Irrawaddy Voyages Co. Ltd - Sustainable Action Plan

“We are market leaders in the areas of travel, tourism, leisure and hospitality and specialize in remote destination river cruising. Our commitment is to create unique travel experiences for Myanmar residents and overseas inbound markets. We aspire to making the Irrawaddy River and onshore locations, a world renowned destination embracing environmental tourism best practices. Through our product development and marketing, we continue to provide employment and career opportunities for our fulltime people, our industry suppliers and business partners. We contribute to the conservation of our natural resources and cultural heritage, to proudly promote and share our rich diversity.”

Irrawaddy Voyages 2018

Irrawaddy Voyages offers guests with a genuine nature based travel experience in a stylish and luxurious cruising environment. At all times we adopt a Safety First Policy 24/7. This applies not only to our onboard guests but to our ships crews. We pride ourselves on ensuring that every guest receives a warm and friendly welcome, a high level of comfort and excellent service. We also believe in delivering a responsible tourism experience that is environmentally friendly and gives back to the river communities. Our sustainable policies promote environmentally friendly operations that contribute to the protection of our natural and cultural heritage. We continuously strive to be a fair employer that promotes local recruitment and promotion.

Responsible Tourism Commitment

• To minimize the negative impacts of our operation through prudent purchasing procedures, waste recycling, village & community projects and staff training and awareness.
• To form dedicated teams to implement our sustainable policies, with the full support from business owners and management.
• To comply with all relevant national and regional environmental rules and regulations.
• To continuously create high quality products and services to meet our guests needs, wants and expectations.
• To continuously learn and understand the environmental, social and cultural issues associated with our operation.
• To be a fair employer that recruits locally supports internships, training and long term career opportunities for local employees.
• To encourage and promote local prudent purchasing, whenever possible, for our cruise operations both onboard our vessels and onshore.

Irrawaddy Voyages Co. Ltd - Sustainable Action Plan

• To set specific goals and timelines in managing any negative impacts caused by our operations, including waste management, water and energy efficiency.
• To reduce the use of energy and water without affecting the comfort level of our customers.
• To support the local river communities through careful management during shore excursions local excursions.
• Arrange regular monitoring, internal and third party audits to measure and certify the sustainable activities performed by Irrawaddy Voyages, against set targets.
• To educate our employees to become environmentally aware and that our company objectives cannot be achieved without their participation.
• To educate our guests on how they can help support responsible tourism during their time in Myanmar and when cruising with Irrawaddy Voyages.

Environmental Policy - Waste, Energy, Water Management:

We are committed to care for our environment by mindful use of energy and water and improving our waste management.

Our Environmental Vision;

Irrawaddy Voyages strives to ensure our impact on the local environmental is carefully evaluated, reported and subsequent actions carefully monitored and maintained.
Irrawaddy Voyages will monitor measure and manage energy and water use with the aim of reducing our overall water and energy consumption. We will continue to use energy and water saving equipment and technologies, efficient working procedures and staff education to achieve this. We will continue to communicate our daily activities to our guests and encourage their involvement and interaction.

Energy Saving Action Plan;

• To continue to purchase LED lights onboard our vessels and throughout our onshore work places.
• To install timer switches for all light sources in public areas. Safety Permitting.
• To install motion sensor switches on all lights sources in public walkways. Safety Permitting.
• To provide regular environmental management training with all staff and crew at the same time as we undertake our Safety Drills and First Aid training.
• Provide an information framework to inform, educate and involve our guests with our onboard and onshore procedures and projects.
• Ensure laundry operations are energy and waste efficient.
• To continue regular maintenance programs in all aspects of machinery and equipment throughout our vessels.

Energy Saving Measurement;

• We continue to keep regular log books & records of energy used by volume, time and guest occupancy. This serves to evaluate and reports our results.

Energy Saving Targets;

• To reduce energy usage by 20% in our first year of monitoring 2018.

Water Saving Action Plan;

• To continue to maintain water flow restrictors in guest suites (taps and showers) so water flow is controlled within recommended limits set by Travelife sustainability certification scheme.
• Continue to maintain the mechanism for toilet duel flush systems.
• Continue water saving cleaning methods by using mop & bucket instead of hosing kitchen floors, passage ways and deck areas.
• Condensed water from air conditioner units and ice machines is collected and emptied the recycled water pool tanks.
• Continue the maintenance of our waste water treatment plant to safely manage Gray & Black water.
• Continue regular training and awareness campaign for our staff onshore and our ships crews on all aspects of water and waste conservation.
• Water saving in the laundry, through guest promotion of minimizing daily linen changes, soaking heavily soiled items and running full loads. Supported by prudent purchasing relating to biodegradable products and procedures.

Water Saving Measurement;

• Continue to maintain and monitor our vessels water meters to monitor, measure and record water consumption in all areas of the ships operation.

Water Use Reduction Target;

• To reduce water consumption by 20% from 2018/19.

