The carbon footprint from our tours is mostly generated by life aboard our boats. Working closely together with our ship operators and skippers is therefore essential.
This is why we have been measuring our fleet’s emissions since 2019. We have also started discussions with all ship owners. Our skippers have a great love of nature and have been active for years to combat food waste, for example. So it was great to see and hear how they are working on even more sustainable provisions. For instance, alternatives to disposable plastic are being sought, biodegradable cleaning agents are being used as much as possible and attention is being paid to sustainable packaging of lunch.
Although we offset our emissions, our main goal remains to reduce. We collect feedback, share knowledge and find solutions to reduce our footprint. Waste is separated in the office, eco-labelling is taken into account when buying cleaning products and we continuously innovate our sustainability policy. Furthermore, Boat Bike Tours is very involved with its partners and we continuously look at how we can contribute to making our fleet more sustainable. In 2024, we started the Greenway Foundation, from which we finance sustainable initiatives by skippers (e.g. batteries, solar panels, heat pumps). Also, following our 2022 results, which showed that food and drink contributed around 25% to a ship’s total emissions, we have set up a sustainability scheme. As of 2023, we have therefore changed the menu on board and serve a vegetarian menu twice a week as standard.
Only by working together with our office team, tour guides, nautical crew and guests can we bring about change!
Biofuels
Boat Bike Tours is constantly looking for ways to reduce. In 2024, we launched a pilot in which we reimbursed the difference between normal diesel and renewable fuel for diesel engines, specifically HVO (hydrotreated vegetable oil), which comes from used cooking oils. Six vessels switched to HVO during this pilot. This reduces the CO2 emissions of these ships by about 90%. Our intention is to have the entire fleet running on HVO by 2025 and to support this financially.
