The Active Travel Group has published its first annual sustainability report, which outlines its aim of halving its carbon emissions by 2030.
ATG brands – which include the Wilderness Group, Ski Solutions and Cycling for Softies – were founding signatories to the Glasgow Declaration, announced at COP26 in Scotland in 2021.
The report reveals that Wilderness’ Scope One and Two carbon emissions – direct emissions and indirect emissions from the purchase and use of electricity, steam, heating and cooling – have been reduced by 16% since then.
The operator has also introduced a pilot fleet of electric vehicles to support tours from its Aviemore base in Scotland.
ATG’s sustainability report also highlights efforts the company is making to support conservation and community campaigns.
These include the Wilderness Conservation and Community Fund (WCCF), founded in 2010 by the Wilderness Group.
Since its launch, the Wilderness Group has raised more than £100,000 for grass roots environmental and community organisations.
Meanwhile, the Wilderness staff have the goal of committing more than 800 hours of volunteering time per year to those projects, supported as part of their “Big 100” volunteer programme in 2024.
Report author Paul Easto, ATG chief sustainability officer, said: “By taking the significant step of publishing the Active Travel Group’s first annual sustainability report, we are making an ongoing commitment to providing greater insight and transparency on our sustainability performance, sharing progress against the goals and targets we have set.”
Group chief executive Craig Burton added: “Our ambition at ATG is to provide industry leadership and action across our key sustainability focus areas.
“Whilst we recognise the scale of the challenge the industry is facing and the need to intensify our own efforts, all of our teams across the UK and Ireland can be rightly proud of their achievements in recent years.”
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