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Sustainability Policy

Mission

At Osiris we say, “our past makes our future credible”, so we believe sustainability is the future and will dictate the well-being of community, our work colleagues, our management team, and it is the principal key to a successful negotiation.

Introduction

As a company that engages with various tourism skateholders, such as costumers, tour guides, travel agencies, hotels, transportation companies, restaurants and attractions, Osiris Viagens e Turismo, Lda understands it’s fundamental mission and influence to promote the destination sustainability. Therefore, we are committed to promoting sustainability. We intend to follow, implement, and promote good sustainability practices to maximize the positive and minimize the negative impacts in our tourism operations and influence our clients and partners to do the same.

Our sustainability policy is divided into 10 themes, each theme consists of a whole of principles, actions, and accord practices.

Sustainability Management and legal Conformity

We promise to applicate a Sustentability management through these actions:

Define a team with a sustainability coordinator, responsible for defining tasks and working closely with the management team.
Define a sustainability mission and communicate to our clients, partners, and suppliers.
Ensure every member of the staff is completely aware, informed and compromised with the company sustainability policy.
Evaluate the company performance in sustainability practices.
Create a sustainability action plan with objectives, actions, measurements, responsibility, and time planning.
We promise to comply with all legislation, regulations, and national codes of conduct.

Internal Management: Social policy and human rights

We promise to applicate an internal sustainability management, with a clear communication about our social policies which include the following steps:

Grant freedom of employment and termination of contract with notice (ideally 1 month) without penalty.

Include working conditions in accordance with national labor law and a job description in the employment contract;
The salary must be mentioned in the contract and must be equal or higher than the national minimum wage.
Provide medical and liability insurance in accordance with national law.
Grant to our collaborators fixed paid annual leave and sick leave and unpaid annual leave allowances.
Have an employee health and safety policy that meets national legal standards;
Have a first aid kit and disponible trained people in every relative place.
Comply with the national standards relative to minimum working age.
Provide periodic guidance and training to employees on roles, rights, and responsibilities in relation to health and safety issues. This includes relevant fires and natural disasters;
Create internship opportunities for students to participate in internships.

We promise to applicate the human rights based on these standards:

Declare not to prejudice union membership, collective bargaining, and the representation of members by unions;
Forbid any type of discrimination relative to recruitment, job conditions, formation access and superior positions, or promote in terms of race, age, deficiency, ethnic, religion or sexual orientation.

Ensure all collaborators have equal opportunities and resources opportunities access de development people through regular formation and education.

Internal Management: environment and community relations

We promise to perform environment protection and growth our relations with the community ensuring these application steps:

Actively reduce the consumption and disposable goods:
Set copying and printing machines to double- sided by default;
Print brochures with friendly environment paper, with a graphic company who works with a certifed environment system, if locally disponible with reasonable prices;
Implement strategies to reduce the brochures waste or a “only internet” policy;
Efficient illumination to all areas when disponible;
Turn off lights and equipments when they are not used, use an automatic system of turn on/turn off with timers or a move sensor and adjust the equipment for the economic energy by pattern;
Preference for low consume equipments in the purchase of new items including cost and quality considerations;
Comply with national legislation concerning waste disposal;
Development and implement a reduce policy and solids residues recycle;
Reduce the plastic bottles (non-recycle) of potable water in the office use;
Separate all recycle materials to organize the collect and adequate elimination;
Implement waste reduction methods in the use of ink and toner cartridges for printing and copying, whenever possible;
Comply the national legislation of residual water treatment, to reutilize or to release safely;
Financial incentive our collaborators to use public transports or sustainability transports;
Reduce the transports impacts with teleworking, e-meetings, or other ways;
Maintain and properly verify the company's motor vehicles, to reduce emissions and energy use and make sure they comply with legal emission standards,
Provide periodic orientation, or formation and/or information to all staff members, about functions and responsibilities relative to internal environment practices;

Partners

Based on an inventory of our key partners, we are developing and implementing a better sustainability policy for them. Our objective is to make concrete a sustainability development to our partners within our business.

We promise to do these steps:

Maintain a list of partners' sustainability practices;
Minimize the ecologic footprint off the office, travelling through public transportations, working without paper, separate residues and make use of certified recycle paper;
Inform the main partners about Travelife and national tourism standards
Have a code of conduct for local partners to encourage their sustainability practices;
Inform key partners of the company's sustainability policy and that they are expected to comply with it and/or communicate it to end customers, where appropriate;
Inclusion of key sustainability clauses in contracts with incoming/Outgoing partners;
Have a written contract with partner agencies;
Include clauses in partnership contracts that allow the contractual agreement to be terminated prematurely if the company does not take appropriate measures to prevent the sexual exploitation of children in the direct supply chain;
Ensure that all partner companies comply all relevant national laws to protect the employees’ rights;

Transports

We try to ensure the used vehicles on excursions don’t cause more than the average amount of pollution. We believe transport is an important aspect in sustainability tourism, and we are doing our best to minimize pollution. We promise to do these steps:

Choose the best sustainability options considerated the price and comfort in the destiny transport selection options;
Consider and give preference to more sustainability alternatives in the selection of transfer transports and excursions in the destiny, having the price, the comfort and pratique considerations in mine;
Integrate and/or promote one or more holidays products/packages of sustainable holidays based in one recognized methodology, including sustainable transports, sustainable accommodations, and sustainable activities;

Accommodation

We want to accomplish a totally sustainable tourism supply chain. The partner accommodations perform an important paper to accomplish this objective, and they are encouraged and motivated to adopt sustainability practices. We promise to do these steps:

Choose accommodations that fulfil sustainability standards;

Have accommodations partners who provide evidence of sustainability objectives and strategies.

