Sustainability
An honest account of our footprint.
Travel takes a toll on the environment. We are not going to argue otherwise. Here is what we do about it – and what we deliberately do not claim.
Every journey has a footprint. What we can influence is that each trip returns as much value as possible to the traveller, and puts as little unnecessary load as possible on the destination.
We have chosen to describe this concretely rather than to promise something sweeping. The measures below are the ones we control directly. Further down are the schemes we are actually bound by.
At group level the objective is to build sustainability into every part of the operation: reducing environmental impact, maintaining a safe working environment, and promoting equality and diversity in the workplace.
Our own operations
It starts with our own choices.
Sustainability is also about how we run ourselves. That is why we have brought our business together at Rosenholm Campus – an existing building that, through extensive upgrades, has achieved BREEAM In-Use Excellent and energy class B.
Energy use there has been cut through demand-controlled lighting and ventilation, modern building management and the reuse of surplus heat. Rosenholm Campus has also been named Green Operations Team of the Year by the Norwegian Green Building Alliance (Grønn Byggallianse).
For us, it is about being conscious of our own choices – not just the trips we recommend to our clients.
In practice
Six measures.
Each one is something we can act on directly. We stay away from commitments we cannot document.
Flight selection and direct routing
We steer clients towards newer, more fuel-efficient aircraft and towards direct routings. Fewer sectors per trip cut more emissions than any other lever we control.
Reporting for corporate clients
Corporate accounts receive travel data, including the figures needed for their own carbon accounting. You cannot manage what you do not measure.
Accommodation and local suppliers
We point clients towards hotels that have done something concrete about energy, waste or renewables, and we use local ground operators where we can, so the money stays in the local economy.
Carbon credits
The group purchases carbon credits directed at renewable energy and reforestation. That does not make a flight emissions-free, and we do not pretend otherwise.
Travelling outside peak season
Cultural and group departures often fall outside the tourist season. That relieves pressure on destinations and spreads the economic benefit across the year.
Fewer, longer trips
We would rather sell one good trip than three mediocre ones. Lower emissions per experience, and usually a better journey.
Schemes and obligations
What we are actually bound by.
Only schemes that genuinely apply to us are listed, each with a link to the source.
Rejsegarantifonden (Denmark)
Expert Reiser AS (reg. no. 3880), Nordmanns-Reiser AS (3881) and Temareiser Fredrikstad AS (3882) are members of the Danish travel guarantee fund, through a Danish branch of Expert Reiser AS. Both the Danish and the Norwegian fund implement the same EU Package Travel Directive, so customer funds carry the same protection across the EEA. The register is public – the link searches it.
See the sourceNorwegian Package Travel Act
Flights and accommodation booked together constitute a package, and the operator carries the legal responsibility for it.
See the sourceEco-Lighthouse (Miljøfyrtårn)
Certified under Miljøfyrtårn, the Norwegian environmental management standard, covering waste and reuse, energy, procurement, transport and the working environment. Environmental performance is reported annually and published. The scheme is recognised by the EU under Article 45 of Regulation 1221/2009.
Certificate 17007, valid until 23 October 2027, issued by CertNor AS.
View the certificate (PDF) ↗Norwegian Transparency Act
We carry out due diligence on the supply chain and publish an annual statement. Anyone may request information about it.
See the statement →IATA accreditation
Accreditation allows us to issue and reissue tickets directly, which means fewer unnecessary rebookings when plans change.
What we do not say
We do not describe any trip as carbon neutral, and we do not list a scheme we cannot document. That is why the Miljøfyrtårn certificate above is published in full, with its number and expiry date, so you can check it yourself.
Suggestions on how we could do this better are welcome at post@balslev.no. See also how the group is run.