At Sandaya, we have built our CSR (corporate social responsibility) process around 4 founding principles: optimising resource management, promoting the natural heritage and enhancing employee loyalty and developing the campsite of the future. Combined, these 4 principles are intended to make Sandaya a mainstay of sustainable tourism for years to come. Our "Way of Life" programme demonstrates our commitment to the future: looking after the world around us to ensure future generations are able to enjoy it too.
Our 4 core CSR commitments
To give structure to our action plan, we have identified 45 actions built around 4 principles:
- Optimising resource management: water, power, purchases/waste produce
- Enriching our surroundings and promoting the biodiversity of our outside spaces
- Enhancing employee training, involvement and loyalty
- Developing the campsite of the future
Natural and human resources lie at the heart of our business: natural because we are striving towards protecting the ecological value of our campsite locations; human because we are mobilising our teams in respect of this environmental issue, and endeavouring to implement a responsible employment policy. This is therefore a long-term vision for our customers, our employees and our planet.
Commitment 1: optimising resource management
Natural resources are scarce and precious, and are central to our "Way of Life" programme. We are therefore establishing a set of measures, both at Sandaya's head office and in all our campsites, in order to tackle wasted resources effectively and in the long term, as well as to cut consumption overall: water, power, waste. Some of our campsites already have ecological and energy-efficient systems in place, and we intend to steadily extend their use to all our other campsites. These are a few examples:
- Installing water meters and flow reducers in the shared sanitary facilities and in accommodation, along with electricity sub-meters to better monitor consumption.
- Rolling out an energy consumption tracking tool for all the group’s campsites.
- Installing 1,300 energy-saving keys in new accommodation and 1,500 in existing accommodation.
- Purchasing water storage tanks for watering plants.
- Installing shredders to deal with green waste at 5 sites, plus composters for around thirty sites.
- Installing a waste-sorting bin and providing explanatory information in accommodation.
- Installing 50 electric vehicle charging points at our sites.
- Renovation work in the gîtes (Château des Marais) and an eco-responsible bathroom block (Grande Côte).
- Systematically purchasing eco-labelled products for the cleaning of our rental units and sanitary facilities.
- Purchasing energy-efficient household appliances (dishwasher and television).
- Purchasing equipment and reusable crockery for certain takeaways.
- Installing isothermal pool covers on 5 pools.
- Oxygenation of the lake at La Ribeyre campsite.
Commitment 2: enriching our surroundings and promoting the biodiversity of our outside spaces
At Sandaya, we are aware that protecting the natural landscapes of our campsites is precisely what makes them so appealing. Which is why we are so committed to enhancing their natural value and protecting their biodiversity. To achieve this, we work with a variety of experts, including the CNPF (France’s national centre for forest maintenance) because we identify and provide information about the remarkable trees found at our campsites, and the LPO (France’s bird protection league) with whom we have undertaken biodiversity inventories at 5 of the sites concerned and obtained the "Refuge" label. We have also signed an agreement aimed at protecting the animals, plants and trees at our campsites.
In addition, we do all we can to place local heritage at the heart of the customer experience by arranging activities to help guests learn more about the work done to enhance our natural areas and about biodiversity with support from the LPO, all season long. Holidaymakers and employees are also encouraged to get involved with World Environment Day and World Cleanup Day each year.
Creating permaculture vegetable gardens, picking fruit and vegetables, collecting eggs, producing honey in hives and setting up games based on sustainable development are just some of the entertainment options that make complete sense and that are open for the whole family to enjoy.
As a result of all these actions, we have submitted our application for the “Green Key” label, which certifies sustainable and environmentally friendly tourism. It is the hallmark of a serious commitment and is internationally recognised. It is reviewed every 4 years to take into account the changing environmental issues.
Commitment 3: enhancing employee training, involvement and loyalty
To make sure our objectives can be achieved sustainably and with the best possible results, we make it a point of principle to train all our teams with regard to the CSR values of Sandaya group. We are convinced that combined effort is vital, and that every employee, whatever his or her job description, has a part to play. And this is why work groups and training are arranged internally, so that everyone can get to grips with the shared action plan.
Sandaya is keen to strengthen its CSR team so as to better understand and address environmental issues and working conditions at its campsites. We are currently offering first-aid training to our permanent staff so that they can better deal with accidents of all kinds. Meanwhile, on-site staff are being trained in the sustainable management of wooded areas. Finally, we are developing accommodation for staff working for Sandaya campsites.
As a tourism body, it is our wish to implement a responsible policy as an employer, and to set up a working environment that is as good as it can possibly be in order for our employees to flourish. By ensuring positions are held for the long-term and by enhancing loyalty in our teams, we are looking to maximise the wellness of our employees, be they annual or seasonal. And we certainly know that what's good for us is just bound to be good for you too!
Commitment 4: Developing the campsite of the future
To better adapt to future environmental concerns, we are embarking on studies into eco-responsible accommodation and low-carbon travel. These two issues are already included in the experiments that Sandaya has conducted to date.
In the long term, we aim to offer energy-efficient accommodation built with sustainable materials to reduce the amount of waste during the accommodation unit’s life cycle and after its use. We also want our guests to travel using low-carbon means of transport wherever possible, and to offer them alternative ways of travelling.
Sandaya and Apprentis d’Auteuil: a partnership in favour of young people
We have been supporting the French foundation Apprentis d’Auteuil since 2020. Recognised by the government as being of public interest, Apprentis d’Auteuil has been working for over 150 years to help the most vulnerable youngsters. Our commitment not only consists in helping their social and professional integration and training them in the various professions involved in the camping sector, but also in offering disadvantaged families a chance to get away on holiday.