Eco Tours Australia | green initiatives

Under normal circumstances, GLT employs 70 staff nationally and carry over 100,000 passengers each year on our tours throughout Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia and Western Australia. But like most tourism businesses around the world, our company was devastated by the COVID-19 crisis when tour operations came to a standstill in early April.   

CEO Paul Beames was heartbroken after standing down the entire workforce. “I went to the depot determined to change the destiny for our crew. On the way, I tripped over a bunch of wooden pallets on the nature strip from the neighbour’s factory. I sparked a conversation and discovered they were destined for landfill. I commented that was such a waste as they were in perfect condition and the neighbour happily offered them to me and said he could offer a steady supply.”Paul continues, “with plenty of space in the depot and a shed full of tools, I started knocking together some prototypes.    It blew me away how funky some of the designs from the wood grain polished up. I looked around and thought, we have all this vacant space, massive workbenches, lots of tools and a lot of talented people. I knew if I could convert the space into a furniture factory, I could re-employee some of the guides who had been stood down. And Pallets with Purpose was born”.   

The JobKeeper payments, some ingenuity and pure determination, has allowed GLT to re-engage 20 Tour Guides so far, who have not only learnt a new skill, but they now have a reason to leave the house each day and support a company they love.Paul explains “I was in a position to help our team through this difficult period by providing purpose, employment, connectedness and above all else, positive mental health.    Since we have re-engaged some of the team, I’ve had grown men break down in tears. We’ve all been in tears. Having a purpose and reconnecting (while practising social distancing, of course), has been an incredibly positive emotional experience for all of us”.   Industry legend Safari Pete has been a tour guide at GLT for four years. He recalls the moment he got the call from Paul about returning to work on Pallets with Purpose. “I thought it was very entrepreneurial to come up with this idea. But it was also a selfless act by Paul whereby he was putting the welfare of the team before himself or the business.”Darren Donlen has also been a guide with GLT for nearly six years and is now the acting Foreman at the depot come factory, managing the prototypes and a team of 20. He said, “sitting alone at home by myself was lonely and beginning to feel like Groundhog Day.    

This business innovation has given me purpose, mental stimulation and socialisation with a bunch of great people”.With no tours running there is no income at GLT, so the goal is to sell these 100% recycled hardwood products to cover some of the unavoidable outgoings until tours are up and running again.

Connect with us: #pallets_with_purpose

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Media links:

• The Byte – Tourism E-News

Organising cleanup days at local beaches they had the idea of taking the concept ‘on the road’ to clean up the beaches along the GOR.  Within four weeks of the girls bringing the idea to Paul, the first TBOT departed with Autopia providing the transport, driver, and meals free of charge for the 24 participants.

Collaborating with GORCC and Green Spectrum who came along to do educational talks during the tour, the 43 passengers on board the two tours that departed in May and June 2018, worked together to collect 50.6kg of rubbish from the beaches along the GOR. The information was put on Tangaroa Blue Foundation database which is an Australian registered charity focused on the health of our marine environment.

Media Support:

• Stay up-to-date with TBOT Facebook
• Climactic Podcast – TBOT Profile (May18)
• VTIC Victoria Tourism Industry Council – News (Jan18)
• ABC Open – Explore Stories from Australia (Jul18
• The Sustainable Hour 94.7FM The Pulse Radio – Centre for Climate Safety (Aug18)

Past Events:

• 25 Aug 2018 – Koala Conservation + Beach Clean Day
• 30 Jun 2018 – Trash Bags on Tour – GOR Beach Clean Up
• 27 May 2018 –

We also recognized the importance of working within our local area.  Thus, when we contacted our local council, Hobson Bay City Council, we spoke with them about programs in our local area that we could become involved with.  Now working closely with their conservation department, Autopia Tours have helped our local community through their tree planting and re-vegetation program.

We have so far helped replant some of the Paisley Drain Reserve area, with over 2000 new plants becoming established which will help protect the soil and provide habitat for wildlife.  This site was once considered highly degraded, however through planting programs such as this, it has now become a valuable wetland and mangrove conservation area and is home to many bird species.

