The tourism industry has a significant carbon footprint–before 2020 it accounted for eight percent of the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions. The Wilderness Group believes in the transformational power of tourism, and the truly positive impact it can have on individuals, communities, and the planet. The award-winning adventure travel group is thrilled to announce that all 156 itineraries across Wilderness Ireland, Wilderness Scotland, and Wilderness England, will now include Carbon Labeling, providing guests with rigorous calculations and true transparency of the carbon impact when they travel, helping adventurers make more informed decisions on where and how to travel.
Through their work with the carbon consultancy eCollective, The Wilderness Group has developed one of the world’s first carbon labeling schemes for travel. Like reading the nutritional information on a box of cereal, each itinerary now has a carbon label, or score, indicating the number of kilograms of carbon attributed to each trip, with an average of 142kg CO2e per traveler per trip across the whole business (compare this with a week at a Maldives resort, 603kg CO2e, or a Caribbean cruise, which is 445kg CO2e per day!) These labels were determined based on an analysis of the carbon footprint of over 5,000 services such as food, accommodation, transport, and activities.
“We want to help consumers make better travel choices,” says Paul Easto, CEO and Founder of The Wilderness Group. “We're calling on the travel and tourism industry to make such carbon labels standard; viewable alongside the price and dates of a holiday. With this information, we're confident that consumers will ultimately be empowered to make more sustainable travel choices.”
This project is integral to the Wilderness Group’s efforts to reach ‘true net zero’ by 2030. This will involve a 90% reduction in emissions over the next decade alongside long-term investment in carbon removal with charity Trees for Life on its Highland estate. In addition, the Wilderness Group will continue their work with local rewilding, wildlife and conservation charities through their Conservation Contribution Scheme.
Over the next decade, the Wilderness Group’s carbon reduction strategy will involve complete electrification of their vehicle fleet, deeper partnerships with low carbon accommodation and restaurants, and innovative product design to further reduce the carbon footprint of its itineraries.