The travel industry needs to focus on commitments which have an impact, arguesThomas Power of Pura Aventura
Following the government’s ambitious climate objectives, businesses have been working towards a greener future. While some brands have introduced schemes that put sustainability at the heart of their strategy, others have introduced less impactful schemes.
British Airways introduced a plant-based onboard menu in 2022 and refillable water bottles for passengers. Although this may create a splash in the media, we have to ask whether schemes like these are doing anything to help reach the end goal of Net Zero by 2050.
The resources needed to make a reusable water bottle only make sense if you use it thousands of times. For customers, refusing these items is a simple but effective way to prevent waste. The same with those dreadful amenity kits – as soon as you break the seal, they’re landfill.
It would be just as simple for airlines to ask travellers at check-in whether they would prefer £5 to go to the planet or an amenity kit. Nobody loses, apart from manufacturers of tiny tubes of toothpaste.
As a sector we need to step up and introduce initiatives that make a difference.
Consumers are more environmentally aware than ever before. They want to play their part in tackling climate change by making more sustainable choices, and travel should allow them to do that.
Carbon offsetting should be an example of how easy it is for a company to facilitate action by consumers. All airlines need to do is ask passengers to opt in when they pay for flights online. However, only four of the 11 most-used airlines offer their own carbon-offset schemes, according to consumer association Which?, with some labelled “woefully inadequate” when it comes to making an impact.
The biggest reason for the gap between consumers’ positive intentions and tangible impacts on the climate crisis is confusion.
With so many claims and counterclaims, labels and accusations of greenwashing, people are confused.
Initiatives that look like positive action while not actually doing anything take the sector backwards. If businesses want to keep consumers onside, they need to demonstrate real action that makes a difference.
Businesses striving to do better
The most important thing a business can do is take positive action. It doesn’t have to be perfect and it doesn’t have to be industry leading, just doing something is better than nothing.
Once you start acting more sustainably, you can work out how to extend the activity and embed it deeper across an organisation and throughout your supply chain.
If you’re unsure where to start, I recommend working out your organisation’s carbon output and putting measures in place to mitigate it.
A recent example of a business doing this well is online beauty platform Treatwell. It found that an average beauty treatment accounts for up to 5kg in CO₂ emissions and announced it would offset 1kg of CO₂ for every online booking.
Businesses which wish to follow suit need to find a verifiable way to do this and work with a B Corp-certified carbon consultancy to guide them on their journey. Tomorrow’s task is to start reducing your footprint, today the priority is to measure it.
Once businesses know their impact and have some steps in place to mitigate it, it’s essential to keep moving forward.
B Corp certification is a useful goal to strive towards. B Corp status, and the journey towards it, is a way of embedding meaningful change in the foundations of a business.
Working as one towards a greener future
Sector collaboration is essential to provide clarity. Businesses, government bodies and third-party organisations across travel should work together to establish what actions will make a difference.
There is already evidence of good collaboration. At Pura Aventura, we’re co-founders of Travel by B Corp – a group of companies which includes the world’s largest travel B Corp, Intrepid Travel.
Intrepid has been on this path for more than 10 years and made its frameworks and tools open source for other people to learn from.
Businesses within the group collaborate closely. The aim is to welcome others to the journey to making travel a positive force.
Third-party support is key to aligning business goals and helping businesses get started. For example, industry groups such as the Latin America Travel Association run high-quality courses, free of charge, to effect change.
Peer-to-peer mentorship is another way for businesses to work together and share sustainability targets.
At Pura Aventura, we’re happy to discuss our ways of working and sustainability commitments and goals. Radical transparency is the only way to facilitate real change and knowledge sharing is essential.
There is good stuff happening in the sector, but there are disingenuous initiatives that do little to tackle climate change.
Consumers want to see meaningful moves and the travel sector needs to work together to deliver them. We want to get to a place where there is no competitive advantage in the drive for sustainability. Nobody wins if the planet dies.
Thomas Power is co-founder and chief executive of Pura Aventura