Why Peryscope walking tours in Hamburg help planting trees
Peryscope has a straightforward policy when it comes to sustainability: 2% of our revenue are donated to contribute to the sustainable development of the city a tour was taken in. So with every single tour that is sold, we give back a share to the city and the public.
How did we came up with this policy, you might wonder. First of all, of course it is always worth participating in a social cause in itself. However, we at Peryscope see it also as in investment in our business. Although we are a digital business that works with technology, all this would be pointless without the actual places you explore on our tours. So we really want to contribute to preservation and development of the places we offer our tours.
The impact of travel and tourism
Travel and tourism have a significant environmental impact, both on a global and a local level. On a global level, transport, mobility and most other activities leave a CO² footprint, for example. On a local level, more tourism leads to more offerings coming up at the destination, from hotels to transportation to coffee shops, consuming space and reshaping cities. Ultimately, it even comes down to a greater amount of people walking through the streets, who at a certain point might be create disturbances for locals.
Now of course our walking tours are not directed at tourists only, but also at locals, who like to explore their city differently. However, in essence the same idea applies - even discovering a different quarter of the city will have a tiny impact on this quarter - the question is, what will this impact be.
Peryscope strives for sustainability
People exploring the city has massive upsides as well, obviously. People coming to a certain part of the city also bring business opportunities, money and thus taxes and jobs.
However, we believe running a business sensibly involves thinking about its impact on the environment and striving for sustainability, so the business contributes to preserve the foundation of its existence instead of just exploiting it. All our walking tours are created with this in mind, so they fit nicely in the urban environment and do not create disturbances for anyone. On top of that, we select causes we support with a share of our revenue to contribute to sustainability goals and the development of the city in general. These could be both environmental or social projects.
Planting trees in Hamburg
For our offering in Hamburg, we decided that we will be donating 2% of all our revenue to an initiative of the City of Hamburg and Loki Schmidt Foundation, called "My tree, my city". Per 500€ that are collected, a new tree is planted in the city. This way, the city becomes greener, air quality is improved and the city keeps more cool in summers. The coolest thing about it: as a donor, you can even pick the future location of a tree you want to donate for.
In case you care more about the general cause than the actual location of the next tree, you can also donate money on betterplace.org.
Oh, and the next Peryscope walking tour you buy will contribute as well, of course 😉