sustainability

What we are doing

Electrical Vehicle Travel ehf has been created to lead the Icelandic tourism into the future of a green, clean, and environmentally friendly way of travel, and to lead the way in the fight against global warming, the way that everyone is more than welcome to follow.

In the 10 years, Iceland was visited by over 2 million visitors per year. This big mass of travellers started leaving its mark on the local nature and environment, the two main aspects of the country that draws the biggest amount of people to come and visit Iceland in the first place.

EV Travel right from the start wanted to set itself apart from the big tour operators, so we started doing all of our tours in eco-friendly, zero emission, electric vehicles, which immediately eliminated one of the biggest impacts that tourism has on the environment.

Our knowledgeable guides make sure to explain the importance of preserving and respecting nature on all the tours, and they go out of their way to keep the places you visit just as we found them – beautiful, wild, litter free, and ready to be admired by the next nature enthusiast that comes behind us.

In our quest to protect the natural environment, wildlife, cultural heritage, and natural resources we’re constantly trying to find new ways to contribute to the forward-thinking, out of the box ideas of decreasing our negative footprint, both environmentally and culturally. We’re trying to stay ahead of the curve with all of our actions, which we believe is important for the better and brighter future of us all. 

EV Travel has also launched its own CO2 offset program FundForest.is where we commit to plant at least one tree for every tour we do. Deforestation of the island started as soon as people started settling on it in the 9^th century AD, and in a bit over 1150 years we’ve gone from 30% of the country covered with trees to only about 4% in the present day. The absence of forests causes huge problems with soil erosion, development of strong winds, and the ever-shrinking living habitat for Icelandic wildlife, and our company is strongly committed to play a major role in trying to turn this whole situation around, side by side with the local authorities, and other private partners.

We realise that sustainability needs to start in our day to day lives if we are to achieve our common goal, which is – protecting the planet for the next generation. Therefore, EV Travel is taking some practical steps in order to show its commitment to the greener future, and trying to lead by example.

In order to get there, we:

• Commit to plant at least one tree for every tour you take.
• Conduct our tours in electric, eco-friendly, zero emission vehicles, Charged with 100% renewable energy.
• Monitor our energy and resources to better understand how we can improve our sustainability goals.
• As much as we can, try to buy local products in order to avoid the strain that long distance shipping puts on the environment, and at the same time support the local economy.
• We pick up the trash behind us, and to the best of our ability try to make sure it gets properly recycled, including batteries and other hazardous waste.
• To the best of our ability, we have digitised our invoices, contracts, and other documents traditionally printed on paper, with which we help protect the already scarce forests in Iceland.
• We avoid using the single use plastic products unless absolutely necessary.
• We avoid using the disposable cups for hot beverages, and supply refillable bottles and cups for our tours.
• We discourage our guests from taking natural souvenirs, and encourage them to take only photos instead.
• We discourage our guests from driving off road and walking off marked paths, protecting natural Icelandic marbles such as the beautiful Icelandic moss which is usually covering the countless lava fields in the country.
• We use green/eco-friendly cleaning products, to help prevent chemicals from harming the Earth.
• We train our staff in sustainable and environmental awareness, which plays a big part in expanding awarness worldwide.
• We support our staff with free health checks and yearly education of the environment and culture, along with first aid training.

We, at EV Travel, believe that the future is bright and green, and not at all out of our reach!