While coal provided people the opportunity to revolutionise industry in the past, we understand it is no longer the way for the future due to its finite and environmentally degrading nature. Therefore, we are proud to be moving our depot over to a solar system. After consultation with earlier this year, we have decided to invest in the installation of a solar system at our depot that is large enough to supply us with renewable energy for all of our power needs. This is in conjunction with our initial consultation over minimising our overall energy use. By 2018 Autopia Tours will proudly be 100% supported by renewable energy captured on site. Not only will this reduce our negative environmental impacts, it has also been forecast this will be a highly cost-effective solution over the long term.

Wildlife is so important to us here at Autopia Tours, we have chosen to Wipe for Wildlife at the workplace, using only recycled toilet paper and tissues!  We’ve chosen Who Gives A Crap, who not only protect our precious forests, but also give back to the world by helping struggling communities to develop much needed basic facilities for hygiene and sanitation.

Thousands and thousands of invaluable trees are cut down annually just to make toilet paper.  The trees we are losing provide homes and food for wildlife, absorb carbon from the atmosphere and prevent soil erosion.  Who Gives A Crap produce their toilet paper from recycled textbooks and office paper; materials that have already been removed from the environment.  By choosing recycled toilet paper, we reduce the need for deforestation of bushland and habitat.  If you would like to go only recycled also, visit Zoos Victoria or Who Gives A Crap to sign up!.

Being a travel and transport-oriented company, we believe this is a huge step forward in reducing our ecological footprint and are very excited to have joined this program. 

Emissions from vehicles and flights contribute to the greenhouse effect and hence lead to climate change and global warming.  Offsetting with Greenfleetsupports native reforestation programs such as tree planting along the Great Ocean Road.  Forests absorb carbon emissions from the atmosphere, so programs like Greenfleet helps to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases remaining in the atmosphere, neutralising our vehicles contributions towards climate change.

Autopia Tours is excited to announce we have offset 100% of all our transport emissions for 2016-2017, equivalent to the removal of 209.32 tonnes of CO₂-e from the atmosphere.  

By choosing to tour with Autopia, our customers are contributing to the restoration of native Australian forests through Greenfleet initiatives and are having a minimal impact on climate change.

Click here to view our Greenfleet Offset Carbon Emissions Certificate for 2016-17.

We take our commitment to the environment seriously!

Many of our employees live in and around the city area, so we decided to build a communal staff vegetable garden on site so all staff are able to enjoy the benefits of fresh herbs and vegetables! 

We also wanted to do this as sustainably as possible, therefore we decided to only use recycled materials and organic soil. Discarded tyres have made great planting boxes for many of the vegetables and these have the added benefit of remaining warm which helps the plants to grow. We then sourced recycled materials through Planet Ark, who produce planting boxes from 100% discarded ink cartridges.After establishing the garden, we decided it was best to update our waste management policies also, by incorporating a compost system as well. 

All staff are now encouraged to dispose of all their organic waste, such as food scraps, into the compost system so that valuable nutrients are recycled back into the ground and feed our new garden as well.

Protecting our remaining forests is only part of the solution towards climate change issues; another is to rebuild those forests that have been destroyed.  We decided it was time to start giving back to the regions that have supported us by joining Planet Ark in their tree planting days.  Their program aims to replant Australia with native vegetation which are drought resistant, protect waterways from sediment fall and erosion and also encourages native wildlife to return to areas they had abandoned.  

Our staff have had fun getting outdoors as a team, getting their hands dirty and knowing they’ve made a difference for the better.  If you’re living in Australia and are keen to get involved also, you can register your interest to take part in one of their tree planting days through their website.

 We therefore needed to look at each area of the business and realise ways to minimise the amount of waste we produced.  Moving to digital feedback forms, introducing a large onsite recyclable skip, introduction of an onsite organic waste compost system, daily food ordering, ordering non-perishable goods in bulk, carrying drinking water on board our buses for our guests and introducing a policy of not printing unless necessary and avoiding any single use or disposable items has drastically reduced the amount of waste we produce daily.  Instead, Autopia Tours have created a culture where waste is minimised through either reduction, reuse or recycling wherever possible.