Reservations

Luxury Travel

Reservations

Luxury Travel

Working towards a sustainable future in travel

Michael Edwards is the managing director of Explore an adventure specialist that's been in operation for more than 40 years. sustainability is at the heart of everything it does; here's how and why.

This is a feature from Issue 13 of Charitable Traveller. 

Explore has had sustainability in its DNA since its conception over 40 years ago. Focused on small group travel that seeks to minimise impact on the planet and benefit local communities, we strive to keep making improvements year-on-year – on trips, in our operations and at our HQ. We recognise that, as a tour operator that organises travel all over the world, we have a responsibility in doing everything we can to reduce our impact on the planet, and ensure that our groups of travellers are always welcomed back to the places and communities they visit.
As such, we were a founding member of Tourism Declares a Climate Emergency and an original signatory of the Glasgow Declaration in 2020, and we’re really proud to have one of the best Climate Action Plans in the business. This year has been another big year of development and growth. In early 2022, Explore measured the carbon footprint of our entire business. Working with ecollective, our team measured the carbon emissions of every single one of our 400-plus trips, including accommodation, transport, meals and activities, as well as all operations involved in running the business, both in the UK and globally. This is the largest carbon measurement project of its kind in the travel industry globally to date.
It was a huge undertaking. The Product Team at Explore logged more than 400  hours adding nearly 10,000 lines of data to be processed and fact-checked by ecollective. Between us, we individually calculated almost 2,000 accommodation types and 24 types of transport. Every single small group trip now has its individual carbon footprint clearly labelled on the website and in our 2023 brochures – coming very soon!
Carbon measurement is one part of our four-part Climate Action Plan to measure,  reduce and mitigate carbon across our trips and operations, and then to communicate this. Now that we, and our customers, are Clear on Carbon, we are committed to reducing carbon across our trips and operations, with a target of a 50% reduction by 2030. This links to our commitment to the Glasgow Declaration.
This isn’t a case of vilifying those trips with a higher footprint. We will be working with all of our suppliers to begin reducing the higher scores – choosing more sustainable transport methods, or encouraging hotels to improve sustainability practices by, for example, switching to renewable energy and using rainwater/grey water where possible. Reducing carbon is just one part of continually making our holidays more sustainable, as part of our Sustainability Strategy. While measuring the carbon of our whole programme of trips, we have been developing our product to include more low-carbon options. We have introduced more UK itineraries, some new European overland trips that use public transport wherever possible, and a collection of London2 tours that travel from London by train. We believe that slower, overland tours are not only lower-carbon and more sustainable, but also more authentic and enjoyable experiences for our customers. 

We know we’re not perfect, and we certainly know we still have a long way to go, but our entire company ethos at Explore is to ‘be better than yesterday’ and that is what we strive to be, in everything that we do.

Ready to Explore the world responsibly?

Take a look at some of Explore’s tours in our Tour Search, and get in touch with our expert travel agents to book your perfect trip! 

This is a feature from Issue 13 of Charitable Traveller.