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New Guide to Help Travel Businesses Decarbonize During the Pandemic

Carbon-neutral travel giant Intrepid Travel aims to assist others in rebuilding responsibly, for a more sustainable return to tourism.

Published 5 years ago | About a 2 minute read

Image: Sam Ford/Intrepid Travel

Responsible tour operator Intrepid Travel, a certified B Corp that has been carbon-neutral since 2010 and aims to become climate positive in 2020, has released an open-source document called A 10-Step Quick Start Guide to Decarbonize Your Travel Business.

Intrepid created the guide as part of its #RebuildResponsibly advocacy work — which has become a focus while international travel is halted, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. The new complimentary resource is meant to provide an easy-to-follow action plan for carbon reduction and offsetting for tourism businesses, to encourage the industry to rebuild more sustainably amidst the pandemic.

“The COVID-19 crisis has brought our sector and the global economy to a halt this year and we would be remiss to not let it be for something good,” said Intrepid CEO James Thornton. “We shouldn’t be aspiring for things to go back to normal — but rather redefine what normal means and use this period of travel stagnation to focus on rebuilding our businesses more ethically and sustainably, so that our earth is preserved for future generations to explore.”

In the months leading up to the coronavirus outbreak, the tourism industry’s growth was on a steep upward trajectory. But this exponential growth was also unsustainable; thanks to the pandemic, global tourism imploded practically overnight. As of April 24, the WTTC estimated the pandemic would be responsible for approximately 100.8 million lost jobs and US$2.7 trillion of GDP.

Intrepid, the world’s largest adventure travel company with a focus on sustainable travel, says it’s been using this time to think about how we can rebuild better itself — and use its tools and insights to encourage other industry operators to emerge from this crisis as more responsible businesses.

Advocating for net zero emissions by 2030 is one of the key areas that Intrepid has identified as critical to a responsible re-emergence of global travel; along with ending exploitative wildlife tourism, establishing stronger governance and compliance, and empowering communities and supply chains. In the weeks and months ahead, Intrepid says it will continue to roll out several other initiatives and partnerships to support these areas.

The Quick Start Guide provides a low-barrier way for other travel companies to get started on their carbon journey by offering straightforward steps — from understanding how climate change is impacting your business to developing a carbon management strategy — and using real-world examples from Intrepid to show how others can implement similar strategies within their own organization.

Learn more about and download A 10-Step Quick Start Guide to Decarbonize Your Travel Business here.