We care about the environment

We have won multiple awards for our environmental focus including a Thistle Award for Sustainable Tourism, the Queen’s Award for Enterprise (Sustainability) three times and a Chamber of Commerce Environmental Award. 

TOWARDS NET ZERO

We have had studies undertaken to identify our emission sources (Scope 1-3) and are working through priority actions to reduce in particular, scope 1 and 2 emissions. Scope 3 emissions relate primarily to our wildlife boat experiences (3rd party operators) and to our product suppliers and are not within our direct control. Examples of our approach to having a business model that is more sustainable include:

Energy

• We use renewable electricity sources and companies that have appropriate offsetting for gas
• We have solar panels installed at our Centre both to heat our water and also to provide electricity on a feed in tariff.
• Many of our cameras on the Firth of Forth islands are solar powered, as is our car park ticket machine.
• We continuously monitor and take steps to minimise our water, gas and electricity consumption.

We’ve made significant improvements to our energy efficiency over 2024 and 2025. This has been made possible with The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Thanks to National Lottery players, we’ve been able to repair our photovoltaic system, solar thermal system and upgrade our hot water system. This vitally important work is helping us to be more energy efficient; to utilise more renewable sources and further reduce our carbon emissions.

Further Energy Improvements

Thanks to support from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, have also upgraded the lighting in the Centre and our office building. We’re replacing old inefficient bulbs with new high efficiency LED lighting along with introducing sensors and controls to minimise active energy use. We're also installing networked electrical sub metering on key main distribution boards to allow us to actively manage our electrical energy, reduce our base load, running costs and carbon emissions.

The UK Shared Prosperity Fund aims to improve pride in place and increase life chances across the UK investing in communities and place, supporting local business, people and skills. We are very grateful to them for supporting this project and helping our work towards net zero.

Products

• We have a sustainable, local and ethical purchasing policy and strive to use environmentally-sustainable products in our gift shop and when we have to replace assets.
• We use locally and sustainably sourced food products wherever we can.

Reduce, reuse, recycle

• We are a water refill station.
• We provide dedicated recycling units for customers and our team.
• We re-use furniture and fittings wherever possible.
• We use low energy and reactive light bulbs.
• We use water butts to catch rainwater for use in flower pots or washing our outdoor equipment.
• We recycle food waste and cooking oil.

Travel

• We encourage car share, cycling and walking to work.
• We offer discounts to customers who visit via public transport - ScotRail and East Coast Bus.
• We encourage hybrid working to reduce travel to work where this is operationally feasible.
• We encourage use of digital meeting platforms to reduce work travel time.

Team training

• We embed environmental awareness in our induction programme.
• We have a Green Team to help us develop and implement actions.
• We invest in further awareness raising and training for our team.

Nature and climate

• We raise awareness of the nature and climate crises through our Centre, conservation, learning and outreach programmes.
• We work with North Berwick in Bloom who manage our wildflower garden and have created a coastal grassland on part of our site.
• We are a Keep Scotland Beautiful Beach clean hub and loan out beach clean equipment.
• We organise regular social beach cleans within our community.
• We encourage participation in active volunteering for nature including island habitat management and seagrass restoration.
• We operate good biosecurity protocols to reduce the risk of transfer of invasive species or pests/disease within the environment.

Green Tourism

We are a Green Tourism award holder. We use the green checklist to help us continue to strive to improve our overall offer.

Sustainability policies

We have strengthened our existing internal policies and created new ones to help guide us to a future as a sustainable organisation with clear goals and targets. This has included updates to our Ethical and Sustainable Purchasing Policy, a new Waste and Recycling Policy and new Energy and Carbon Policy. We also have a Sustainable Travel Policy.

If you have any comments on these or this page please email info@seabird.org with the name of the policy or “Sustainability” noted in the subject line.