Changing the way we treat the world...
We, the more fortunate people of the world have the resources to go virtually anywhere we please. We are also responsible for the majority of the pollution, natural resources consumption and landfill waste in the world. With our fortunate position comes an individual responsibility to moderate our personal consumption and mitigate the waste we create at home as well as abroad.
What is it?
So what is Responsible Tourism? We see it as an individual effort toward the collective goal of achieving Sustainable Tourism. It involves how we as travelers ought to behave when we visit places around the world. Like a doctor's code of ethics, means "First, do no harm." It is basic to good destination stewardship.
What can you do when you rent with us?
- Re-hang your towels after use - Behave as you would at home. These are home, not hotels (and even the most luxurious of hotels are asking their guests to minimize water waste). Provence has been experiencing a major drought for some time, with many wells running dry. Please re-hang your towels during your stay and ask that they be washed only when necessary.
- Line-dry your clothes. - Provence is hot and dry in the summer. It is rare to have a dryer in Provence because they use the sun! Do as they do in Provence - hang your clothes to dry outside - it is faster than in the dryer and saves energy.
- Recycle while you are there - Just as you do at home. Just imagine how many empty bottles of wine a group of 15 people might produce in a week... Some houses have staff to the recycling to the bins and others ask you to do it. Collect all your recycled waste and make sure that it gets put in each village's recycle bins. They are normally located in visible areas coming in or out of town.
- No need to buy bottled water - Drink the tap water... it's great!
- Turn off the lights and air-conditioning when you leave for the day - Every year we get feedback from the staff that they are amazed that nobody ever turns lights off when they leave.
last but not least... - Buy carbon credits to offset the carbon emissions produced on your trip - The funds go to renewable energy projects. It's easy, affordable and it's the responsible thing to do.