BOOK YOUR TOUR NOW!

Our Environmental Commitment

We take protecting the environment seriously!

As a tourism operator whose primary function is to show visitors to Melbourne the natural assets of our state, we take our obligation to operate in a sustainable fashion very seriously and thus to do what we can to ensure that our natural assets are maintained for future generations – and visitors.

At Go West Tours, we take pride in working with accredited organisations who aim to reduce our carbon footprint and encourage environmentally sound practises. As an organisation, we are committed to being a leader in sustainability and constantly look to improve all aspects of our environmental footprint.

After all, we want to share the beauty of Australia for future generations.

Ecotourism Certification

Since 2005, Go West Tours has been certified with Ecotourism Australia. We were the first tour operator in our niche to achieve this certification, and we remain as committed to the guiding principles of sustainable tourism today as we were back in 2005.

Ecotourism Australia is a non-profit organisation which promotes sustainable travel around Australia. Its primary focus is to work with nature-based tourism products and operators to promote and encourage environmentally sound practices.

Find out more about Ecotourism and Ecotourism Australia via these links:

Ecotourism Australia

Tourism Australia’s guide to Ecotourism

Greenfleet

Go West Tours has been a Greenfleet supporter since 2005 and is proud of our association with this leading organisation. By partnering with Greenfleet, we are able to offset the emissions from our tour busses by planting native trees and restoring Australian forests. A portion of our tour sales goes to planting more trees and continuing our effort to restore and protect our climate.

Greenfleet is a not for profit organisation that protects our climate by restoring forests. They encourage organisations to reduce their carbon footprint and offset carbon emissions by planting native trees. Since 1997, Greenfleet has planted more than 8.9 million native trees across 475 biodiverse forests in Australia and New Zealand.

These native forests take carbon from the atmosphere to restore and protect our climate, but they also do much more. Greenfleet plants a variety of native trees in permanent forests to help reduce soil erosion, and provide essential habitats for native wildlife.

Quality Tourism Framework

We are proudly certified with the Quality Tourism Framework, administered locally by the Victorian Tourism Industry Council (VTIC).

The distinctive QTAB brandmark provides visitors with an assurance that the tourism business has a proven commitment to the highest quality of service and business procedures.

Other Initiatives

In our administrative space, we aim to lower our carbon footprint where possible. Our depot and offices are fitted with LED lighting which consumes up to 90% less electricity than traditional incandescent bulbs and has close to no UV emissions. Also, areas of our depot are fitted with push timers to reduce energy waste.
We encourage staff to avoid, reduce, reuse, and recycle wherever we can. Our busses are cleaned with biodegradable cleaning products, and we use a water filtration system to separate wastewater and soap. Bike parking is available onsite and we encourage staff to ride into work.
We also focus on recycling our waste where possible. Printer cartridges are recycled to avoid adding to landfill, where they have the potential to contaminate groundwater and the environment. Much of our organic waste is recycled, with a number of team members taking coffee grinds and other organic matter home to add to the worm farms.
We were recognised and awarded by the local Darebin council as a ‘Greening Business’ for 2017. This recognition was awarded for our efforts in reducing waste, recycling water, encouraging energy efficiency, and offsetting fleet carbon emissions. We are proud to be recognised for our work and will continue to work on reducing our carbon footprint where possible.