Abel Tasman Sailing Adventures, who offers scheduled and private day sailing tours, multiday sailing holidays in the Abel Tasman National Park, Tasman Bay and Marlborough Sounds, has recently been awarded 'Zero Carbon' certification through EKOS, an international non-profit enterprise.
"We are extremely proud and very excited about the achievement," says owner of Abel Tasman Sailing Adventures Jane-Maree Holmes.
"As an environmentally interactive activity we have always tried to be aware of our environmental footprint. Becoming Zero Carbon certified is something we have been wanting to measure and offset for a while. I am not sure why we had put it off for so long, as the process was much easier than expected and relatively straight forward."
Becoming Zero Carbon certified has been a natural progression for the Kaiteriteri and Nelson based 23 year old family owned and operated sailing business, as sustainability is at the heart of their ethos and values.
In addition to offsetting the business carbon use the family business has also included their personal vehicle use.
"Being a family owned business our work and personal lives are often blended, sometimes work errands are run in our personal vehicles, so to make sure we capture all our carbon use we have included all our private vehicle use as well," says Jane-Maree.
"It was interesting to us that our vehicle carbon measurement was far more than that of our vessels and has endorsed the realization that sailing yachts are the definitely the way to go."
Through the measurement process Jane-Maree and husband Martin identified that they could further reduce impacts by eliminating two of their day tour boats and replacing them with one larger one. They were fortunate to find a suitable sailing catamaran and this winter are investing in an extensive customized rebuild of the 16 metre/53 foot vessel.
The new vessel will sail from Kaiteriteri and will have comfortable sheltered seating for up to 40 sailors. It will be ideal for their scheduled sailing, and combination sail, walk, cruise and kayak tours.
"At the moment it’s all work in progress but come November we hope to see her in the water ready for the coming summer season," says Martin.
The recent pandemic has made Abel Tasman Sailing Adventures revaluate how they operate, and they have created some new sailing holiday options especially for New Zealanders.
"We’ve specifically designed these new holiday packages with kiwis in mind, by offering a self-catering option, seasonal pricing and set whole boat rates. Our two larger cruising sailing catamarans, Te Harinui and Jamarh, can accommodate either 8 people or 10 people all year round, making them perfect for special live-a-board family holidays, or an adventure with friends.
"We want to show New Zealanders that we really do live in one of the most scenic countries in the world, we’ve designed our trips to have low environmental impacts, we only need the wind in our sails and some adventurous sailors to move us forward."
