A 10-Step Quick Start Guide To Decarbonise Your Travel .

A 10-Step Quick Start Guide toDecarbonise Your Travel Business2020

The time toact is nowThis year started with many communities around Australiaexperiencing the devastating impacts of climate change. Bushfires.Floods. Record heatwaves. Lives were lost and more than a millionwildlife perished. For Intrepid, which is headquartered in Melbourne,the effects were all too clear. But we are not only seeing the impactsof climate change here in Australia.As a global business, in 2019 we had more than 40 offices aroundthe world and operations in some 130 countries. We have seenthe effects of climate change everywhere we operate – a localcommunity affected by flooding in Kerala, India, re-routing ourtours in Europe due to heatwaves in 2019, and a hurricane causingdestruction and death in the Bahamas and along North America’sEastern seaboard.We have been taking action on climate change for 15 years, havebeen a carbon neutral business since 2010, and we now aim tobecome climate positive in the future. But we recognize that this isnot enough.Before COVID-19 brought the world, and the travel industry to ahalt, tourism accounted for roughly eight per cent of the world’scarbon emissions. And while the pandemic has crippled ourindustry, it has also provided us with the opportunity to reassessour actions and commit to being better. To use this time tochallenge ourselves to emerge from this crisis better than we werebefore – more sustainable, more ethical and more responsible.We fundamentally believe that the tourism industry can rebound evenstronger than it was before, but only if it rebuilds more responsibly.And the best way to act on climate change is for individuals, businessesand governments to work together to reduce our collective carbonemissions.That is why we’ve created this 10-step guide — to provide an easy-tofollow action plan for other tourism businesses to get started on theirjourney, and to encourage our industry to rebuild more sustainably.James Thornton, CEO, Intrepid TravelA 10-Step Quick Start Guide to Decarbonise Your Travel Business

Step 1: Understand how climate change isimpacting your business.Engage with your stakeholders — customers, employees and investors —through a variety of mechanisms, including direct dialogue, surveys andengagement at professional and industry forums to understand how climatechange is impacting your business and value chain. Take time to learnwhat the latest science says, and how your company’s operations might beimpacting that.Intrepid has not only recentlybecome worried about climatechange. In fact, our journey startedin 2005 when a group of seniormanagers read The Weather Makersby Tim Flannery about the historyand future impact of climatechange, which got us thinkingabout our role in it.The next year, our concernsgrew when we took the entireIntrepid office – along with 900of our travellers – to see thedocumentary An Inconvenient Truth.No one liked what they saw. Werealised that we needed to start toact – and fast. We then surveyedseveral thousand travellers acrossthe globe and discovered that91 per cent wanted us to takedefinitive action on climate.Our customers – or potentialcustomers – had spoken and westarted to take practical steps.For example, our co-founderDarrell Wade was one of the firstAustralians to complete ClimateProject training with former U.S.Vice President Al Gore.The Climate Reality Project, foundedand chaired by Gore, is a pioneerin building a diverse set of voiceson climate change, trainingindividuals to better communicateand engage on this pressing issue.Taking this action a step further, inJuly 2020 the organisation offeredglobal virtual advocacy training.Find out more here.A 10-Step Quick Start Guide to Decarbonise Your Travel BusinessStep 2: Build internal support.Make the case with data but do not underestimate the importance ofinterpersonal skills and ensure you engage employees early on. Realchange requires the buy-in, work and dedication of the collective.Intrepid has dedicated staff inour Responsible Business teamwho lead our climate journey.These individuals work closelywith all levels of management.Together, the first big win wasbecoming carbon neutral in 2010.Our team recently doubled downtheir efforts with the processof setting emission reductiontargets. This required discussinggoals, assessing feasibilityand co-creating practicalimplementation plans.As our employees outside of ourResponsible Business team donot typically have a backgroundin climate science, it has beenimportant to engage employeesacross the company globally byrunning educational webinarsand developing online learningresources.

