Summit Session: Climate Action Tourism Panel

As the travel industry is joining together to tackle the climate crisis, the Summit 2020 Climate Action panelists each brought a different perspective and approach to minimizing the environmental impact of tourism. Each panelist shared tools for businesses to take action of their own.

Panelists

Jeremy Smith - Tourism Declares Climate Emergency

Tourism Declares a Climate Emergency co-founder, Jeremy Smith, shared (at 5:45) the story of the first community to declare a climate emergency: Darebin, Australia. Now there are over 1,838 places in the world who have declared a climate emergency, and Canada now has more climate emergency declarations than any other country, with over 505 communities. There are over 25 communities in BC alone, including Vancouver, Victoria, and many others.

Since the launch of Tourism Declares a Climate Emergency in 2020, over 120 tourism companies and destinations have joined, with more and more coming onboard everyday, including the Thompson Okanagan Tourism Association. This commitment means outlining an action plan to reduce emissions and working together to reduce global emissions to save our destinations globally.

Any organization or individual can declare a climate emergency. Learn more at TourismDeclares.com.

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Dr. Susanne Etti - Intrepid Travel

Intrepid Travel’s Dr. Susanne Etti shared not only how Intrepid became the first carbon neutral tour operator in 2010 but the new actions to become carbon negative. Intrepid joined Tourism Declares and has an action plan that includes: Measuring emissions, offsetting 125% of emissions, setting science-based targets, using 100% renewable energy, making green investments, focusing on women’s empowerment and social justice, and research and innovation.

Intrepid shared tool for businesses: The 10-Step Quick Start Guide to Decarbonise your Travel Business with straightforward steps you can follow that have worked for them.

Dawn Hancock - Offsetters

Next, Dawn Hancock shared how Offsetters can work with businesses to help them understand their climate impacts, reduce what is possible, and offset their impacts. Offsetters helps clients to go through the process of understanding impacts to compile an inventory in order to strategize how to reduce and then offset in order to become “carbon neutral.” This often leads to new efficiencies and savings for the business. They also help you choose offsets that are high quality and validated by credible third parties. They also provide marketing support so that clients get the most out of their efforts and they have two fantastic BC carbon projects so impacts are made close to home for BC businesses!

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Christina Beckmann - Tomorrow’s Air / Adventure Travel Trade Association

The final panelist, Christina Beckman Founder, Tomorrow’s Air shared the technology of carbon removal and an overview of the ATTA overview and approach to climate action by doing carbon offsetting and carbon removal and storage.  A fascinating and burgeoning area of carbon mitigation. ATTA offers offsets at a lower rate through their Neutral Together program as they use a bulk purchase format with South Pole offsets, leveraging their network of over 30,000 ATTA members. Tomorrow’s Air also leverages art and storytelling to tell the story in an engaging way.

The panelists continued with a great discussion about climate action and how you can get involved.

SummitTOTA Communications2020, Resiliency