Sustainable Travel: Planet

Protecting the planet we explore

Our People, Places & Planet plan works towards improving life through travel - for the places we visit on our adventures, the people we meet when there, and the planet which hosts us. Here, we describe our climate action plan.

At the start of 2020, Exodus Travels and sister company, Headwater, were two of the first travel companies in the world to declare a climate emergency, publicly recognising that our planet is in crisis and committing to play our part in taking action on climate change.

Now, in 2021, we are making a promise to the planet, which we will deliver with every adventure.

We don’t have all the answers yet and recognise we have a big challenge ahead, but we commit to keeping you updated on the progress of our climate change action. We also welcome your comments, ideas and questions: [email protected]

Our Planet Promise

Reduce

Reduce

Halve our carbon footprint by 2030

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Rewild

Rewild

Rewild 100m2 for every passenger 

Remove

Remove

Compensate for all trip emissions

Reducing our footprint

We have set ourselves a science-based target to halve our carbon footprint per passenger by 2030. Here are some of the ways we’ll work towards this goal:

  • We will pilot a collection of ‘ultra-low carbon trips’ and carbon score all trips by 2022 to better inform the path to our 2030 target.
  • We are expanding our train travel booking service, offering train travel to most European trips by the end of 2021. Read more about taking the train to our trips here.
  • We’ve set a goal for ‘plastic-free picnics’ by 2022; aiming to eliminate single-use plastics from all picnics and packed meals on our trips (plastic contains lots of ‘embodied carbon’).
  • We already strive to offer lower carbon adventures in the following ways, and will continue to expand these efforts across our trips, measuring our progress:
    • Aiming to ensure at least 90% of food provided on our trips is locally sourced, meaning it’s not been transported long distances.
    • Opting for lower impact in-country transportation, and offering an extensive range of ‘self-powered’ holidays.
    • Selecting smaller, locally-run accommodation and eco-hotels, which have a lower impact on the surrounding environment than big hotel chains.
    • Continuing to ensure that there are always vegetarian – if not vegan - options available in the places we take our clients.

Read more about our carbon measurement and management here.

Rewilding and removing carbon

Our Planet Promise focuses first and foremost on carbon footprint reduction over and above carbon mitigation. However, we also have both a desire and a responsibility to help protect the biodiversity and landscapes which play such a vital role in removing the carbon we emit.

We’re proud to be partnering with Rewilding Europe to launch the innovative Nature & Carbon Corridors project and rewild 100 square metres for every passenger who travels with us:

  • This project aims to rewild 5k hectares of the Italian Apennines in 5 years, creating 5 nature corridors, promoting biodiversity, capable of capturing 85k tonnes of carbon over 5 years.
  • Additionally, the corridors will enable an increase in the endangered Marsican bear population, plus recovery of wolf, lynx and wild boar populations and other wildlife, big and small.
  • The project will establish an entrepreneurial community carbon scheme to replace lost agricultural income for local farmers.

Read more about our Nature & Carbon Corridors project here.

In partnership with both Rewilding Europe and South Pole we will fully compensate for the carbon emitted by all of our adventures, including the flights we sell. Find out more here.

Reaching out

We continue to support and advocate for climate action and biodiversity protection with all of our partners, opting to work with those with more developed climate action plans.

However, we know we can’t tackle an issue of this size and complexity on our own; we need to work together across the sector, and with other sectors, to share knowledge and advocate for change. We have joined other travel companies across the sector in declaring a climate emergency. As one of the pledge’s founding signatories, we sit on the Tourism Declares voluntary board, with a responsibility for helping to engage and support the wider sector in climate change action.

We are also part of ABTA’s sustainable travel working group, collaborating and sharing learnings with fellow travel companies to accelerate sector-wide carbon reduction.

 

We don’t have all the answers yet and recognise we have a big challenge ahead, but we commit to keeping you updated on the progress of our climate action. We also welcome your comments, ideas and questions: [email protected]

Read about our People, Places & Planet plan

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