In 2001 Yvon Chouinard the founder and owner of Patagonia and Craig Matthews the owner of Blue Ribbon Flies started an organization they called “1% for the Planet“. This is an alliance of businesses pledging to donate at least 1% of sales towards active efforts to protect and restore our natural environment. Both of these companies had actively supported grassroot environmental organizations and they shared their personal belief that a healthy natural world is essential for humankind ́s survival.
"1% for the Planet" exists to build and support an alliance of businesses financially committed to creating a healthy planet and the way it works is that each member company contributes 1 percent of its annual sales as donations to non‐profit environmental organizations. Members choose from a list of groups approved by and registered with "1% for the Planet".
Today there are around 1200 members of this exclusive alliance and 2000 non‐profit environmental groups listed and to date the alliance has initiated over $42 million in environmental giving.
We are very proud and happy to be able to announce that Borea Adventures has been accepted as member and The Arctic Fox Center has been approved as a non‐profit group. These are the first Icelandic participants. We believe that membership in "1% for the Planet" is a clear indicator of our sincere commitment to sustainability.
Borea Adventures is a small tour operator in Isafjordur, Iceland, owned and operated by people who love being outdoors and enjoy the nature and culture of the North Atlantic. Borea runs yacht based tours in Iceland, Jan Mayen and Greenland as well as skiing, hiking and kayaking holidays in Iceland. Borea Adventures adheres to the principles of low impact, sustainable tourism. Our trips are "silent", as we try not to use any motorized vehicles. We like to encourage physical activity to suit any level of ability from easy sailing and hiking through to exhilarating action sports. Our priority is to guarantee our guests enjoyable wilderness experiences in perfect harmony with the environment that supports us.
The Arctic Fox Center is based in Sudavik, Iceland and they wish to increase education about the Arctic Fox as the only native terrestrial mammal in Iceland. The center collects all available material as well as promotes and takes part in research and educational programs and development of sustainable wildlife tourism. In the spring of 2010 an educational exhibition will open where people can learn about the Arctic Fox, it's biology and amazing adaptation to the cold, both in behaviour, food habits and physiology. Besides the exhibition they will carry out courses for guides and tourist agencies about the species, their role in ecosystems and how to approach them in the wild without disturbing or negatively affecting their lifetime success. The Arctic Fox Center's mission is dedicated to the wellness and conservation of arctic foxes in the Hornstrandir Nature Reserve.
Borea Adventures now pledges to donate 1% of sales in 2010 to projects managed by the Arctic Fox Center. We will also do one specific Arctic Fox research trip on our yacht AURORA to the Hornstrandir Nature Reserve in July 2010. We call this trip "Quest for the Arctic Fox" and we will invite our guests to participate in research and observations of the Fox in the only area of Iceland where they are not hunted – the Hornstrandir Nature Reserve. A special guide on this trip will be Ester Rut Unnsteinsdóttir, director of the Center and one of the world's leading experts on the Arctic Fox.