Encourage accommodations to follow the best practices/formations about responsible tourism.

Active and clear communication about our sustainability objectives and requirements relative to contracted accommodations and other relevant accommodations;

Ensuring that through our accommodation supply chain, the rights of children are respected and safeguard by:

Contractual clauses on each value chain that established a common policy of repudiation of child sexual exploration and zero tolerance;

Having in their contracts one clause dedicated to this point, that will permit the companies prematurely rescind the contract if the accommodation partner has zero solutions to prevent the child sexual exploration.
Collaborators formation about child’s rights, the sexual explorations prevention and the way to communicate dubious cases;

Supporting, collaborate and involving the interested parts in child’s sexual exploration;

Excursions and activities:

We value a lot the animal’s well-being and communitarian, so we aim for activities that leave only a small footprint. We are safeguarding the authenticity of the community and the natural environment, and we are totally against people who take pleasure in harming wildlife and the natural environment.

We promise to do these steps:

Advise costumers about the comportment’s pardons in the excursions and activities focused on the culture, nature, and local environments;
Communicate our sustainability objectives and requirements to contracted tour service providers and other relevant ones, distributing this information through codes of conduct, local representatives, social networks, email, meetings, to minimize the negative impact of visitors and maximize the client's benefit on their visit.
Do not offer excursions that will prejudicated human beings, animals, plants, natural recourses like water and energy, or excursions social and cultural unacceptable;
Do not be involved with companies that harvest, consume, display, trade, sell unless it is a part of a regular activity ensuring a sustainability utilization and in accord with local, national, and international legislation;
Have qualified guides and/or certifed to orient our clients in sensible cultural locals, historic patrimony, or ecologic sensible destinies;
Promote and advise our clients on excursions and activities that directly involve and support local communities, through the acquisition of services or goods, traditional handicrafts, and local methods of production (food), or by visiting social projects;

Tour Leader, local representatives, and guides:

We aim to involve as many local people as possible by employing them in the tourism business. We defend a faire environment at work that supports and respects local communities.

We promise to do these steps:

Guarantee every employee have a written formal contract, including the work conditions and one functions description, and understand all the terms and conditions;
Ensure that our local partners comply with all applicable international, national and local laws and regulations, minimum industry standards and any other relevant legal requirements, whatever the most stringent requirements;
Ensure that our local representatives are informed about relevant aspects of our sustainability policy and comply with it, through newsletters, references or supplements to contracts, emails or training and information sessions;
Make our tour leaders, local representatives and guides inform the clients about relevant questions about sustainability in the destiny (for example, the flora and fauna protection and cultural patrimony, recourses use), standards, social values (for example tips, dress code, photography), human rights (for example sexual exploration);
Inform our tour leaders and local representatives about child sexual prevention;

Destiny:

Our objective is to maximize the positive impacts and minimize the negative impacts in the destiny to guarantee the sustainable development in our operations locals.

We promise to do these steps:

Considerate sustainability aspects in the process of selecting new destinies and probably, offer non-conventional alternatives destinies;
Considerate the selection of new destinies, with easy access a public transport but sustainable;
Comply with the local regulations of territorial planning, protected and patrimony areas. But also the destiny management strategies of local, regional, and international authorities;
Influence and support local government (where possible, together with other travel companies and stakeholders) about sustainability, destination planning and management, use of natural resources and socio-cultural issues;
Do Not promote souvenirs containing endangered flora and fauna species, indicated in the CITES treaty and UICN “Red List” or historic and archaeological artifact’s (excepted in the law permitted cases);

Customer protection and communication:

The wellbeing and the information to clients is very important to us. We guarantee clear and constant communication and high protection for our clients.

Before any reservation we promise to do these steps:

Make available and provide a guidance of the company to the clients, followed by the consultant of the client;
Ensure the privacy of the clients;
Comply with relevant national standards and volunteer conduct codes in marketing and publicities messages, and not offer more than promised;
Have a clear, completed, and precise information about the company: the products, the service, and price;
Provide information’s about the destiny, including factually correct, equilibrate and complete sustainability aspects;
Inform clients about sustainable alternatives in terms of accommodations, excursions, organized holidays, and transport options (if available);
Cleary inform the (potentials) direct clients about the sustainability compromises and actions;

After any reservation and during holidays:

Give information’s to the costumers about natural environment, the local culture, and cultural patrimony in the holiday destiny;
Inform the costumers about the sustainability principal aspects and questions in the destiny and receive recommendations about how to give a positive contribute;
Inform the clients about risks and precautions related to health and safety at the destiny.
Keep a contact person and a telephone number for emergencies permanently available.
Train staff and keep available guidance on how to handle emergencies.
Provide customers with information about commercial, sexual, or other exploitation and harassment, particularly of children and teenagers.
Inform the client`s about the applicable legislation relative to buying, selling, importation and exportation of historic artifacts, religious articles with flora and fauna materials threatened in the destiny;
Motivate costumers to use local shops and restaurants (where appropriated);
Inform the clients about the best sustainable transport options in the destiny, when possible;
Encourage clients to donate to local charities and sustainable initiatives.

After the holidays, we promise to:

Measure systematically the client satisfaction and have in count the results to make the service and product better;
Include sustainability as an integral part of customer satisfaction;
Have clear procedures in case of complaints;