Our Ethos

We ask all our guests to put these action points into practice when they travel:

• Choose to travel by train, bus, or other public transport where possible.
• Respect the mountain environment by leaving no trace.
• Only travelling on marked paths to reduce trail erosion.
• Offset flights with organisations like Carbon Footprint.
• Be mindful of choices and avoid single use plastics and travel with a reusable bottle.
• Choosing local, seasonal food.

We also recommend that guests keep kit to a minimum and closely follow the Kit Lists provided for each of our itineraries. We advocate keeping new purchases to a minimum and tjat giests gove consideration to hiring or borrowing additional kit.

Protecting mountain landscapes for future generations is intrinsic to our work. Sharing that knowledge with guests whilst reducing our collective impact is at the heart of everything we do.

From the inception of the company we have strived to protect our wild landscapes and adopted the principals of Leave No Trace. While in the mountains we:

• Work with small groups to reduce the impact of noise and visual pollution
• Promote healthy lifestyles and staying active outdoors
• Require that guests do not leave litter even biodegradable items
• Behind pick up litter, which has been left by others on the trail
• Strongly discourage shortcuts that can cause path erosion
• Advise guests not take souvenirs, such as flowers, from nature or leave picnic remains for the wildlife
• Ask guests not to pollute water sources when answering a call of nature

Our team largely works remotely and they are encouraged to focus on the following when creating our holiday itinteraries:

• Support communities by choosing family run hotels
• Use local providers for any extra activities requested by our guests
• Use the local train and bus networks
• Encourage guests to share transport to trip meeting points
• Buy locally produced food for packed lunches
• Encourage drink/food stops at remote facilities to support the owners
• Avoid including packed lunches in the package as experience shows they create too much food waste

The team also:

• Choose routes with care and where possible promote trails that are less frequently travelled
• Ensure our guides understand and promote our sustainable travel policy
• Book accommodation with providers who share our love of the environment
• Promote winter ski journeys that don't use infrastructure like ski lifts
• Use local guest travel cards that contribute financially to local communities through tourist taxes

Tracks and Trails are a Derbyshire based company, and as part of our ongoing commitment to protecting wild spaces and promoting sustainable travel, we are proud to be Corporate Members of Derbyshire Wildlife Trust. We are directly supporting projects focused on rewilding, habitat restoration, climate action, and community engagement. As part of our engagement with Derbyshire County Council’s Million Trees project we were responsible for planting over 500 trees.

As individuals, our team pay close attention to the environmental impact of our work and that extends from being mindful of how we travel to avoiding individual use plastics.

As part of our commitment to sustainable holidays, we proactively work towards reducing the impact of all of our trips. We have currated a collect of Low Impact trips. These sustainable holidays offer rewarding adventures with less impact on the environment. In addition, all our guides have been briefed about and understand our sustainable travel and environmental policies and many take part in local scientific studies to monitor any changes to the mountains we adventure in.

We also strive to work with companies whose sustainability ethos matches our own when creating our holidays, including hotels, refuges, guides, and sponsors.