Trafalgar is asking you to start with the person in the mirror. The company is asking you to change your ways. And no, the brand’s message could not be clearer to help make the world a better place.
Michael Jackson’s slightly modified lyrics couldn’t be more relevant to support Trafalgar’s approach in asking travel businesses to help make a change on International Volunteer Day (5 December 2018).
The company has called on companies to encourage their staff, just as Trafalgar does, to support causes close to their hearts by empowering them with volunteer hours.
Chief Executive, Gavin Tollman, said it’s also important to lead by example, which is what he said he’s done on several occasions including more recently during a beach clean-up in NSW’s Vaucluse.
“Social responsibility starts with a movement; helping your people to help others and making it easy to do so, through paid volunteer days.”
Gavin Tollman, Trafalgar Chief Executive
“We give more than 24,000 paid hours a year so that our people can individually make a difference – building, planting, beach cleaning and more.”
Celebrating International Volunteer Day this year, Trafalgar’s global teams will supply gifts and food to people in need (Australia), plant native trees (New Zealand) and sort and package food to support food banks (USA).
Employees will also wrap presents for low-income families (Canada), clean facilities for elderly people (Singapore), donate blood (Geneva), save lives by becoming CPR certified (UK) and serve meals at a local soup kitchen (South Africa).
“It’s a conscious decision of ours and plays a big part in our mission to make travel a force for good,” Tollman added.
“There is no reason why any company, regardless of industry or size, can’t do their part in making a difference in a similar way.”
Gavin Tollman, Trafalgar Chief Executive
Through its JoinTrafalgar program, powered by TreadRight – TTC’s 10-year-old not-for-profit foundation – Trafalgar’s social sustainability efforts extend far beyond the 24,000 hours of volunteering given to employees. The company has banned more than 60 single-use plastics from their offices and planted 120 acres of trees in Northern California and Tanzania in the last year.
- READ: Tour operator takes beach clean-ups worldwide
- READ: “Breaking bread, crazy ideas and being green”: Gavin Tollman
- READ: Tour operator opens domestic trips to Aussie travellers