Alastair Sawday’s – Founding Director at Sawday’s
“We need to understand that a different life is possible, desirable and achievable”, Alastair Sawday’s.
What is your job about?
I run a travel business called Sawday’s. We promote carbon neutral travel based on local and organic practices at the destinations. It is good for local economy and local food. It also raises awareness for the people using the travel services. We have over 5,000 B&Bs and hotels on our books.
We are providers of knowledge and content to help people understand the impact of their travel and where they are going.
We want inspire change and a change in perspective.
I want travel to foster local work by bringing positive outcomes to the local community.
What issues do you address?
We tackle issue around travel and being carbon neutral. We tackle it through the community and help people to see how they can travel and do it in a better way.
What moved you to take action?
I speak several languages and love places. Wherever I am, I try to immerse myself in the area. I love to travel and I realized that this has an impact for the environment. The people who travel have an impact on Co2 and the environment. I decided to create a travel company which took this into account.
What were the obstacles that you had to overcome?
- They were institutional obstacles, negativity, incompetence.
- I had something I really wanted to do and it was completely blocked by officials. These officials completely stopped it.
What helped you keep going in hard times?
I lost what I wanted to do the first way by being derailed by the officials but then I went in a different way and managed to achieve it. I have a natural buoyancy and optimism. I do not see failure. Yes I was sabotaged by the council and I felt a lot of anger but that made me look for a new way around it and new meaning. I learn from every experience.
What first prompted you to become interested in environmental issues and when was that?
I travelled with VSO – that inspired me to want to work in an area with similar values.
On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being very happy) where would you rate how you feel about your life?
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http://www.sawdays.co.uk/
