DESTINATIONS SUSTAINABLE TRAVEL |CARBON LABELS


CARBON LABELS CALCULATED?


There’s no industry standard yet for how these numbers


are worked out, so operators vary. However, generally speaking, to calculate a carbon label each holiday is broken down into individual aspects, including everything from meals and activities to the tour leader’s travel to and from the start and end of the trip. Transport calculations


are based on the type of transport and distance travelled. In order to


measure the carbon footprint of the accommodation, some operators are led


by averages based on the country or the star rating, while others will also try to adjust the numbers wherever possible to be more specific, based on a particular property’s sustainability


rating, taking into account aspects such as energy use. Explore has added a


proportion of its head office emissions into the numbers too. Intrepid also takes local


office emissions into account, as well as including a 15% ‘uplift factor’ to account


for anything unintentionally missed in calculations.


a nutrition label. “Most people use that calorie comparison: although I want to, I can’t eat sticky toffee pudding every day,” says Explore’s sustainability lead Hanna Methven. Of course, the intention isn’t to stop people having a


holiday, she explains. “But it’s about saying here’s what you’ve got, and we do need to change our behaviour a bit. Perhaps you do a high-footprint trip one year, and perhaps the next year you do a lower footprint trip.” Carbon labels don’t only help clients make decisions about which trips to book. Cat Jones, founder of Byway, says that showing sustainability data to customers helps them make better-informed choices about certain aspects of those trips too. “For example, there’s a very popular journey in Scotland, on the West Highland Line, over the ‘Harry Potter’ viaduct [Glenfinnan Viaduct]. You can take a beautiful heritage steam train, but you also have a local ScotRail service, which is an electric train and does exactly the same route with exactly the same views. The carbon impact of this is much less and you’re supporting local infrastructure,” she says. When it comes to getting there, carbon labels can help clients compare the difference between rail trip and the same trip taken by car or plane. For example,


56 30 NOVEMBER 2023 Showing sustainability data


to customers helps them make better-informed choices about certain aspects of their trips


Byway’s Copenhagen city break – travelling from London to Copenhagen by train – has a carbon label of 156kg CO2. If a client chose to do the same trip by car the emissions would increase to 488kg CO2, while flying would mean the carbon footprint was 1,012kg CO2.


GREATER GOOD


Jones highlights that adding sustainability data is also a way to encourage Byway’s accommodation partners to help them improve their sustainability ratings, while Methven says that measuring the carbon impact of each trip is intended to help Explore reduce its overall emissions going forward too. A big part of this, says Methven, is by replacing internal flights on its tours with trains and ferries. The hope is that the impact could also reach further. Dr Susanne Etti, Intrepid Travel’s global environmental


HOW ARE


CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: Walking in Wales in winter with Adventure Tours UK; Byway’s Copenhagen city break; Glenfinnan Viaduct, Scotland PICTURE: Shutterstock/fotorath


² travelweekly.co.uk


PICTURE: Shutterstock/Christian Horz


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