Svalbard Adventures is Eco-Lighthouse certified

Svalbard Adventures has invested considerable time and resources to implement a shift to more sustainable operations. After achieving Eco-Lighthouse certification, we are on our way towards achieving several of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. This does not mean that our work is finished. On the contrary, we have just begun.

As part of a major readjustment project towards sustainable development in Svalbard Adventures, all our departments are now environmentally certified. This includes an obligation to report factors such as our electricity and energy consumption, food waste, procurements and transportation.

Gaining certification involves fulfilling some basic common criteria for the building owner/tenant, as well as some industry-specific criteria.

This means that we cannot simply cherry pick and select the categories that suit us best. We must be able to deliver on all three dimensions of sustainability: social, economic and environmental sustainability.

Working environment

Svalbard Adventures wishes to be an employer where the employees thrive and develop. Consequently, we have developed the Svalbard Adventures Academy to increase wellbeing as a resident of Svalbard. If you look at the company overall, we have a good gender and ethnic balance. People from more than 50 different countries live in our local community, so our company must be inclusive. We are affiliated with the occupational health service, offer competitive salaries and have good welfare schemes. All our employees can go on familiarisation tours and receive discounts at our restaurants.

Our hotels

We offer allergy-friendly and disability-friendly rooms at our hotels. As part of our recycling efforts, we encourage sorting of waste and have separate containers for plastic, tin cans and residual waste. You will not find disposable items such as plastic cups/containers or the like in your room.

We use cleaning products that are eco-labelled and focus on trying to avoid unnecessary use of such products.

Shampoo and other soaps in the rooms are eco-labelled, and we encourage our guests to reuse towels several times. We make up the beds based on the number of people to avoid any unnecessary washing of bed linen.

Our restaurants

We commit ourselves to making the right choices for our restaurants when we design our menus and select ingredients. We select certified or organic products when available. We don’t use products based on meat, seafood and plants that are on the IUCN Red List of threatened species. This means that we also limit the use of palm oil and produce fed on soy. We look for approved certification labels such as RSPO (Sustainable palm oil) and ProTerra or RTRS (Sustainable soy).

All our restaurants serve vegetarian and vegan options. We work constantly to improve the quality and content of these dishes to ensure our guests have alternatives to meat and fish. We also offer a high degree of locally produced food, such as fish harvested from the Isfjord and reindeer meat provided by local hunters. All takeaway packaging is eco-labelled.

We comply with the current requirements concerning the installation, emptying and maintenance of fat separators. The kitchen and procurement manager implement measures to reduce food waste.

All our routines are followed up through internal control.

Our activities

Our tours comply with the current guidelines and legislation related to travelling in Svalbard, and we have all necessary insurance. Our employees are kept updated about the current guidelines, rules and regulations. We have carried out a risk analysis of our tours and carry out inspection tours before each season. The guides undergo annual safety courses where they take part in rescue exercises, avalanche courses, safety on glaciers and polar bear safety. We provide safety equipment and outer clothing to our guests. Moreover, they are informed that they must bring warm undergarments to wear under their snowmobile suit or similar.

Our emergency management plan outlines what to do in the event of an accident, and any injured guests will be followed up afterwards.

We keep our distance from wild animals and their natural habitat and inform our guests about the ban on picking flowers and taking remnants of cultural monuments. Our employees follow the Svalbard Guidelines, and we encourage all our guests to do the same.