Environmental company Trees4Travel has joined the Association of Touring and Adventure Suppliers to showcase to members how travel “can be a force for good”.
Co-founded in 2020 by husband-and-wife team Nico and Elkie Nicholas, the “tech for good” company has a team of eight remote workers spread across six countries.
Its technology includes a suite of calculators that work out the emissions from trips and then translates that into the planting of trees.
Nico said: “We want to bring awareness to the Atas community of how travel can be a force for good, by growing forests that not only help reduce emissions, but also to restore biodiversity and support communities in developing countries, while simultaneously investing in renewable clean energy projects around the world.
“It is important that everyone in the supply chain of travel, including travellers, understands the environmental impact tourism is having on our planet and then takes some form of responsibility through mindful choices, actions and climate contributions.”
Elkie added: “We are rapidly accelerating partnerships all over the world which enable travel companies and their customers to transform and cultivate a regenerative approach to their activities through simple, affordable, impactful climate contributions, that benefit planet and people, helping to support up to 15 of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
“Trees4Travel is dedicated to educating travellers and the travel industry on the environmental impact of tourism through providing free tools to manage, measure and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.”
She explained that, as trees take time to grow, Trees4Travel connects each tree to a United Nations Certified Emissions Reduction (CER) renewable energy programme that is a share of a carbon credit.
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The pair believe that UK travel agents can make “an enormous positive impact” through educating travellers about responsible and regenerative actions.
“They are essentially on the frontline helping travellers make choices, so it is vital that travel agents understand the important role that they have in guiding their clients to make smarter more sustainable choices that benefit rather than damage the earth,” said Nico.
“We must all take responsibility and act now; our future and the future of our kids depends on it.”
To raise awareness, they are participating in trade shows such as the upcoming Business Travel Association conference in London; Institute of Travel Management conference in Brighton, Arabian Travel Market in Dubai, Connecting Travel in London and WTM London.
Elkie said they are seeing more demand in the UK market for more sustainable holidays, adding: “We believe touring and adventure will be one of the biggest growth sectors and therefore Atas members can be the trailblazers who take our industry into this new era of ethical, and regenerative travel.
“Trees4Travel is the perfect partnership that will help them on this important journey to becoming those ‘changemakers’.”
Trees4Travel offers 10 trees to every agent that signs up and will provide a dedicated agent dashboard for calculating ‘trips to trees’.
Agents can also gift a tree per booking and share emissions information with their clients, using simple scripts to introduce sustainable travel and the Trees4Travel partnership.
Free marketing materials are available to agents such as digital leaflets, videos, blogs and social media content.
Furthermore, Trees4Travel has just launched Zeero, aimed at larger operations and tour operator partners.
Nico and Elkie also hailed the new sustainability hub from Atas, commenting: “It’ll become one of the most important areas for the agents and so we are looking forward to contributing content and helping bring understanding to this vast subject, so that we can all take part in climate action, for a safer, cleaner, more equitable world.”
Claire Brighton, Atas director, said: “I am excited to see Trees4Travel come on board with Atas as they resonate with our sustainability drive.
“As well as offering services to agents to help them tackle the climate crisis, Nico and Elkie and their team can help spread the vitally important messages about emissions, biodiversity and clean energy.”