Carbon in Travel

We believe that reducing carbon wherever possible is essential. When put up against flights, these sorts of steps can sometimes appear trivial, but we disagree. These are the areas where we have an influence and are actively making a tangible difference:

• Providing clients with the information to mitigate their flight carbon if they wish to do so.
• Striving to reduce our clients’ overall trip carbon through the recommendation and logistical provision of train or other modes of transport in place of short-haul flights wherever appropriate.
• Recommending street-food and local eateries which – aside from being our favourite way to eat – reduce food waste and food miles.
• Designing an increasing number of shared vehicle tour programmes and introducing electric vehicles where possible.
• Championing hotel and accommodation recommendations which operate with measurable sustainability criteria.
• Supporting regenerative woodland projects.

Reduction

We’ll continue to work with our partners across Asia to improve efficiency and find more sustainable modes of transport away from unnecessary flights. As part of our BCorp responsibilities, we’ll open and join discussions around greener air travel, hotels, food and vehicles, and we’ll share ways you could reduce your own carbon footprint.

Education

Ignorance is bliss, right? Except it can also end in disaster, which is why we think it’s better to let you make informed decisions. We’re also committed to training our network overseas, so that they can make the best decisions when it comes to lowering emissions, be that serving up local seasonal ingredients or limiting the use of cars.

Community

We need each other, and collectively we are more likely to come up with the answers, quickly. Committed as we are to always improving, there are many better informed, more enlightened minds out there — we salute you, and hope you’ll join this conversation.

With an increasing number of reports casting doubt on its benefits, carbon mitigation is a subject that greatly divides opinion, and we certainly don’t purport to be experts. Given the uncertainty of this area, we do not feel it is appropriate to include carbon mitigating projects as standard to balance your flight carbon.

We have, however, done the groundwork and research to identify what we believe to be one of the leading mitigation solutions, as detailed below, so you can follow that path should you wish to.

We recommend using C-Level. They work directly with environmental scientists and communities in vulnerable habitats to develop functional ways to make conservation profitable for local people. They then channel carbon mitigation payments directly into these projects. It sounds straightforward enough, but a lot of thought, science and economics go into it. We think it’s worth every penny.

To be clear, this isn’t a case of paying a fee to sweep the problem under the carpet and give us all carte blanche to stampede through Asia. As a conscientious operator, we believe that reducing the carbon impact of our trips where we can is a more certain way forward, as detailed above.

More about C Level…

C Level offer tangible impact through high-standard initiatives, such as their Khasi Hills project in Meghalaya India, which cover the tri values that define Carbon Balanced certification: action on carbon (verified and to the highest standard under Plan Vivo), action on forests (both protection and restoration of forests and ecosystems), working with communities (all C Level projects deliver full agency to indigenous local communities and support sustainable livelihoods). This ensures world-class community development in India, built around carbon removal.