Our climate action plan comprises of five main elements: measure, reduce, regenerate, collaborate and finance. These elements are in line with agreed pathways as per the Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism.

Our plan will develop as we navigate our way along the path to net zero emissions. We will endeavour to ensure that it is deeply embedded in everything that we do here at KE, both at our office in Keswick and on the trips that we operate globally. All our progress and long-term targets will be published on our website.

To enable us to reduce our carbon footprint we first need to know what our baseline is.

We are in the process of measuring the carbon footprint of the KE office and a representative sample of our holidays.

We aim to measure the carbon emissions for elements such as transport, accommodation, activities and food consumed by our customers, guides and any other staff/crew.

We will then use this information to estimate the carbon footprint for every trip that we operate. We will publish our calculations and methodology when they are available.

Our methodology will be continuously refined so that we have an increasingly accurate figure in the coming years.

 We have to reduce our emissions as much as possible, as quickly as possible if we are to achieve our goals.

As well as measuring and reducing our carbon emissions, we have also pledged to do whatever we can to restore and protect eco-systems and safeguard biodiversity, food security and water supply. Also to support host communities and visitors to experience a better balance with nature.

All of these things are an important part of the projects supported by our carbon absorption partner, Livelihoods Funds.

We will continue our long-term support of the Juniper Trust and the work that they do to help communities in poverty, particularly the education of children in countries where we operate many of our trips, such as Nepal and Pakistan.

We have also partnered with a fantastic mental health charity in the UK, Mind Over Mountains, which offers professional mental health support by bringing together walking in nature, mindfulness and the support of experienced coaches and counsellors in an unhurried, unpressured setting.

On our trips, we are investigating how we can work to help restore nature. We will review all activities and work with local agents and communities to ensure that wildlife is safeguarded and that any activities that may potentially harm the environment are identified and mitigated.

We will continue to look for projects and charities to support which have specific sustainable conservation and social goals which fit with our own ethos and values.

Collaborating, and communicating well with others is absolutely key to finding meaningful solutions to this global problem. It affects every one of us, and we all need to work together and share ideas in order to make a real difference.

Already we have been involved in open conversations with our industry peers and competitors, sharing plans and success stories as well as the pit falls and failings.
We have held video conferences with our ground agents across the world, sharing our thoughts and hearing their ideas. Office staff have been heavily involved, and are asked for their opinions and ideas at every step.

The more that staff, agents, partners and customers are involved, the quicker we can improve the way we do things, paving the way for a more sustainable future for everyone.

In order to keep this plan on track and to make the changes needed, we need to dedicate time, energy and money. This is our final pledge really, to ensure sufficient staff time, resource and funding is available to make a meaningful difference.

We currently have one member of our Product team dedicating about a third of their time to sustainability issues, and driving this project forward with the support of the CEO, and help of other staff from around the business.

Moving forward we expect more resource and funding to be required, and this will be budgeted in to enable us to achieve our ultimate goal of achieving net zero emissions, and becoming a nature net positive business.