Myanmar Voyages Sustainability Policy
Myanmar Voyages has established “Sustainability Policy” which promotes sustainable practices on social and environmental commitments. The policy explained the practices not only to employees but also to our clients and stakeholders.
1. Sustainability at Myanmar Voyages
Myanmar Voyages’ role in society is to facilitate tourism activities and stimulate economic development in a way that ultimately drives sustainability progress. We strive to do so by acting on our purpose to empower people to stay ahead in development and in business by ensuring long term success measured by the sum of all of its parts economic, social and environmental.
1.1. Myanmar Voyages’ Sustainability Direction
Sustainability is not what we do to promote business, but we show our enthusiasm and genuine interest on how we do it. We earn our trust from stakeholders by conducting our business Responsibly.
1.2. Accelerating Sustainable Transitions
We recognise sustainability as a source of our value proposition. We apply our core expertise and functional capabilities to support solutions to shared global issues such as scarcity of natural resources and the development of lower-carbon energy generation, amongst others.
In our experience, companies that proactively reduce their use of scarce resources have a better performance and lower-risk profile. There are two fundamental parts in this policy; social and environmental.
2. Social Policy and Human Rights
Our people, clients and suppliers are the creative building blocks upon which our business thrives from administrator to services and operations, each playing a unique part in delivering customer satisfaction. We recognise that finding the right talent and skilled professionals in the Tourism industry has been challenging in Myanmar. Thus, it is crucial that we continue to develop our people through relevant engagement, competitive overall compensation and purposeful work that they can be proud of and excited to do. In this way, we can be an employer of choice – attracting people who are passionate as we are in providing the best experience for our clients.
2.1. Workplace Practices
Myanmar Voyages future depends on the quality, performance and commitment of our workforce. A talented, healthy and engaged employee population drives performance and powers innovation, making it imperative that we continue to attract, develop, maintain and retain talented employees. Both online and offline channels are used to ensure our teams are informed and heard. The engagements ranging from surveys and meetings to newsletters and the intranet to informal gatherings and online social networking groups. The company endures The Union of Myanmar’s Labour Law which has clearly shown in Employee’s handbook revised and to be updated on an annual basis.
2.2. Health and Safety Performance
The health, safety and security of clients and employees remain a priority through effective systems and policies. The management team is responsible for both clients and employees health and safety, and thus regular meetings are conducted to review performance and implement improvements.
2.3. Trainings and Education
Investing in our people is perhaps the most important investment we can make for the sustainability of our business. The opportunity to learn and grow is also a key motivating factor for employees, especially among younger staff. We offer various management development and acceleration programs to enhance the skills and knowledge catering to the different job levels of our employees.
3. Environmental Performance and Sustainability
We are dedicated to promoting environmentally sound travel practices that help minimise waste and harmful products to the air, water and land. As a tourism company, our stakeholders range from foreign clients to local communities. Thus, our approach to environmental stewardship therefore attends to local aspects and regional differences, while considering universal impacts, such as greenhouse gas and CO2 emissions. The objective is to maintain ecologically sound environment on our planet by:
• Minimising energy consumption and carbon emission.
• Support local communities by encouraging them to purchase products domestically.
• Promoting responsible tourism to all over the world.
The company is committed to the following principles:
Carbon Offsetting:
We offset the carbon generated by flights, trains and cars by planting a tree for each booking we have received at Myanmar Voyages since August 2018.
(Reference: the company has installed “Ecosia”, which donates 80% of its surplus income to nonprofit conservationist organisations with a focus on tree planting in Europe, Central & South America, Africa and Asia. Ecosia plants 1 tree for approx. 45 searches.)
Suggestion: http://www.ecofriend.world/ (Partner with them for Carbon offsetting program for further steps)
Reduce Energy Consumption:
• Turn off lights when not in use. For instance: lunch break and out of office hours.
• Use available sunlight to illuminate when possible instead of light bulbs.
• Reduce and replace with inefficient, outdated or excessive lighting within the office and the compound.
• Ensure that light levels remain at adequate levels such as reducing the number of opening lights.
• Use outdoor air for “Free Cooling” when outside air temperature and conditions permit during winter and dry season.
• To conserve energy and reduce internal heat gain, turn off computers, monitors and printers during non-business hours.
• Educate and encourage employees, guides and stakeholders to be energy-conscious and to offer ideas about how energy can be saved.
• Ensure all guides and vehicle operators are aware of energy conservation measures such as turning off engines when waiting for clients.
Reduce Water Consumption:
• Look for excessive use of water in bathrooms and reduce the flow of water from the tap.
• Regularly inspect water leaks in the basin and toilets.
• Consider and practice reusing or recycling water where possible.
• Encourage employees and clients to provide suggestions, and occasionally consult with external experts where possible.
Waste Management:
• Reduce reliance on plastic bags and containers in the office by providing reusable water bottles, cups and lunch boxes.
• Use environmental or natural cleaning products to reduce pollution.
• Measure, record and monitor the usage of plastic bags on a weekly basis.
• Print on both sides of paper.
Community:
• Support local purchasing in priority when quality, service, availability and price allow.
• Regular donations to local community causes and relief programs.
• Work with social enterprises or local procedures to provide giveaways for clients or local souvenirs.
Suppliers:
• Inform all suppliers of our commitment to sustainable practices.
• Deliver monthly “Green” newsletter to all suppliers to increase awareness of Eco-friendly update news.
Destinations:
• Provide tourists with relevant information to encourage responsible tourism by providing Do’s and Don’ts newsletters before they arrive in Myanmar.
Accommodation:
• Use hotels that adhere by local Myanmar labour laws and do not engage in any activity that is in anyway harmful for children, e.g: labour or child sex tourism.
Goals:
• Reduce electricity bills in the office by 20% over 6 months.
• Reduce waste at the office by 25% over 6 months.
• Reduce water usage by 15% over 6 months.
To achieve our commitments and goals:
• We provide training and required resources to all employees.
• We openly communicate our policies and practices to interested parties.
• We monitor and record our environmental impacts on a regular basis and compare our performance with our policies, objectives and targets, with a view to continuous improvement.
Community Treat Photo Gallery
Internal Office Environment Photo Gallery
