Red Funnel awarded sought after sustainable transport award

Red Funnel Ferries has been recognised for actively promoting the use of sustainable transport and has been awarded a ‘Gold Star’ certificate from Visit Isle of Wight.

The Visit Isle of Wight Green Star scheme acknowledges and rewards businesses that actively promote the use of sustainable transport to protect the environment and enhance customer experience on the Island.

To reach Gold Star status, businesses are required to meet at least seven out of the eight criteria set by Visit Isle of Wight including; providing information to customers about travelling to its premises using sustainable transport, providing information to customers about exploring the Isle of Wight using sustainable transport, providing dedicated facilities for cyclists and walkers, plus offering a discount or incentive to customers who arrive by sustainable transport.

Fran Collins, CEO at Red Funnel said: “We are proud to be awarded Gold Star status from Visit Isle of Wight in recognition of our promotion of sustainable transport. Sustainability, and the health of our environment, is something that Red Funnel is extremely passionate about. We are always thinking of and implementing ways to increase our customers’ awareness about sustainable transport on both sides of the Solent, as well as reducing our impact on the world around us.

“The Isle of Wight is fortunate to have excellent bus links via Southern Vectis and it’s a well-known fact that the Island is a haven for cyclists with incredible cycling routes and trails. We are happy to accommodate cyclists bringing their bicycles over on foot via our Southampton-East Cowes route and there’s no extra charge for this.”

As well as reaching Gold Star status, Red Funnel recently launched its own ‘Red goes Green’ initiative which demonstrates the company’s commitment to reducing its environmental impact.

Through this initiative Red Funnel announced new initiatives to help improve and conserve the environment including; reducing plastics on-board, increasing its proportion of dry recycling and improving fuel efficiency. Red Funnel also offers a year-round discount of 25 per cent off vehicle ferry travel for pure electric vehicles.

For more information about Red Funnel’s Red Goes Green environment strategy, visit: https://www.redfunnel.co.uk/environment.

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For further information regarding Red Funnel, please contact:

Lisa Norman or Kirsti Pawlowski at McKenna Townsend

T: 01425 472330

E: [email protected]

About Red Funnel

Red Funnel is the original Isle of Wight ferry company with roots tracing back to 1820. Based in the UK port of Southampton, Red Funnel carries 2.3m passengers and over 800,000 vehicles on its ferry route between the UK port of Southampton and East Cowes and 1.1m passengers between Southampton and West Cowes on its Red Jet Hi-Speed service.  In addition to ferry travel, Red Funnel is the only cross-Solent operator to offer ferry inclusive bonded holiday accommodation, attraction tickets, festival and event tickets and activity packages. Sub-brands include ‘Red Jet’ (the Hi-Speed passenger only ferry service serving West Cowes) and two food & beverage brands, ‘Steam Coffee Company’ and ‘ReFuel’.  The Company is a founder member of Visit Isle of Wight Ltd, the Island’s not for profit destination management organisation and Red Funnel sponsors or supports most of the Island’s premier events including the IW Festival, Cowes Week, Isle of Arts, The Red Funnel IW Literary Festival, IW Newport Jazz Festival, Isle Walk Festival, Ventnor Fringe Festival and Wolverton Manor Garden Show as well as a range of community and niche interest events. Red Funnel’s 2019 Charity of the Year is Mountbatten Hospice, Isle of Wight.

For more information visit: www.redfunnel.co.uk