Yes, traveling is a privilege. But how you travel has the power to change the world. Globally 1-in-10 jobs is linked to tourism, and it's the economic engine giving communities and destinations around the world hope for a better future.
Better travel is all maximising benefits for the people and places you visit, while minimising the negative impacts and doing what you love to do. It's about better choices. Among other things, this means flying less, staying longer, and always, always traveling carbon neutral.
Travel, emissions, and climate change can be confusing. Especially if you're looking for actionable solutions and genuine impact. That's why we put such emphasis on partnering with experts. The data scientists at South Pole help us confidently estimate the emissions linked to the trips we sell. That being said, calculating emissions is never a precise science; it always includes estimates and assumptions. What's important is to use the most up to-date and science-based estimates and assumptions. That's what South Pole does for us. And as a second step, we ask them to round-up. By 20%! It's called an "uncertainty coefficient," and (we think) every climate-responsible business should use one. Err on the side of caution, the world can't afford not to.
Each offset (sometimes called a "carbon-credit") reduces global carbon emissions by 1 metric ton of CO2 (which means we're obviously buying a lot of them!). The offset projects we support through our Better Trips Fund are certified by independent auditors and managed by South Pole who has decades of experience and an impeccable reputation. So, while offsets have many skeptics (for good reason), we're as confident as we can be that the offsets we buy really do make an immediate difference in terms of curbing emissions today.
Transparency is important for us. We completely offset your in-destination carbon footprint (hotels, local transport, in-destination flights, meals, etc), which represents 30-90% of your total trip emissions (depending whether you fly, drive, or train to your destination). If you'd like to also offset your to-destination transportation we recommend using South Pole's personal carbon calculator.
Thanks to our one-traveler-two-tree policy and our Better Trips Fund, we are helping to re-plant a mangrove forest in Madagascar. It takes about 20 years new trees to turn into an effective carbon sink, which is why we see this as an investment for the future—something we're proud to do in addition to completely offsetting your itinerary with projects that are certified for a immediate impact today.
Also called “net zero”, or “carbon neutral,” this means that we eliminate, capture or otherwise mitigate all of the carbon emissions we create, including those from our office, events, web-servers, and the trips sold through our platform. We also publicly report our impact as part of the UNFCCC Climate Neutral Now project.
Addressing climate change in our business (and the world) requires a focus on continuous improvement. It's a journey, and we're in it for the long-haul. We're proud to be at the vanguard of climate-responsible businesses. We hope others will join us.
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