Sustainable Travel & the Climate Emergency
What does Sustainability mean at Senderos?
At Senderos we believe in the transformative power of the right kind of travel; we are passionate about the positive cultural and environmental impact that true sustainable tourism can bring and we aim to robustly and honestly judge our effect through the lens of the 4Cs framework (Conservation, Community, Commerce and Culture, credit our friends at The Long Run). We applaud – and desire to work towards – a world where so called externalities – bio-diversity of flora and fauna, human happiness, culture and heritage, clean water and energy sources for example – are recognised, protected and allowed to thrive to the benefit of all.
Senderos aims to showcase through Marketing and PR the most positive tourism ventures in order that we can also reasonably claim to have a positive effect on the world. We believe in Purpose – the preservation of natural resources, bio diversity, cultures and communities – as well as profit and that our partners have a profound effect in the many areas they work in, including innovation and leadership.
We have grappled with the down side of our work, namely carbon emissions from flights. We encourage fewer flights and staying longer – a slower, more conscious way of travelling – as one way of limiting the carbon footprint of visitors to our partner hotels, lodges and expedition vessels. Investing in the decarbonisation of tourism – complex and challenging – is vital for a sustainable future and we believe in the importance of an honest and open debate on a range of topics particularly such as transport / aviation as well as food and energy sourcing.
We aim to continually work to reduce our own footprint and carbon balance our remaining operations and travel (currently with the World Land Trust https://www.worldlandtrust.org/).
Tourism Declares
We’ve signed up to Tourism Declares, an initiative that supports tourism businesses, organisations and individuals in declaring a climate emergency and taking purposeful action to reduce their carbon emissions as per the advice from The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to cut global carbon emissions to 55% below 2017 levels by 2030.
Like all signatories, we have committed to the following five actions:
1. Develop a ‘Climate Emergency Plan’ within the next 12 months, which sets out our intentions to reduce carbon emissions over the next decade.
2. Share an initial public declaration of our ‘Climate Emergency Plan’, and update on progress each year.
3. Accept current IPCC advice stating the need to cut global carbon emissions to 55% below 2017 levels by 2030 in order to keep the planet within 1.5 degrees of warming. We’ll ensure our ‘Climate Emergency Plan’ represents actions designed to achieve this as a minimum, through delivering transparent, measurable and increasing reductions in the total carbon emissions arising from our operations and the travel services sold by us.
4. Encourage our suppliers and partners to make the same declaration; sharing best practice amongst peers; and actively participate in the Tourism Declares community
5. Advocate for change. We recognise the need for system change across the industry, and call for urgent regulatory action to accelerate the transition towards zero carbon air travel.
https://www.tourismdeclares.com/
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