A Dash of Eco-ChicDaily Mail, Lifestyle Section, 11/02/08
Fancy holidaying like an A-Lister and giving to a good
cause? Then take a tip from last night’s BAFTA goodie bag from Nature &
Kind. The green travel company gave each nominee a £500 voucher redeemable
against eco-chic holidays. With the likes of George Clooney, James McAvoy and
Cate Blanchett on the list, we know we’ll be booking early this year. www.natureandkind.com
At Home With...Andrew Harding
Rise Magazine by Julian Hall, February 2007
Battersea’s Nature & Kind is a new company
offering an online directory of eco-friendly, luxury accommodations and
tour operators. Founder Andrew Harding explains to Julian Hall why eco-aware travellers shouldn’t feel they have to compromise comfort for conscience 
How did you start Nature & Kind?
After four years of headhunting I decided that it
wasn’t fulfilling my creative soul and so I took myself away from my
London life to go backpacking around Central America. While I was in
Guatemala I re-read Virginia McKenna’s ‘Born Free’ and it jolted all my
childhood dreams and passions about wildlife and the great outdoors. I
left headhunting and ended up project managing Alladale, Europe’s first
ever wilderness and wildlife reserve in Scotland. From that base that I
started to piece together Nature & Kind. I wanted to offer media
support to small, privately owned operators in eco-tourism who often
have limited marketing budgets and also give the traveller one trusted
place to go to search, compare and book travel experiences – by this I
mean trips offering time, space, exclusivity, well-being, adventure
fulfilment, responsibility and sustainability.
You have a quote on your website from Virginia McKenna, when did you meet?
 I met her and Will Travers when I worked for Alladale
but I also chose the Born Free Foundation as our first beneficiary of
donations (we now also have TUSK), which are made when people booked
through our website. She is quoted as saying that ‘nature’ and ‘kind’
were two of her favourite words – you can imagine that meant so much to
me.
Tell us more about the range of holidays that you offer?
At the moment we have 400 experiences worldwide,
principally in Africa, South America, India ranging from accommodation
from a luxury safari lodge and a two-man yurt in Patagonia, to a five
star city hotel in London, and tailor-made trips in Antarctica.
Currently, our most popular trips are gorilla tracking in Rwanda,
skiing in Kashmir, journeys in the Amazon and treking up Kilimanjaro.
Tell us more about your expert guides?
They are a fascinating bunch. Take Patrick Woodhead
for example. He was part of the youngest and fastest team to ever reach
the South Pole in 2002 and led the first ever east to west traverse of
Antarctica. He leads a unique 10-day Antarctic adventure combining
exploration with luxury accommodation and food.
What changes in the field of eco-tourism can we expect to see?
A lot of people will be travelling closer to home so
that means we’ll be looking at new opportunities in the UK and Europe
and at eco-friendly transport options such as rail and ferry. Nature
& Kind Life members are currently offered three options of getting
from A to B when they book a holiday through us with the greenest – the
rainforest green option – detailing everything down to getting picked
up in a hybrid car.
What other new developments are you hoping to make with your business?
We’re hoping to set up natureandkind.tv, which would
house video diaries, travelogues, and discussion forums and would be
accessible through internet, mobile and digital TV formats. Then we are
possibly going to launch a quarterly member’s magazine and in the
longer term some travel guides and podcasts. As a brand and lifestyle
company we are probably going to be looking at Eco-property next as
well. Any new housing development now has to adhere to strict
environmental criteria and yet there’s not one dedicated green estate
agent. We also launched a gift voucher programme which has been picked
up as an official nominee gift provider for this year’s BAFTAs – and
that was after only two weeks in the business!
Where are you located?
I work from home off Queenstown Road. I’ve lived in
Battersea for nine years and I have seen a few changes – cars are
getting smarter down the roads for a start! There’s more size and space
then north of the river and I enjoy entertaining so I need room for
that. I’m five minutes from Battersea Park and there’s nothing better
and more inspiring and invigorating than running down the river day or
night. I like the feeling of being central but without the hassle of
actually being in the centre.
Where do you like to go to eat, drink and relax?
I like Cinnamon Cay on Lavender Hill and my two
favourite pubs are The Fox & Hounds on Latchmere Road and The
Abbeville. I also like Le Buchon on Queenstown Road and there’s always
a great deal going on down Northcote Road which i like.
www.NatureandKind.com
Reader offer:
Join
Friends of Nature & Kind and receive 1000 free Kind Points (worth
£10) towards your Kind Rewards loyalty programme and start enjoying a
range of Kind Offers and Kind Benefits exclusive to members only. To
claim your Kind Points, enter RISE in the special offer code box at the
bottom of the online registration form
Nature & Kind Gifts Movie Stars
Carbonneutraltourism.co.uk by Richard Linnington, 20/01/08
Healthy
Living and Sustainable Lifestyle Company Nature & Kind has been
appointed as an Official Gift Provider to the nominees of the Orange
British Academy Film Awards in 2008.
