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emissions reduction

When designing our trips, we make the following considerations for the minimization of carbon emissions:

  • Local Services: We engage locally-owned and operated services thereby supporting local people and not using long and carbon-intensive supply chains.
  • Local Transport: We use local public transport wherever we can to reduce fuel usage per passenger.
  • Water Conservation: We support initiatives that encourage conservative use of water and hot water such as low-flow shower roses.
  • Local Food and Local Goods: We endeavour to include and strongly encourage our travellers to eat locally produced food and goods. This reduces the 'embodied energy' (energy consumed through production and transport) of the food and goods purchased by our passengers.
  • Water Bottles: Encourage our passengers to refill water bottle from water 'bubblers' where available to avoid unnecessary purchasing of bottled water and the subsequent waste disposal issues. In addition to the water in bottles, the production of a 1 litre plastic bottle takes 2 litres of water and 200ml of oil. Therefore for every 1 litre of water sold, 3 litres of water are used.
  • Economic Empowerment: Economic empowerment of local communities through tourism can help improve education and health services, water supplies and sanitation and reduce the dependence on non-sustainable livelihoods such as deforestation.
  • Local Employment: We use local leaders and local guides so that we are learning about the culture and way of life directly from those who live it and put money into local hands and economies. We can particularly learn from indigenous rural communities about their relationship to the land and how they have practiced sustainable agriculture for centuries.
  • Recycling: Intrepid leaders also provide travellers with awareness on how they can practice principles of reduce, reuse, recycle and appropriate waste disposal at their destination.
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    carbon offset trips

    A Carbon Offset trip is a trip where the main carbon emissions on the trip (namely accommodation, transport and waste) have been offset through the purchase of carbon credits, representing reductions in greenhouse gases of an equivalent volume. Confused? Here's an example: if an Intrepid trip is found to emit 11.3 kg of CO2 per passenger, per trip, Intrepid purchases and surrenders 11.3 kg worth of carbon credits therefore offsetting the carbon emissions on that trip for that passenger.

    Still confused? OK - a very simplistic example: Imagine eating a rich chocolate gelati in Italy worth 300 calories but then walking all around Rome for the next 2 hours to work off those 300 calories. The net impact (in terms of calories) of eating that yummy (but bad for you) gelati, would be zero. While its probably not ideal, (in that we probably shouldn't have eaten that chocolate gelati in the first place), its far better than not doing anything at all! Offsetting carbon works in a similar way.

    How do we measure our trip emissions?

    We initially conducted detailed assessments of the carbon emissions of 38 of our most popular trips around the world. With so many trip components potentially emitting greenhouse gases, we had to define clear boundaries of what we would assess and subsequently offset. We decided to concentrate on the main emissions, being transport, accommodation and waste.

    Our group leaders, given their experience and expert knowledge of the precise activities, locations and transport modes of the trips, collected the data. We then sent this data to an independent assessor to determine the carbon emissions associated with each element. The scope of components included in our emissions assessment was:

    • Transport - all intra-trip travel including flights included as part of the trip, taxis, tuk tuks, boats, trains and elephants (well maybe not elephants!). As direct emissions from transport makes up the vast majority of the emissions when travelling, offsetting this component is vital!
    • Accommodation - all included accommodation - hotels and camping.
    • Waste - While we will attempt to reduce waste in all ways possible, recycling is not accessible in all countries we visit. We have therefore, also considered emissions generated through the average waste generated per person in that particular region.

    By completing a detailed assessment of emissions on our top 38 trips, we were able to use this data and extrapolate it across our whole portfolio of trips by trip style and region.

    In doing so, we are proud to be able to offset the carbon emissions on (almost) all of our trips on behalf of our passengers!

    So by choosing Intrepid Travel, you are travelling in a way which dramatically reduces your net carbon footprint

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    offset cost

    The offset cost is embedded in the cost of the trip - you have no additional fee to worry about! The average offset cost embedded in our trip price is between $0.19 and $0.54 AUD per passenger per day (dependent on the trip and region you are traveling to). Even with the offset included, these trips are still competitive ensuring you get both the best price for a fantastic grassroots adventure with a reduced environmental impact.

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    offset projects

    Intrepid travel is working with Cleaner Climate to bring you our carbon offset trips. Cleaner Climate is an international carbon solutions provider focused on the delivery of pioneering climate change strategies for many of the world's leading companies and brands, including Intrepid! We work closely with Cleaner Climate to select appropriate offset projects in which to invest through our Carbon Offset Trip initiative:
    http://www.cleanerclimate.com

    The 3 projects are:

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    Offset assessment standards

    • Greenhouse gas emissions generated as a result of stationary energy use, transportation and waste generation and disposal were assessed in accordance with the GHG Protocol (A Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard Revised Edition, World Resource Institute & World Business Council for Sustainable Development - 2007).
    • Information relating to energy use and waste generation and disposal rates were based on data provided by Sustainability Victoria and the United Nations Statistics Division.
    • Emission factors were derived from a number of sources including the Department of Climate Change (DCC), Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change and the World Resource Institute.
 
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