Visitors who sign up for one of the programs offered by local tour operator Green Dream Tours can expect more than just run-of-the-mill sightseeing.
Green Dream Tours’ entire fleet of vehicles run on cleaner-burning bio-diesel. Guides use the fleet as a jumping-off point to explain to visitors the growing use of alternative fuels in the Bay Area. Photo courtesy of Green Dream Tours
By Bill Picture
Published: July, 2010
“Pretty much from the beginning, I said, ‘I don’t want to do this using conventional fuel,’” he explained. “It costs me probably 20-30 percent more to run on biodiesel, but it’s important to me to do it this way. I wouldn’t do it any other way.”
It’s also proven to be useful as a jumping-off point for Sasson to explain to his clients the growing importance of alternative fuels in the Bay Area. “I tell them about San Francisco’s biodiesel program, and they’re really impressed.”
Under San Francisco’s Greasecycle program, used cooking oil is collected from participating restaurants and converted into biodiesel for City vehicles. The goal is to eventually convert the City’s entire fleet to biodiesel. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has also paved the way for greener taxi service by requiring cab companies to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. As of March, more than half of the City’s taxi fleet is comprised of alternative fuel vehicles, including hybrids and compressed natural gas vehicles.
Sasson also talked about the City’s aggressive recycling program, and its ban on Styrofoam and plastic shopping bags. Sasson already uses only recycled paper in his office. In the future, he plans to print all of Green Dream Tours’ marketing and promotional materials on recycled paper as well.
While tourists seem genuinely interested in green efforts like these, Sasson doesn’t believe it plays much of a role in the average customer’s purchasing decisions. “Only a small percentage of my clients choose me because I’m a green business,” he said. “Cost, along with recommendations from concierges and previous customers, are much bigger factors.”
Because visitors, in general, are still more concerned with what a tour operator charges than they are with an operator’s efforts to minimize its carbon footprint, Sasson says that hotel concierges are less likely to direct customers to green businesses for environmental reasons.
“Hotel staff doesn’t take a big interest in stuff like that,” he says. “It’s their job to give the guests what they want, and what the guests want is a good price. It’s a little disheartening.”
Still, Sasson says he continues tooting the Bay Area’s green horn and incorporating nature into his tours to expose clients to the beauty of the outdoors, in the hopes that it will inspire them to live greener.
“There’s something really wonderful about the look that people get on their faces when they see Muir Woods for the first time,” he said. “It’s a look of excitement like, ‘Wow, that was really cool!’ I hope they take that excitement back home with them.”
One might guess that, after leading dozens of tours each month, Sasson would be sick of revisiting the same locations over and over again. But nothing could be further from the truth.
“It’s still fun for me,” he says. “I love this City. I love talking about it, sharing its history with people. I’m definitely not sick of it yet. Plus, I get to re-experience this city through a new set of eyes each time—my clients’. It’s like rediscovering it all over again.”
For more information on Green Dream Tours, visit www.greendreamtours.com
Green Dream Tours make all of the usual stops, including the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood. However, the company’s founder, a self-admitted history buff, delves more into local history, sharing with visitors interesting details that make each of San Francisco’s neighborhoods so unique. Photo courtesy of Green Dream Tours
Despite his increasing efforts to do business in a greener, more sustainable manner, Sasson says that visitors are still most interested in price. Nevertheless, he says they are quite impressed with what San Francisco citizens and businesses are doing to minimize their respective carbon footprints. Photo courtesy of Green Dream Tours
