Environment

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A simple path to conservation & profits

Zero Carbon Footprint - All of Easy Tours’ travel offerings are available with a zero Carbon Footprint. You pay a nominal surcharge (that is quoted separately) for this privilege. We invite our guests, if they are so inclined, to double the surcharge amount and make up for their past transgressions.

Whether a guest chooses to participate in these efforts or not, Easy Tours contributes a portion of every dollar we earn to environmental and/or social organizations. We do this because it simply makes good business sense for us to do so.

The principals of our organization have always been very motivated by maximizing profits. We find the current trend of companies professing to be “green with a conscience” both laughable and patronizing (to the intelligence of their consumers).

We have always been a ‘green company’, but for very selfish reasons. When Easy Tours commenced operations, maximizing profits over the long term was our main goal and planning towards this resulted in some strange yet simple conclusions.

We discovered that it made the most business sense for us to support the communities we did business in, and to protect, enhance, and ensure the continued existence of our surroundings wherever we did business. This would obviously result in us being able to do business (in a better environment) for a longer time, thereby making us more successful & profitable.

As an employer we realized that we were able to recruit and retain the most productive employees if we took an approach that enhanced their (and their families) sense of well being by providing an above average wage structure, positive and encouraging work environments and a reward + recognition based culture. This made us even more profitable and successful!

EnvironmentWhen we set up our operating procedures, we decided not to re-invent the wheel and took the easy way. We started by following in the footsteps of one of the original environmentalists. Mahatma Gandhi showed the world that simplicity and conservation were ideals worthy of attaining, and that uplifting those around you ends up enhancing your existence simultaneously.

From the beginning, Easy Tours has maintained a synergistic philosophy. We believe our environment is not just defined by the nature and wildlife we strive to preserve, but also by the societies and economies that occupy the land where we operate.

We work hard to ensure a symbiotic relationship between all of the above elements. We start by encouraging a corporate culture that discourages unnecessary waste in all our operations. We aggressively support the environment in the places where we do business.

We work to reduce and even reverse the carbon footprint (created by the travel services we provide) by planting trees in areas where deforestation has devastated the habitat and local communities. We donate to and partner with wildlife conservation programs that are leading such efforts in many of Asia’s wildlife habitats.

We are committed to community building at the local level. Easy Tours supports charitable organizations that are active in the areas where we do business. We recruit local talent wherever we establish Operation Centers, and then provide the recruits with the very best training, education, & support, empowering them to succeed.

We demand the highest levels of professionalism and customer service from our staff. Easy Tours also extends this quest for excellence to our local agents (in smaller destinations where we do not have a presence), and to all others with whom we have a business relationships.
 
A perfect illustration of the synergy between environmental & social responsibility is being practiced by Easy Tours. The Principal’s of Easy Tours have established a not for profit foundation that is currently operating two centers in India. These centers employ underprivileged locals from rural communities.

These efforts are currently focused in two endeavors – organic farming in our own small (as yet) farms, and local hand crafted specialty products that are wholesaled and retailed internationally. Co-operative societies have been set up so as to distribute the profits made by these endeavors among the disadvantaged communities.

When you travel with us, part of what we charge you will be directly invested in local economies and grass roots environmental campaigns specific to the places you visit. You may not notice it but you will see firsthand the difference our guests are making.

We offer better benefits and work environments than our competitors; we enact bonus programs and socially conscious incentives that benefit all of our staff. We believe that by uplifting the lives of the people we interact with and protecting the environment through which we work, we achieve tremendous long-term corporate success.

What is an Eco Tour? Most eco travel companies consider the recent social changes (at how people look at travel) as an advertising tool. At Easy Tours we are amazed by the number of companies that now promote themselves as “green travel companies” or “charitable tour travel companies”.

The majority of these companies have no social consciousness in their corporate policies - they do not uplift the local communities where they operate, they treat employees and business partners poorly and all their claims at being an Eco Travel company are based on the fact that they are adept at recognizing which way the wind is blowing.

Even more disgusting are the sycophants that have no real experience or infrastructure in the travel industry and have set up shop merely to take advantage of the current trends toward social consciousness. They will sell a tour from a company similar to ours and add a large mark-up, out of which they will donate a small portion to the environmental organization or chartable institution of their choice. Usually this small portion has various other middlemen making a commission, and at the end, only a small portion ever reaches the cause. Yet they make a large profit themselves, usually twenty or thirty times what they pay to the charity or social organization.

We refuse to do business with such companies and have turned a number of them down in the last few years. At Easy Tours, all of our tours are Eco-Tours, and the money we invest goes directly into communities and their causes, rather than being siphoned away by many levels of middlemen and bureaucrats.