The Travel Corporation (TTC) is celebrating Earth Day with a monumental announcement.
The company has enacted a new Climate Action Plan that aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030.
TTC is recognizing the need for a transformation is taking action to address GHG emissions and climate change through a five-step plan that supports carbon neutrality and its continued efforts to achieve the organization's sustainability goals.
To further this action, TTC and the TreadRight Foundation are investing in two nature-based carbon removal solutions, Project Vesta and GreenWave.
A new Impact Hub has also been launched by TreadRight to create transparency as to its progress against the groups' 11 sustainability goals. The Impact Hub is also providing tips to travelers on how they can help.
"Our TTC Climate Action Plan is not marked by one quick fix, because there isn't one. It is marked with the need to act now, to learn and adapt as technology and innovation support our need to transition to a low-carbon business," said Brett Tollman, chief executive of The Travel Corporation. "There is much debate as to the right approach when it comes to decarbonizing travel and tourism, and our position is that this must be a process that begins now and commits to evolving as the solutions continue to improve and become available to us."
The new plan builds on TTC's sustainability strategy, which began in 2015 and consists of five points:
-Measure: Measure the emissions from our business and trips.
-Reduce: Build on reduction efforts and set ambitious reduction targets by mid-2022.
-Remove: Through our TreadRight Foundation, invest in new technology and nature-based solutions to remove excess carbon from the atmosphere.
-Offset: Purchase carbon credits to offset unavoidable emissions, including phasing in carbon-neutral trips between 2022-2030.
-Evolve: Continue to learn from others, invest in new technologies and support strategic alliances that enable us and the industry to move to a low carbon economy.
The plan addresses the first and second goals of its five-year sustainability strategy, How We Tread Right, which targets the carbon footprint of its business.
This includes the commitment to becoming carbon neutral by 2030 and to sourcing 50 percent of its electricity from renewable sources across the organization by 2025. The goal is for TTC's 20-plus offices, 18 Red Carnation Hotels, 13 Uniworld ships, six accommodations/facilities, 500-plus vehicles and more than 1,500 itineraries operated worldwide by its 40 brands including Contiki, Trafalgar, Insight Vacations and Uniworld to meet these goals.
Advancements to date include the installation of solar panels in 2020 at the Uniworld head office in Encino, California, the implementation of a 400kW Tesla plant supplying over 95 percent of Xigera Safari Lodge's energy, which opened December 2020 as part of the Red Carnation Hotel Collection and the recent shift to 100 percent renewable electricity by Contiki's Chateau De Cruix and Haus Schöneck as well as Red Carnation Hotel's Ashford Castle, which sits on a 350-acre property.
Going forward, TTC is committed to carbon-neutral offices and business travel beginning January 1, 2022, through its partnership with offset provider South Pole.
Contiki will be moving a step ahead and will become a completely carbon-neutral business, starting January 1, 2022.
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