Over 200 nominees for the awards including movie stars George
Clooney, Daniel Day-Lewis, James Mcavoy, Cate Blanchett, Julie
Christie, Kiera Knightly, Tommy Lee Jones, Samantha Morton, and Sienna
Miller will receive a £500 Nature & Kind Gift Voucher, redeemable
against a hand-picked collection of eco chic accommodation, adventurous
and cultural tailor-made tours and wellbeing retreats selected from the
Nature & Kind Travel Collection.
Andrew Harding, Founder of Nature & Kind says “We are honoured
to be supporting such a prestigious event in the international calendar
of film and entertainment, celebrating the achievements of British and
international talent in the Film industry. We are delighted to be
offering the nominees a gift from Nature & Kind, and we look
forward to planning and booking their travel experiences featured by
our Trusted Partners, who are committed to operating in an
environmentally and socially responsible way, without compromise to
high levels of guest comfort, service, style and value.”
In recognition of Nature & Kind’s commitment to environmental
conservation, Nature & Kind will be donating £50 to the Born Free
Foundation for every booking made by a nominee using their Nature &
Kind Gift. The Gift presentation folder includes a personal message to
the nominees from Virginia McKenna, Founder of the Born Free Foundation
and British Academy Film Award Winner and Nominee saying “Nature and
Kind are my two favourite words. Please accept this gift from Nature
& Kind and they will generously support the Born Free Foundation,
so that animals can be winners too!”
Healthy Living and Sustainable Travel Collection Launched
Travel Daily News International by Theodore Kournelis, Friday, January 04, 2008
Healthy Living and
Sustainable Lifestyle group Nature & Kind has launched the UK's
first travel collection in the emerging Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability (LOHAS) market,
targeting discerning travellers who want to plan, compare and book
accommodations and experiential travel experiences closely aligned with
their personal values of health and sustainability.
The Nature & Kind Travel Collection includes
over 350 (and growing daily) travel experiences from over 90 countries
around the world, each one having been individually sourced and
assessed from a hand-picked collection of accommodation and
experiential travel tour operators including notable luxury travel
brands such as Abercrombie & Kent, CC Africa and Banyan Tree Hotels
& Resorts as well as a number of specialist adventure and wellbeing
travel operators including Intrepid Travel, Wild Frontiers, Wildfitness
and in:spa.
The Nature & Kind Travel Collection includes eco chic hotels,
resorts, lodges, camps, holiday properties to rent and for sale and one
of the most comprehensive collections of experiential travel
experiences including wildlife safaris, small ship cruises, gourmet
tours, yoga and wellbeing retreats, charity challenges and expeditions.
The Nature & Kind Travel Collection can be viewed at
www.natureandkindtravel.com and aims to provide a one-stop-shop for
healthy living and sustainable travel destinations, experiences and
expert guides, as well as travel related healthy living and sustainable
lifestyle products and services.
Throughout the year Nature & Kind will be launching a range of
support marketing and customer support products and services including
a travel concierge service, member's magazine, gift voucher programme
and TV channel.
Nature & Kind Founder Andrew Harding says: "We
aim to be a pioneer brand and market leader in what was perhaps seen by
many as a niche marketing activity, which is a now mainstream travel
sector, growing three times faster than any other sector. In the UK
some 90% of the public believe a tour operator has a responsibility to
operate responsibly and one in four adults is prepared to pay a premium
for a responsible holiday. The potential for growth in this market is
huge, and if marketed in an aspirational way and responsibly operated,
this style of travel can not only make environmental sense but also
economic sense to the bottom line of operators, whilst offering a
premium experience for travellers of today and for future generations".
Harding adds "By increasing the awareness, accessibility and
demand for sustainable, healthy living and experiential travel, we hope
that our likeminded Trusted Partners, members and travellers can join
us in being part of the solution, making a positive difference to
environmental and social change – a central element of Nature &
Kind's philosophy."
A percentage of every booking made through Nature & Kind will be
donated to the Nature & Kind Foundation, a non-profit division of
Nature & Kind, which campaigns and raises money for environmental
conservation and social change programmes operating in areas of the
world that we and our Trusted Partners operate. Recent beneficiaries
include organisations such as the Born Free Foundation and the Tusk
Trust
The Thrill Seeker
Vanity Fair A-List by Alice B-B, 14/12/2007
If
you want to really treat the thrill seeker, then give them a present to
remember, such as a holiday
from Nature and Kind. This brand new
company have sourced 'new luxury' holidays from all over the world; a
ten-day experience to Antarctica with the world's best polar explorers
as your guides, living with a tribe in Brazil, or a cutting edge
physical transformation course in Kenya. With Bruce Parry, expedition
leader and TV presenter of BBC's Tribe series, as Nature and Kind's ambassador, you know you're in the right hands for thrilling but luxurious eco travel.
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