EasyJet holidays and the University of Oxford will establish the Oxford Sustainable Development Goals Lab “to identify challenges and opportunities for sustainable tourism”.
The Oxford SDG Impact Lab will have 20 graduate students, mainly from the social sciences and humanities, from January 2022.
Students will find ways to develop sustainable tourism in destinations where easyJet operates, with support from university staff and experts from easyJet holidays.
The programme will include a four-week research trip to destinations across Europe in the summer 2022, to help develop proposals.
In September 2022, the students will deliver their recommendations and easyJet holidays will decide which projects it will champion.
Matt Callaghan, easyJet holidays customer and operations director, said: “We want to integrate sustainability into every aspect of our business, because, now more than ever, purpose beyond profit is essential.
“This is the first partnership of its kind…and we look forward to seeing the recommendations from the SDG Impact Lab students on what we can do to deliver on our commitment to providing holidays that don’t cost the earth.”
Professor Alexander Betts, co-founder of the SDG Impact Lab, added: “The Lab represents a leap forward in our ability to support experiential learning and enable our students to change the world for the better.
“It’s important that our students can complement their academic studies with the acquisition of transferrable skills in areas such as leadership and project management.”
Earlier this year easyJet holidays launched its inaugural sustainability strategy and became the first major UK tour operator to offset the carbon emissions directly associated from its package holidays.
• easyJet has also won a sustainability award for its new pilot and cabin crew uniform, made with fabric created from 100% recycled plastic bottles.
The honour came at the 2021 Professional Clothing Industry Association Worldwide Awards.
The fabric is created using high-tech material made from about 45 recycled plastic bottles per uniform.
Picture of Oxford University by Shaun in Japan/Shutterstock