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Sustainability

Our team and our business will ALWAYS stick to the two most important sciences:

SCIENCE & OUR CONSCIENCE

We will never over complicate our business and our sustainable goals with industry jargon, or ‘on trend’ topics. 

This is our ‘living and breathing’ everyday Sustainable ACTION PLAN. 

This is us; this is what we do.

turtle at great barrier reef

Our Sustainability Statement

REAL ACTIONS & REAL OBJECTIVES

  • We will continue to be the industry leader in all sustainability endeavours.
  • We will continue to learn from our Marine Biologist, our Master Reef Guides, and our local Elders.
  • We will maintain, grow and evolve our role with the Great Barrier Reef, Master Reef Guide program.
  • We will continue to offer our guests Master Reef Guide experiences, on any of our Self-skippered sailing experiences, 
  • We will continue to offer Ngaro Sea Trail experiences, with respectful permission and involvement from First Nations friends of Portland Roads Sailing the Whitsundays.
  • We will continue to sponsor our team to continue our amazing Reef Restoration works around the globe, and here at home.
  • We will maintain the highest level of “Advanced Eco” Certification with Ecotourism Australia– Proving our actions on a global platform.
  • We will maintain our “Respect Of Culture” Certification – Sharing our unique association with the Black Coffee movement and local First Nations Elders – (Refer to OUR HERITAGE page or our BLOG for further information)
  • We will maintain our “Climate Action Business” certification with Ecotourism Australia.
  • We will continually update and re-publish our book BLUE HOPE; Celebrating our achievements, (copies on each vessel)
  • Even though our emissions are extremely low against industry standards,  we will continue to offset our carbon footprint at a rate of 2 times our emissions.
  • We are still trying to establish a bonafide reef / ocean-based Carbon-credit system. Until then, we will offset our footprint with Eucalyptus tree planting by partnering with Carbon Neutral Australia. We strongly support this initiative, however, with the world’s oceans being our largest carbon sink, we do wish to support initiatives that give back to the ocean.
  • We will again dedicate 2 days in 2024/25 to our tree-planting activities on the mainland. 
  • Further, we will donate Eucalyptus Seedlings for every new follower on Facebook and Instagram.
  • For 2024 we have offset 225 tonnes of carbon (our footprint is 108 tonnes) by partnering with Carbon Neutral Pty Ltd. They plant in Western Australia’s Wheatbelt (see photos below). Our required offset commitment for 2024 has kept us officially *carbon positive since July 1st, 2018  *Our emissions were calculated via the Great Barrier Marine Park Authorities (GBRMPA) Tourism Emissions Calculator and confirmed by Carbon Neutrals calculations.
  • Our business is Office-less and paperless, and our vessels are almost entirely off the grid. 
  • We will continue to reduce our footprint with every new initiative.
  • Emissions in 2024/25 will be verified by an independent third party to ensure that we continue on the right track.
  • We will continue to source and develop a Bio-fuel partnership I.E: Waste Cooking Oil (In Progress)
  • We will continue to KEEP ALL BOATS Off the Grid, with self-sufficient power systems from solar, smart charging, inverter, and alternator charging systems (Ongoing)
  • Install desalination units on our vessels for salt to fresh water conversion (Complete on 4 vessels)
  • Use salt-water flushing and cleaning solutions for heads (Completed)
  • Upgrade all solar systems on all boats (Completed)
  • Create permanent recycling and garbage locations on each vessel (Completed)
  • Move to compostable garbage bags (Completed)
  • 100 % natural, non-toxic cleaning solutions (Completed)
  • Fuel snakes for each vessel at the fuel wharf, when not using bio-fuel (Completed)
  • Educate other charter companies about our initiatives (Ongoing)
  • Partner with Carbon Neutral Pty Ltd for our offsetting program (Complete)
  • Continue our drive to find a Reef Credits program for our offsetting into the future
  • Inform Tourism Whitsundays, Tourism Queensland, and Tourism Australia of our standards, not for promotional efforts, but to help share our industry-leading story (Ongoing )
  • Report the status of our initiatives on our website and in our annual publication, BLUE HOPE., 

With Portland Roads – Sailing the Whitsundays offsetting 225 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, we are officially carbon positive.A result our team of passionate people are extremely proud of.

Carbon Neutral Pty Ltd continue to plant native trees in Western Australia’s Wheatbelt region.

They employ local First Nations teams for much of the planting.


With our investment in this initiative, Lots of these plants are ours; AND YOURS! 

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