Positive Steps
As a certified B Corporation, Headwater is committed to delivering purposeful travel. We advance Thriving Nature through direct conservation efforts, rewilding projects, and systematic carbon measurement and reduction. Our commitment to Thriving People includes partnering with locally owned businesses and accommodations, as well as supporting World Bicycle Relief’s initiatives in Uganda.
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For every passenger, Headwater actively supports the rewilding of 100 square metres of the Apennines — restoring native habitat for the long term.
World Bicycle Relief
Headwater is proud to support World Bicycle Relief’s amazing efforts in Uganda through a donation for every passenger we take on holiday. Their mission is to transform lives through bicycles, enabling access to education, healthcare, and economic opportunities. The sturdy Buffalo bike helps overcome long travel distances, making daily life safer and more efficient. World Bicycle Relief believes bicycles are a simple, practical tool to create lasting change and build independence.
Rewilding Apennines
Headwater is deeply committed to sustainability and nature restoration. For every passenger, Headwater actively supports the rewilding of 100 square meters in partnership with Rewilding Apennines. This initiative helps restore native habitats, promote biodiversity, and protect wildlife across the Apennine region, with long-term monitoring to evidence outcomes and ensure accountable, transparent environmental impact over time.
Single Use Plastics
Headwater is committed to eliminating single-use plastics across its holidays by collaborating with local agents, hotels, and transfer companies. We encourage suppliers to adopt sustainable practices such as providing reusable alternatives, minimising plastic packaging, and promoting refill stations. By engaging with each step of the travel supply chain, we aim to reduce plastic waste, protecting natural environments and supporting a cleaner future for the destinations we visit.
PROUD TO BE A B CORP
Headwater is proud to be a certified B Corp, as part of Exodus Travels Ltd; it is a recognition awarded to businesses that meet high standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability. For us, being a B Corp means weaving purpose into every journey we offer - ensuring sustainability, ethical practices, and positive impact are at the heart of our operations. You can travel confidently, knowing their adventures contribute towards a thriving world for people and nature.
CARBON MEASURING
Headwater carefully measures the carbon footprint of its holidays by calculating emissions from trip related travel, luggage transfers, accommodation, and related activities. They use industry-recognised tools to track and monitor their environmental impact. By identifying high-emission areas, Headwater implements reduction strategies such as promoting greener transport, supporting more sustainability focussed hotels and alternative activities. Their ongoing commitment ensures each trip is continually evaluated and improved for greater sustainability.
Our team in action
Read about how our team gives time and energy to support conservation projects, helping protect landscapes, restore habitats, and create lasting positive impact.
Caring For Our Woodlands
Headwater volunteers supported woodland maintenance at Ty’n-y-Pistyll, with our team helping to care for trees, clearing bracken, protect biodiversity, and maintain green spaces for both wildlife and local communities.
Reviving Our Seas
Headwater supported the Wild Oysters Conwy Bay project, with our team helping monitor oyster health and biodiversity, contributing to marine habitat restoration and long-term recovery of native oyster populations.
Restoring Our Rivers
Headwater colleagues volunteered to plant nearly 500 trees along the River Ceiriog, supporting long-term river restoration, biodiversity, and conservation work as part of the wider LIFE Dee River project initiative.
Donning Our Aprons
Our budding bakers donned their aprons and cooked up a storm, delighting the office with homeade treats whilst helping raise valuable funds for the incredible Macmillan Cancer Support.
Questions about B Corp
The term B Corp stands for 'B Corporation' and is run by a global not-for-profit organisation, B Lab. Their assessment helps companies to ensure their operations benefit people, communities, and the planet rather than existing solely for shareholder profit.
B Corp certified companies must prove the highest verified standards of social and environmental performance and are transparent and accountable. We need to evidence how we take care of our staff, work towards a more inclusive supply chain and take corporate social responsibility to the next level. The certification covers our policies and practices with regards to our community, customers, environment, governance, and our workers.
Below are just a few examples of improvements we've already made as part of our B Corp journey:
• Supported more grass roots initiatives in local communities through the Exodus Travels Foundation (our sister company's foundation), such as providing employment for women at eco-cafes on popular trekking routes in Nepal.
• Reviewed and re-focused how we take a nature positive approach, ensuring that we put biodiversity gain through conservation at the heart of our decision-making, trip design and our work in destination communities.
• Improved our parental leave policy - we greatly enhanced paternity pay for new parents to give them a stronger financial footing at a time of significant life change.
• Introduced new policies including an ethical marketing policy and an ethical procurement policy. These are being embedded within the business to ensure all teams better understand how their roles align with our principles and practices.
• Conducted a review and analysis of each of our trip's carbon footprint and published these figures on our website.
• Provided staff with more opportunities to use their annual paid volunteering days.
• Produced our second Annual Impact Report that takes a look at our progress towards the environmental and social goals set out in our People, Places and Planet plan and details the financial performance of the Exodus Travels Foundation.
• Created a staff committee, the Adventure Representative Committee (ARC), that meets monthly to gather feedback from all departments and support company-wide events that help build our culture and team engagement.
After 40-years of delivering award-winning holidays, we know better than most how awe-inspiring, horizon-expanding, and life-enriching travel can be. And it's part of our mission to do things as responsibly as possible, without damaging the environment or disrupting local communities. In fact, we work with local hotels, restaurants and partners to positively impact communities and to help you get closer to the heart and soul of the destinations that we travel to.
Being a B Corp further demonstrates our commitment to delivering incredible adventures that are not just for profit, but for the benefit of our beautiful planet and all that inhabit it. The fact that we have been independently verified to meet some of the highest standards possible should give you that extra reassurance of our aim to provide the most responsibly-run active holidays.
We're not resting here. The B Corp framework has provided us with a roadmap of improvements we want to make across the business to create even more positive impact on the environment, wider society and our people.