It’s always been important to us that our business is having a positive impact on the planet. We are passionate about our responsibility both to educate the next generation about the world we live in, but also to contribute actively to its preservation.
As such, we are committed to helping reduce the emissions that we generate to mitigate the impact on the global climate crisis, and to give back to young people and communities.
Our partnership with Earthly
A key pillar of our strategy is through our partnership with Earthly
Nature-based solutions
Earthly’s mission is to help businesses understand and remove their carbon footprint using the finest nature-based solutions in the world. They work with over 600 leading brands and won Best Climate Tech at COP27.
Rigorous assessments
All Earthly's projects are rigorously assessed on their carbon removal power and support of precious ecosystems and communities, fighting against biodiversity loss, climate change and social equity.
Positive impacts
Earthly's experienced and knowledgeable team are equally focused on bringing to life the positive impacts that these projects produce through data and storytelling, inspiring others to join their mission.
Our commitment
Through our partnership with Earthly we commit to offsetting all the emissions that we produce as a business from the tours that we run for students and our own business travel. We will calculate the emissions that we produce and we will offset 100% of those emissions by investing in projects offered by Earthly, including those described below.
Peatland Protection: Rimba Raya, Indonesian Borneo
This project protects one of the most highly endangered ecosystems in the world preventing the carbon-rich, peatland forest of Rimba Raya being turned into palm oil estates, emitting over 100 million tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere. Instead, the project protects the land and works with local communities to achieve all of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
Tropical Forest Protection: Mai Ndombe, Congo
This project is in the DRC in the heart of the Congo Basin, the world’s second-largest intact rainforest which also contains one of the most important wetlands on the planet. This project reduces the principal drivers of forest and biodiversity loss and supports the impoverished local communities by increasing access to education and vital medical care.
Tropical Forest Protection: Keo Seima, Cambodia
This project focuses on reducing high deforestation rates in eastern Cambodia by helping secure land rights for the indigenous Bunong in the area. This also helps to preserve the region’s vulnerable wildlife, including the world’s largest populations of the endangered black-shanked douc and yellow-cheeked crested gibbon.
Transparency
We can’t do any of the above without first being transparent about the emissions that our tours produce. Until you measure, you can’t reduce. To that end, we have developed a robust proprietary methodology which allows us to calculate the carbon footprint of all our tours. This methodology, which is aligned with the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol, an internationally recognised accounting and reporting standard, covers not only emissions from flights, but all the relevant modes of transport that we use on a tour, as well as accommodation and meals. We will include carbon footprint information for each tour on our website and provide information to you through the booking process.
How we run our business
Finally, and critically, we have put in place several initiatives to ensure that we are running our business responsibly and sustainably, both in destination and at home.
Our tours
- We are always looking for more sustainable travel choices to offer our customers. Travelling by train or coach generates significantly lower levels of emissions than flying.
- Similarly, when we reach our destination, we look for opportunities to walk rather than defaulting to public transport. Walking is also a great way for students to see more of the city and local culture.
- We prefer to work with suppliers and accommodation providers who are as committed as we are. Their commitments to and evidence of sustainable practices have become one of our key supplier selection criteria.
Our business
- We don’t have a corporate office. All our employees therefore work from home, which not only reduces our carbon footprint but also empowers our team to embrace more sustainable lifestyles including recycling responsibly.
- We are proud that a number of our employees now use electric vehicles and that we are playing our small part in the transition away from petrol and diesel cars.
- We have taken significant steps towards becoming a fully paper-free business. Our processes are designed to negate the need to print anything, and all tour related documentation is emailed to our customers as pdfs.
"By choosing to invest in offsetting the emissions from all our tours, TCBC ensures that the global experiences we provide to students are environmentally responsible, contributing to the preservation of the world they explore for future generations."
