Your Business: Sustainability with Donna Hamilton, Coast to Coast Tours

Stuart and Donna Hamilton, owners of Coast to Coast Tours.

Donna Hamilton and her husband Stuart run Muriwai-based tourism company Coast to Coast Tours.

Can you tell me a bit about your business?

Over the years, we've always done something 'as-well-as' sheep farming, because you can't make a living from just farming a few hundred sheep. I guess most old-style farmers would aim to be as self-sufficient and as sustainable as possible - it's just inherent in what we do, because if you aren't, you won't survive.

Our main 'extra' lines of business before we started our current tourism company were vegetable and flower growing, but during the intensive flower growing years, our health began to suffer; Stu had some back problems, and I developed severe chemical sensitivities, and FMS, or fibromyalgia. This is when we really took a hard look, not only at what we were doing but how we were doing it, because we knew then we couldn't carry on. It simply wasn't going to be sustainable.

In 1998 we went to the US and were really impressed by the tourism industry there. We'd also had our homestead renovated and began thinking about what we could to do that would use our farm, livestock, lifestyle and history in the area. We had a family member already in the tourism industry who mentioned how overseas visitors would love coming to see the countryside and experience a real sheep farm. So, in 2001 we established Coast to Coast Tours.

The emphasis of our tour is for overseas visitors to experience the sights and attractions of the west Auckland coast and countryside. Because the tour also visits our farm and homestead, it's very personal and we can knit our family experiences and history into the tours because our family has lived in the region since 1922.

What are some of the things you've done in your business to make it more sustainable?

Because our 'office' is our home, it already has quite a few sustainable aspects in place. We use our own renewable wood supply for heating and hot water, have rain-water supply, a septic-tank sewerage system, and grey-water reticulation. We also compost food scraps, grow a lot of our own fruit and vegetables, have free range chickens and swap surplus produce within our community. We also only operate in our local region, so our profits can be directed back into our local community, where we've made our 'footprint'.

But the biggest factor we've had to address is the vehicle emissions created in running the tour business. We wanted to find a way that we could offset our emissions, but that would also create a visitor 'experience' as we did it. So, we set about establishing Carbon Forest Reserves on parts of our farm, which involves planting a native tree for every tour we do.

What kind of payback have you seen as a business from doing some of these things?

I think tourists really get a kick out of becoming joint-custodians of the trees we plant, especially when they know it will be growing in the region where they've been touring.

I think when you're positioning your company from a marketing perspective as sustainable, it helps if people can see some physical evidence of that. Tourists like to see a company is actually doing something sustainable, rather than just using the word.

What has been the biggest challenge on your sustainability journey so far?

The biggest challenge would be maintaining our sustainability efforts without diluting the visitor experience. With the business we've wanted to showcase our local region because we feel that's what we know best, and early in the piece we chose not to trip off to all parts of the country. This might have been good for business, but we felt there is no way we could justify running a coach below capacity as being sustainable.

We also wanted to establish our tour as one that visits the home where the operators live, and we've felt that's been our unique selling point. But running a business like this is a fine line; we've been asked to run multiple tours a day, but we've felt doing that would dilute the experience our guests have of being hosted by the owners of the farm they are visiting and getting that authentic experience.

Coming up in Your Business: The end of the year is rolling in, and it's a time when businesses are saying thanks to their employees and supporters. So what are some of the ways small businesses say thank you customers and staff at the end of the year? If you've got a story to tell about what you do to say thanks and why, drop me a note: nzhsmallbusiness@gmail.com

For more on NZ business ambitions go to www.businessambition.co.nz