Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate Social Responsibility – AppleTree Holidays feels that it’s important to pursue excellence as a corporate citizen in its operations throughout Sri Lanka. We believe that to achieve this, we must work in partnership with our employees, stakeholders, customers, suppliers and local communities.

We wholeheartedly believe in ensuring that we are fully committed to best-practice corporate governance and social responsibility. We aim to ensure that AppleTree meet and where possible exceed ethical and legal expectations and aim for continuous improvement in quest for excellence.

Most importantly, we work hard to build trust among all our stakeholders. Our approach to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has many initiatives and is built on a commitment to maintain the highest possible standards in everything we do. We believe that we must continue to work hard to ensure a culture which believes in doing what is right for our clients, the environment and for our team members.

We understand and acknowledging the impact of our business on the wider world and work in ways that we can have a positive effect on the word. We take the following steps to make sure that we work with very high ethical standards:

Our suppliers
• We deal with suppliers who have a corporate social responsibility policies and who are ethical in their dealings with clients as well as respect the environment.
• Where possible we will use suppliers local to the area.
• We always pay our suppliers in advance and recognise the importance of this custom to their livelihood.
• Where possible we consider small businesses as well as larger suppliers, balancing on the merits and risks involved, prior to making purchasing decisions.

Our customers
• We ensure that all our brochures and publicity materials are clear and written in ‘plain English’ with no ‘small print’.
• We are open and honest about our products and services. We will tell our clients what they need to know, and we will also discuss their corporate social responsibility.
• We will be clear and upfront with our clients regarding our services and offering.
• If something goes wrong, we will acknowledge the problem and deal with it.

Our employees
• We take a proactive approach to the training of our staff.
• We understand the importance of a flexible working arrangement and actively encourage staff to work the hours and locations which suit their lifestyle. We discourage overtime.
• We ensure that they have every conceivable luxury in office to make their lives easier.

Our local community
• We value the importance of our local communities and involve ourselves in local activities.
• We participate in local fundraising events and recruit locally where possible.
• We support our staff who are involved in local community projects and voluntary work.

Our environment
• We take every possible step to reduce the impact of our business on the environment.
• We advise our clients and partners on environmental issues and provide solutions which have minimal impact on the environment.
• We encourage the use of hybrid and low emission vehicles for all our tours.
• We work in an entirely paperless environment.