Learn to scuba dive in the Red Sea

Planet

We use glass bottles with purified, filtered water throughout our club. Glass re-filable water bottles are provided in the guests rooms and we have water stations available 24 hours a day for re-filling. We do ask guests to bring their own re-filable water bottles for their own personal use but do also sell vacuum cooler bottles 500 ml if they forget or don’t have any. Even our restaurant will only sell water from glass bottles and we also provide a fill up service for a small fee, for guests not staying with us. We encourage reduced use of Air Con systems and ask you to switch them off when not there. We provide a cotton shopping bag to all our guests to reduce plastic bag use. These bags are also used by our team when shopping for groceries. We only clean rooms on request, no unnecessary washing. All watering of our garden is done with recycled water from the dive rinse pool. We use fish caught in deep sustainable waters only. We post environment advise in all our rooms of how to reduce your impact on the environment whilst you are here in Dahab.

We strive to ‘make a difference’ to the environment with our diving. With a MAX ratio of 4-1 divers to guide, means that we can control our divers and make sure they do no damage, dramatically reducing the impact of our divers on the reef.

All our instructors are aware of the importance of protecting the reef and they remove rubbish from underwater, if they see any. This doubles the effect as customers see us taking care of the environment and follow suit and show a good example by removing anything underwater that should not be there.

We believe you will come as a guest and leave as a better informed, more responsible, non coral bashing, and more environmentally aware diver.

- Sourcing locally grown or produced food (with lower food miles)
We are based in a desert, far from any farm but we do support the local organic farm initiative set up in nearby Nuweiba. We buy all our fruit and veg locally, supporting independent businesses.

- Offering vegetarian/plant-based and low dairy foods (which reduce CO2 emissions)
We cater for all types of diet including vegetarian, vegan and anyone who is lactose intolerant and require low dairy foods, many folk choose these diets to help reduce CO2 emissions. We also recommend local vegan places, we have 2 superb ones in town: The Vegan Lab and Marine Garden, which is run by a lady who volunteers for Sea Shepherd.

- Reducing transport emissions - encouraging rail, public transport, walking, cycling, electric cars; and designing itineraries that reduce internal flights
Many of our guests come from Cairo and therefore drive here or take the bus. Once they are here, we encourage the use of bikes, via local hire shops which is a great way to get around Dahab.

- Using renewable energy - either generating it yourself (solar) or switching energy supplier
Solar power is not yet available easily for businesses of our size, but we are constantly monitoring it and will be investing as soon as it is available and viable.

- Reducing energy use - energy efficient buildings, heating, air conditioning, fridges, hot water, low energy bulbs, laundry, etc.
Our Garden rooms are energy efficient as they are built with a curved design which reduces the heat, and the need for AirCon.
We also ask that guests keep their A/C at 27-28 not below as this puts less strain on the environment and is better for them too. We also reserve the right to turn off their A/C if they have left it on when they go out.
We use energy efficient lightbulbs throughout the club.
Laundry is done locally, by a family run business, which means there are full loads.
All our laundry is dried naturally in the sun ?

- Hiring local staff & guides to reduce international travel
All our staff are local, our team have family living in Dahab and use bikes to go back and forth from work to home. Our Bedouins staff all live locally too.

- Anything else you have thought of (we'd love to learn more)!
We are constantly looking at way we can be more eco-friendly and have listed many above. Our next big project will be Solar Power, which is starting to become more possible in Egypt and let’s face it, we have more sunny days than any other country, so hopefully it won’t be long until this is supported for small businesses like our very soon.

We are excited to be a part of the Green Fins International initiative.
Green Fins is a proven conservation management approach – implemented internationally by The Reef-World Foundation and the UN Environment Programme – which leads to a measurable reduction in the negative environmental impacts associated with marine tourism. It aims to protect coral reefs through environmentally friendly guidelines promoting sustainable diving and snorkelling. It provides the only internationally recognised environmental standards for marine tourism and its robust assessment system measures compliance.
Having passed a strict audit in March 2022 to establish that we are both following eco protocols, as well as continuously looking for new ways to be more eco.
Obviously COVID had an impact on our existing practices, for example we had managed to irradicate plastic bottles and replaced them with glass bottles but this was not accepted by the CDWS who police diving facilities in Egypt.
So we found a way round this by providing water dispensers in every room, so now our guests can continue to use their refillable bottles in the comfort of their own room.
We have replaced the obligatory single jams, ketchup, mayo etc with squeezy bottles which are sterilised and reused for example.
Our latest endeavour is the rubbish collection nets which we attach to every BCD, ensuring everyone can make a difference and pick up any rubbish found in the sea.

People

We are proud to be member of Responsible Travel and take our role as vacation providers in this precious area very seriously, and are committed to finding new ways to reduce impact from tourism.

We employ Egyptian, Bedouin and Nubian workers as our full time team here. Local Bedouins run our dive cars, Camel Safaris and all the trips we do. We consider our Bedouin friends to be an extension of our family.

All of our kids are very aware of how precious this environment is and as they are bi-lingual are also able to chat away to the local kids about why it is wrong to fish, why not to throw rubbish in the sea etc and is very effective. This is the only way, via the kids, as the adults are too stuck in their ways to want to change. We pick rubbish from the beach at every site we go to both above and below water.