environmental strategies for travel agencies

Introduction

This page concerns environmental strategies for companies which organise trips and make travel arrangements for their customers.

Travel companies have the potential to generate very high carbon footprints and should therefore be at the forefront of taking responsibility for their emissions.

Whether or not taking action on the environment is worth doing right now will depend primarily upon the moral stance of your staff and management and, perhaps most importantly, the impact on demand for your services.

The usual starting point is for us to create a tailor-made Environmental Strategy Report for your company, to serve as a framework within which you can outline your ambitions, quantify your emissions and assess progress on your various positive actions.

The second part of the process is the attainment of carbon certification, the primary mechanism through which you can broadcast your environmental achievements.

Carbon certification is usually achieved through the purchase of carbon credits (most commonly from tree-planting projects), with the required quantity being determined by the annual calculation of your emissions and the level of certification that you select.

Being largely aware of the carbon footprint caused by travel, customers in this sector are often very receptive to positive environmental messages, viewing carbon-neutral companies as more positive, approachable and forward-thinking.

Many travel companies are finding that, by demonstrating environmental responsibility, they are able to leverage significant commercial advantages that far outweigh the modest costs.

For travel companies there are three levels of certification.

Carbon aware

Carbon aware is the entry level certification. It tends to work well for companies which are just getting started with the whole process and want to keep their initial expenditure to a minimum.

Being carbon aware means that you simply offer your customers the option to offset the carbon footprint of the products that they buy from you, which typically adds around 0.2-0.8% to the invoice value.

We can help you set this system up in such a way that you can purchase the appropriate quantity of offsets from us retrospectively and we will then plant the requisite number of tropical trees.

It is important to make the point that your carbon aware certification is not affected by the proportion of customers who choose to pay for the carbon offsets. So long as you have introduced them to the concept, that is as far as your obligation goes.

If a customer chooses not to take up the offsetting option, the product’s carbon debt remains unpaid. Becoming carbon aware is therefore not an ideal solution from an environmental perspective, but it is a decent step in the right direction.

A major attractions of this level of certification are that it let’s your customers know that you are taking action on carbon, it typical involves very little direct cost to the company and the offsets can represent a significant source of additional income, as they carry a modest retail margin.

When it comes to guide prices for the first year, the Environmental Action Report typically works out around GBP 1000 / USD 3600 per million turnover. You may also like us to assist with implementing your Surcharge Process for around GBP 1000 / USD 1200. These costs tend to be around 70% lower in subsequent years.

Carbon neutral certification

Carbon Neutral is a popular level of certification amongst travel companies and is suited to a very wide range of forward-thinking brands.

Being carbon neutral means that you offset the carbon footprint of your company infrastructure, but you do not take responsibility for the carbon generated by your product (which remains the responsibility of your consumers).

It’s a great place for most companies to start, usually being simple to achieve and relatively low cost.

Carbon neutral status is achieved through the payment of an annual fee, based upon our assessment of your carbon footprint.

For a travel company that typically includes the carbon emissions resulting from your buildings, staff and associated extras.

It does not usually include any components of the trips that you sell.

Depending on your brand, products and customer expectations, you may also choose to offer your customers the chance to offset the carbon footprint of the products that they buy from you. This can be done in on the voluntary basis described in the Carbon Aware section above or on the more onerous way described in the Carbon Free section below. But this is not an obligation under Carbon Neutral certification.

When it comes to guide prices for the first year, the Environmental Action Report typically works out around GBP 1000 / USD 3600 per million turnover. If you choose to go Carbon Neutral, that usually falls in the range GBP 275-525 / USD 330-630 per employee, depending on your level of emissions. These costs tend to be around 70% lower in subsequent years.

Carbon free

Carbon Free is the highest level of certification.

It is usually associated with companies which have environmental values deeply embedded in their brand strategy and whose customers who are highly responsive to positive environmental messaging.

For the right type of travel company, carbon free status can be a very powerful motivating factor for customers, delivering commercial advantages which far outweigh the relatively modest costs.

Going carbon free means that you take full responsibility for the carbon footprints created by both your company infrastructure and the travel products that you sell.

The infrastructure footprint is usually offset by the direct purchase of carbon credits by the company.

The product footprint can be charged to the customer visibly or invisibly on their invoices, or simply wrapped into the prices and paid directly by the company.

The first part is done by the payment of a fixed annual fee, based upon our assessment of your carbon footprint (as described in the carbon neutral section above).

For travel companies we usually recommend that you add carbon supplements to your invoices, typically around 0.2-0.8% of the total value. This is usually best done as a separate and very visible surcharge, which can be compulsory, opt-out or opt-in.

Since you are taking full responsibility for the carbon emissions, where customers decline to pay the surcharge, you will need to settle the outstanding carbon debt. The level of uptake is therefore critical in defining the cost to the company.

You can test the water by trialing surcharges at the carbon aware level and then take on the additional responsibility of carbon free certification once you have an understanding of how to achieve suitable take-up rates.

This typically adds around 0.3-0.6% to your prices, so should not be a major factor if your brand is strong and your product is suitably differentiated.

It is usual to pay for the offsetting of you infrastructure up front, but the offsetting of the product is usually done retrospectively at the end of a convenient accounting period, after you have received payment from your customers. So it’s actually cash positive.

The required number of tropical trees will be planted in advance, so there’s no delay in getting your carbon sequestration underway.

When it comes to guide prices for the first year, the Environmental Action Report typically works out around GBP 1000 / USD 3600 per million turnover. You may also like us to assist with implementing your Surcharge Process for around GBP 1000 / USD 1200. The cost of purchasing carbon credits can vary enormously (depending on your company description and the level of take-up from your customers), but typically falls in the range 0.0-0.6% of turnover. These costs tend to be around 70% lower in subsequent years.

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Services and costs

In this article we describe the services that we offer and the process through which we would guide you, on the way to fulfilling your environmental ambitions.