Business Initiative Towards Sustainability: Wilderness Scotland

This report examines Wilderness Scotland, a nature tourism operator in Scotland, and its sustainable business practices. The report highlights the company's initiatives, including the use of minimal motorized vehicles, encouragement of public transport, and financial contributions to conservation projects like Trees for Life and the John Muir Trust. These actions aim to reduce the negative impacts of tourism on climate change, promote awareness of environmental issues, and protect the natural resources that support their business. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of sustainable approaches in the tourism industry for addressing climate change and preserving resources for future generations. The study also highlights the positive impacts of the business on climate change and provides a detailed overview of the initiatives adopted by Wilderness Scotland.

Running head: BUSINESS INITIATIVE TOWARDS SUSTAINABILITY
BUSINESS INITIATIVE TOWARDS SUSTAINABILITY
Name of the Student
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Author Note

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Executive Summary:
The purpose of this paper is to identify a company for recognizing the sustainable business
activities for addressing the concerns of tourism activities on climate change. The paper
highlights the activities adopted by Wilderness Scotland in improving the impacts of tourism
on climate change. The paper can be concluded by the reason of sustainable approach as it
helps in the protecting the source of business for the tourism industry.

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Table of Contents
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................3
Discussion:.................................................................................................................................3
Background-...........................................................................................................................3
Business activities addressing the concern of climate change-..............................................4
Benefits and impact on climate change-................................................................................5
Importance of reducing the effects of tourism on climate change-........................................5
Conclusion:................................................................................................................................5

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Introduction:
The concept of Sustainable Tourism involves responsibility and commitment towards
the preservation and enhancement of the society, culture and especially environment.
Tourism industry is one of the major contributor in the world economy by being the fastest
growing business. Similar to other growing industries, the impacts of tourism activities
reflects on the ecological imbalance, societal disturbance and loss of cultural elements of a
particular region or country (Higham et al., 2016). The purpose of this case study is to
identify a business in the tourism industry, which is involved in a sustainable approach for
addressing the concerns of climate change. The business selected for this paper is Wilderness
Scotland, which is a Nature Tourism Operators Association operating in Scotland. The report
will stress on the initiatives adopted by the company, state the benefits of the actions and the
impact of the business on reducing the effects of tourism activity on climate change.
Discussion:
Background-
The Scottish Wildlife and Nature Tourism Operators Association, Wilderness
Scotland is the number one travel company in Europe. It specializes in providing a
personalised travel experience in the islands and highland of the country Scotland. The
company organised its first trip in the year 2001. The company aims at offering a breath-
taking tourism experience in the wild spaces of Scotland, with the belief of spreading
awareness for the concerns associated with the impacts of climate change on wildlife
(Wildernessscotland.com, 2019). The company constitutes of a team of total 80 employees

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with a segregation of 50 experienced and qualified trip advisors and 30 of them are experts in
adventure tourism.
The operation of Wilderness Scotland approach towards sustainability. The company
contributes to various projects in Scotland along with the scheme of Conservation
Contributors, which encourages travellers to contribute a small amount of their budget for
various conservation trusts. The design of the business operation demonstrates the minimum
utilization of resources and pollution causing sources by operating in low carbon
consumption.
Business activities addressing the concern of climate change-
 Minimum use of motorised vehicles, involves the power of human for the
travelling/commuting activities by walking, cycling and with the use of kayaks and
boats (Peeters et al., 2018).
 The company encourages the travellers to use public transport for commuting
activities and sustainable accommodation options for the start and end of the trip
(Budeanu et al., 2016).
 Financial and volunteering contribution in various conservation projects. The
company contributes 60 days of their work period for the motive of practicing the
preservation culture.
 Supporting the project Trees for life, a forest conservation initiative by the
help of volunteering activities to reduce the impact of deforestation and
degradation on the climate change (Petr et al., 2015).
 They have volunteered in one of the environmental trust twice a year for the
process of seedling. The seedlings germinate in greenhouses and then made
into a bed of plants, thereby reducing climate changes
(Wildernessscotland.com, 2019).

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 Signed a partnership with John Muir Trust in the year 2017, for ensuring the use of
funds in the project. They contribute a minimum of 5,000 pounds to the trust for
which they acquire the right of selecting the project for their contribution.
 As per Kristjánsdóttir, Ólafsdóttir & Ragnarsdóttir, (2018), the company take the
responsibility of encouraging tourists for contributing a minimum amount at the time
of booking a trip, which can be added to the funds for projects.
Benefits and impact on climate change-
The whole experience of the trip encourages the travellers to understand the impact of
climate change and degrading activities on the natural reserves of the country. The travellers
are encouraged to be part of bringing a change in the impacts of climate change and to be
able to promote the concerns related to wild life. The minimum use of motor vehicles reduce
the carbon footprint in the environment. Contribution of time and money in the sustainable
projects can collide with their business goals.
Importance of reducing the effects of tourism on climate change-
Being one of the fastest growing industry, it has the responsibility of giving back to
the source from where resources are utilized. The actions of Wilderness Scotland is very
important for minimising the major tourism effect on Scotland like littering, erosion and
landslides. The company’s objective revolves around the awareness of the conservation of
nature and its offerings.
Conclusion:
Therefore, it can be concluded by mentioning the importance of sustainable
approaches of business activities in the tourism industry. The aim of minimizing the negative

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effects of tourism industry should be for addressing the concerns on climate change, which
protects the source of resources and business.
References:
Budeanu, A., Miller, G., Moscardo, G., & Ooi, C. S. (2016). Sustainable tourism, progress,
challenges and opportunities: an introduction.
Higham, J., Cohen, S. A., Cavaliere, C. T., Reis, A., & Finkler, W. (2016). Climate change,
tourist air travel and radical emissions reduction. Journal of Cleaner Production, 111,
336-347.
Kristjánsdóttir, K. R., Ólafsdóttir, R., & Ragnarsdóttir, K. V. (2018). Stakeholder
participation in developing sustainability indicators for a European Northern
periphery tourism system. Journal of Rural and Community Development, 12(2-3).
Peeters, P., Higham, J., Cohen, S., Eijgelaar, E., & Gössling, S. (2018). Desirable tourism
transport futures. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 1-16.
Petr, M., Boerboom, L.G.J., Ray, D. and Van Der Veen, A., (2015). Adapting Scotland’s
forests to climate change using an action expiration chart. Environmental research
letters, 10(10), p.105005.
Wildernessscotland.com (2019). Conservation & Sustainability: Wilderness Scotland.
[online]. Retrieved from https://www.wildernessscotland.com/about-us/sustainability/