
Storage, handling, and disposal of chemicals (if any) are properly managed.

Sustainability and Public Relations

Our company aims to properly communicate its sustainable practices and achievements to partners, stakeholders, suppliers, clients, and the general public.

Sustainability Practices

Our company takes an account of different policies to ensure sustainable practices throughout its operations. Here are some of the specific policies that we follow. The detailed information is available in separate documents.