Green Policy

Vertical Descents pledge to plant an apple or other fruit tree for every customer who comes to us. This is a small contribution to offset our carbon emissions and give back to the planet what we are taking from it.

The idea behind the apple trees has come from our small holding where we are getting green fingers and trying to become more sustainable. The idea behind Apple trees and other fruit trees as apposed to any others is to give back to our customers the fruits of our labour and show tangibly that we are trying to help the environment. The hope being all customers by the year 2010 will receive a piece of fruit on every activity. We are also growing vegetables and other fruit all organically, as well as keeping free range organic chickens of which we produce a good number of eggs. Our main vehicle runs on Autogas so we produce slightly less emissions and we are in the process of changing the other vehicles to Bio fuel so that again we are producing fewer emissions.We also use Bio travel for any transfers or taxi rides which we provide. Bio travel are a carbon free company using biofuel in all of there vehicles.

We also Travel too people ourselves to ensure minimal travel from our customers when they are in Cornwall, this helps carbon emissions and eleviates the traffic congestion issues.

When we can’t do this we advise people to use public transport, lift share and walk to our allotted destination.

Vertical Descents is constantly striving to reduce the resources that it uses and waste that it produces, from vehicle fuel to paper in the office. Vertical Descents doesn’t have a vast quantity of waste from everyday running but we do have some and we are on a mission to recycle as much as we possibly can. We have a policy of only printing what is absolutely necessary in the office and we ensure that the paper that does go to waste is either recycled or shredded and used as mulch in the garden.

Our petroleum based neoprene equipment is used, abused, repaired and used again. We always try to sell some of the better bits such as wetsuits Second hand. If it can’t be sold or repaired we eventually use it for patching, padding and other useful things. Unfortunately this petroleum based neoprene cannot be recycled to make new wetsuits or run a car, so what is left of the kit once it has been cannibalised for other jobs, we keep and use as insulation in our shed so that we know it is not going to end up as landfill.

West Wetsuits have come to the rescue with Limebased neoprene products, we use there wetsuits and they are bomber, as well as being kind to the environment. Checkout West wetsuits on the http://www.westsurfing.com

When we are out on our activities we are constantly picking up litter, whether it’s in the sea or on the beach we try our hardest to make an effort to clean up as we go. This isn’t always possible so we join in with local beach cleans, this year we are going to run our own clean ups on areas which we use the most for our activities. We always make sure that we remove flotsam and jetsam from the water when we are in the water, especially discarded fishing equipment.

What else can we do?

If you can suggest any other ways for us to minimize our impact on our surroundings we would much appreciate it. We look forward to hearing your suggestions.