Boat Bike Tours began measuring its footprint in 2019 through partner Sea Going Green. The study covered our office and three vessels in our fleet: one large, one medium and one small vessel. This study measured all aspects of our trips, including fuel, energy and water consumption, as well as meals and materials such as straws, paper placemats, towels, bedding and office supplies; plus waste generated such as carbon emissions, garbage and gray/black wastewater.
Main forms of impact
The pilot study showed which three components produce the most emissions:
– fuel consumption to run, heat and power the ships using generators (if shore power is not available).
– meals including the consumption of meat.
– energy shore power for lighting, appliances, air conditioning, charging e-bike batteries, among other things.
The data from the survey were converted to an ecological footprint (footprint). Each subsequent year, Sea Going Green produced a report with the carbon emissions results. The original goal was to reduce based on the 2019 measurement. However, due to the pandemic, the years 2020 and 2021 are not realistic, as we were obviously dealing with fewer sailing weeks and passengers. Therefore, the total emissions are significantly smaller, however, because far fewer guests participated per voyage per ship, the average emissions per guest are much higher than the previous year. Sea Going Green estimated emissions for these years by extrapolation. In 2022, the data could be accurately measured again and this is therefore the starting point for our reduction goals.
Season Ships Weeks Kilo CO2 per guest Reductie per gast Total emissions CO2 incl. the office
2019 19 421 243 3,830 ton kWh
2020 16 153 303 1,434 ton kWh
2021 18 184 326 1,878 ton kWh
2022 20 463 310 0% 5,059 ton kWh
2023 19 509 272 -12,25% 4,923 ton kWh
Boat Bike Tours sustainability strategy
Based on our pilot study, we came up with a three-step sustainability strategy:
- Boat Bike Tours sustainability strategy. The 2022 measurement aboard all ships came to 310 kg of CO2 per guest per week. That is 5,100 tons of KwH for the entire fleet including the office.
- A reduction of 12.25% per guest per week was achieved in 2023 compared to 2022.
3. The goal for 2024 is to reduce even more by expanding the use of bio-fuel among our fleet and supporting innovative projects that ensure sustainability.
4. The CO2 emissions that we cannot (yet) reduce, we compensate through the cooperation with Justdiggit. An agreement was signed in 2021, Justdiggit offsets 10,000 tons of KwH for the coming years.
More information and progress can be read at www.boatbiketours.nl/compenseren. For more information and progress see on our offset partnership page.