Step 3: Define your project team.Step 4: Declare a climate emergency.Every organisation differs in size and available resources. If you do nothave in-house staff who can effectively work on decarbonisation andreduction strategies, consider working with a third party to assist with theenvironmental data collection and build capacity overtime internally.Every organisation is different and will develop their plans independently,although we encourage everyone who works in the travel industry to visitTourism Declares to learn more about this initiative and specific actions youcan commit to.While we have been carbonneutral since 2010, in late 2018,Intrepid revised our reportingmethod in line with the NationalCarbon Offsetting Standards (NCOS)under the Australian Government’sCarbon Neutral Initiative.At this time we started workingwith a third party carbon andsustainability consultancy businesscalled Ndevr Environmental toimprove the monitoring andmanagement of our environmentaldata. The third-party operatorallowed us to make the processmore efficient and user-friendly forour staff while compiling Intrepid’sannual GHG inventory for carbonneutral certification under theAustralian Climate Active CarbonNeutral Standard.In 2019, we hired an inhouse Environmental ImpactSpecialist, Dr. Susanne Etti, whois responsible for measuringand driving environmentalperformance, as well as developingand implementing a culture ofsustainability leadership within theorganisation.Although Intrepid has been carbonneutral for roughly 10 years, wehave increasingly become awarethis is not enough. That is whyin January 2020, we declared aclimate emergency with TourismDeclares, a global collective oftourism businesses, organisationsand individuals who have pledgedStep 5: Develop a carbon management strategy.Your carbon management strategy needs to focus on measuringyour company’s emissions annually, identifying emission reductionopportunities and offsetting the unavoidable emissions.Intrepid has been maintaining acarbon management programsince 2010, which includes anemission reduction initiativeacross our offices and trips. Wecontinue to manage the impact ofour trips and offices around theworld using Measure – Reduce– Offset carbon managementprinciples: Measure - In our offices,Intrepid measures emissions fromelectricity, gas, waste, businesstravel and paper usage. Reduce - In our offices, IntrepidA 10-Step Quick Start Guide to Decarbonise Your Travel Businessurgent action on climate change.As part of our declaration, wecommitted to a seven-pointclimate action plan. One ofthe points is about sciencebased targets or SBTs, whichwe believe is truly fundamental.You can read our seven-pointcommitment plan here.recycles waste, along with choosinggreen power providers and limitingpaper usage at every opportunity. Offset - Intrepid has offsetmore than 346,500 tonnes ofCO2 emissions since 2010 (asof December 2019). We supportprojects that enhance social justiceand equality, such as savannahburning projects in Australia’sNorthern Territory. These projectssupport employment for Aboriginalpeople and help maintain culturalpractices, among other benefits.Learn more about ourcarbon managementprocess here.

Step 6: Measure your emissions.From transport, to waste, to energy use – you need to know where youremissions are coming from so you can understand how to limit them.We measure our annualgreenhouse gas (GHG) inventoryin accordance with the global GHGProtocol. In late 2018, we revisedour reporting method in line withthe National Carbon OffsettingStandards (NCOS) under theAustralian Government’s CarbonNeutral Initiative.At this time, we started workingwith a third party carbon andsustainability consultancyorganisation called NdevrEnvironmental to compile Intrepid’sannual GHG inventory for carbonneutral certification under theAustralian Climate Active CarbonNeutral Standard.business activities and allcustomer-facing brands across42 global offices coveringbottled & natural gas, companyvehicles, electricity, water, waste,paper, business travel and staffcommuting.For our trips, this includesall emissions producedfrom our tours in over 120countries covering transport,accommodation and waste,though excluding customers’transport to arrive at the tourstarting point & depart fromthe tour ending point, as well asoptional activities, as these are notcontrolled by Intrepid.For our business, this includesemissions from corporateStep 7: Reduce your carbon emissions.Once you understand where your emissions come from, you can startto identify opportunities to reduce the carbon emissions your companyproduces from your daily business operations and travel offerings.In line with our carbonmanagement program, weactively look for opportunitiesto reduce the carbon emissionsfrom our trips. For example,on our tours, we have changeditineraries where possible so thatour customers take buses ortrains instead of flights and stay inaccommodation with fans insteadof air-conditioned hotels, amongstother initiatives. Additionally,Intrepid is working toward higheroccupancy per trip as a measureto reduce emissions overall andper passenger.In our offices, Intrepid recycleswaste, along with choosing greenpower providers and limitingpaper usage at every opportunity.A 10-Step Quick Start Guide to Decarbonise Your Travel BusinessIn 2019, awareness-raisingcampaigns were rolled out incollaboration with dedicatedstaff in various offices to improvesignage and education aboutrecycling practices, whichcontributed to a reduction inour GHG emissions for officewaste. We use designatedrecycling program bins to helpstaff recycle and sort waste,and take waste not collectedin Melbourne (our globalheadquarters), such as softplastics and plastic bottle caps,to private business’ collectionprograms rather than throwingthem in a landfill.