Waste Action plan;

• To create and implement a waste management system based on: 
  ‘reduce, reuse & recycle’…
• Reduce, reuse and recycle as much office waste as possible e.g. reuse packaging as storage containers, print on both sides of paper, recycle paper for notebooks, refill printer inks and toners at local printers.
• Battery recycling procedures.
• Reduce packaging through bulk purchasing of amenities using ceramic refillable dispensers for soap, shampoo and body lotion.
• Continue to purchase food and beverages in bulk, without contributing to food waste. The use of glass bottles in the guest suites instead of plastic bottles.
• A local waste collection business collects plastic, glass bottles and paper for recycling and reuse. Hotel income from this goes towards the staff welfare fund.
• Separation of waste onsite for paper, glass, plastic bottles, food waste for easy disposal, reuse, collection.
• Used cooking oil is donated to local villagers to use for mosquito repellant lamps.
• To use ISO quality biodegradable detergents that meet international standards.
• Compost all kitchen food waste at our onshore compost site Gawain Jetty.
• Selected cooked food waste sent to village pig farms for livestock food.

Community Engagement policy

Our Vision

Irrawaddy Voyages believes that tourism on and around the Irrawaddy River should build a respectful and mutually beneficial relationship between travelers, businesses and the local communities. We already play an active role in providing financial benefits for local people through employment, local purchasing and delivering opportunities for our guests to support local communities. We will help to preserve the many cultures, ethnic minorities and traditions that exist along the riverbanks for future generations, as well as educate our guests about these unique characteristics. We care about the social welfare of our community and the protection of our shared natural environment.

Our Commitment

• To provide fair employment for local communities, be supportive of local hospitality training initiatives and provide internships for local youth.
• To encourage local purchasing of goods and services where service, price and quality are delivered. Mindful of purchasing ISO products and environmentally sensitive products including organic and natural options.
• To provide financial assistance through donations to the local community for the preservation of local culture and traditions. These include school fund donations and Buddhist monastery support.
• To build relationships with the local community to ensure regular consultations are in place to develop positive relations and prevent any conflict.
• To deliver educational programs to improve production and sale of local souvenirs that the Irrawaddy Voyages can buy and promote to our guests.
• To promote and educate our guests on local culture, responsible behavior and how they can support local businesses.
• To deliver social development projects including;
  • The regular practice of planting sapling trees at Yandabo village, Mingun and Gnew Gone village.
  • The collective of plastic, glass, card, aluminum waste items from the village residents.
  • Maintain the motor vehicle donated to Yandabo village for villagers to use in case of medical emergency.
• Continued maintenance for the school built at Yandabo village.
• To invite our guests to bring teaching aid supplies for the village residents.
• To invite guests to bring first aid items for the village residents.
• To educate staff and the communities we visit reflecting UNICEF “ Orphans are not tourist attraction “ flyer.
• To invite guests to bring books to donate to the villages to create a library within the schools at the villages we visit.
• Create a “Healthy Hand Wash” campaign at the schools we visit; using biodegradable hand soaps.

Targets;

• During the Myanmar river cruising season, we actively promote Irrawaddy Voyages environmental initiatives to our cruising guests and ships crews. Firstly, our 'Waste Recycling Program' in Yangon, Bagan & Mandalay. Secondly, our 'From The Roots Up Campaign', whereby guests are invited to join the Ships Crews and local school students to plant a sapling tree. Thirdly, our 'Village Rubbish Collection' activities in remote villages, as part of scheduled shore excursions. Realistic targets will be determined at the end of the 2018/19 season when we are able to measure and calculate effective results.

• Targets for the 2019/20 season will be determined from our base year results. Financial donations to deserving causes (ie: medical, health, education & environmental) are at the discretion of our river cruise guests and the philanthropic nature of company directors.

Measurements – Per annum.

• Number of projects supported.
• Financial donations made to local projects.
• Ratio of local staff to others.
• Staff turnover.
• Number and value of local suppliers in each year.
• Number of environmental and cultural preservation educational sessions organised for tourists and the community.
• Number of community consultations, meetings and engagements.

Measurement of Waste;

• Continue to monitor the amount of waste disposed through number of bags for burning and landfill on a monthly basis.

Waste Reduction Target;

• To reduce bagged waste by 20% from 2018/19.

Responsible Purchasing Policy

Purchasing Policy & Guidelines

Irrawaddy Voyages continues to purchase responsibly to benefit the operations of the cruise vessels, the local community, the environment and our guests.Our purchasing guidelines include the following:

• Operate a “mend, reuse or recycle” policy, to ascertain if waste or redundant products can be reused or recycled before new purchases are made.
• Buy items in bulk to reduce packaging.
• Work to reduce non-essential packaging with regular suppliers.
• Promote local purchasing whenever possible to meet the companies purchasing criteria in terms of quality, competitive pricing, service, consistency and delivery guarantees.
• Support local and organic/ non chemical food purchases from Mandalay region, Bagan region, Irrawaddy region Yangon.
• Promote goods and services from local NGOs, social enterprises and local craft producers to travelers cruising with Irrawaddy Voyages.
• Check for licenses, certifications and permits to trade. Embrace ISO approved products.
• Avoid single use plastics wherever possible.
• Preferred products will be sourced from those suppliers who share the same values that include respecting the environment, provision of local benefit whilst still delivering high quality service and goods at a competitive price.
• Energy efficiency of equipment and technology will be considered alongside price, quality and local availability.

Actions & Results April – October 2018

Yangon Head Office:

Onboard IV Vessels: