Climate Commitments
Our trips are designed to benefit local communities, while protecting the environment, in the following ways:
- We travel by land whenever possible, and; offset flights through small community projects that benefit local villages or educational institutions
- We support community-based environmental programs, and give travelers a chance to participate in them when possible
- We choose accommodations with a low footprint, including homestays, and family-run guesthouses/hotels where possible
- We visit and explore national parks and protected marine life reserves in collaboration with local conservationists and wildlife protectionists
- We endeavor to minimize single-use plastic waste through reusable water bottles
- We are committed to, avoiding the exploitation of all species, and emissions of animal agriculture, by working closely with community kitchens to reinstate or develop local vegan recipes;
- We strictly say to animal rides, zoos, “selfie ops” with animals, and animal shows.
Glasgow Declaration
In addition to focusing on the goals stated in the declaration, we pledge to go one big step further and focus on reducing specific food-related emissions as well. As a mission-focused company, we collaborate with local communities to help conceptualize and develop grassroots tourism programs that are environmentally friendly, socially impactful, vegan, and cruelty-free. We invest 50% of our profits into the communities they work with, through programs focused on social impact, animal welfare, environmental sustainability, education, and conservation.
As a signatory to the Glasgow Declaration, we pledge to take further action working towards a goal to become net zero across all our trips by the end of 2025, while also committing to work with the tourism industry to reduce food-related emissions – the third biggest source of travel emissions, and an area we specialize in.
In January 2022, Vegan Travel Asia by VegVoyages officially declared a climate emergency, and became a signatory of the Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism, officially launched at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26).
By signing this declaration, we have committed to supporting the following goals:
- Support the global commitment to halve emissions by 2030, and reach Net Zero as soon as possible before 2050.
- Deliver climate action plans within 12 months of becoming a signatory (or updating existing plans), and implement them.
- Align plans with the five pathways of the Declaration (Measure, Decarbonise, Regenerate, Collaborate, Finance) to accelerate and co-ordinate climate action in tourism.
- Report publicly on an annual basis on progress against interim and long-term targets, as well as on actions being taken.
- Work in a collaborative spirit, sharing good practices and solutions, and disseminating information to encourage additional organizations to become signatories and supporting one another to reach targets as quickly as possible.
Read more about the Declaration here:
Our Commitments
As part of our climate action plan, we have been working on the following 5 commitments:
- Measure the carbon emissions of each of our trips, and be transparent about our methodology. In order to design lower footprint trips, we must first understand the emissions from the transport, accommodation, food and activities we offer. We will disclose our methodology publicly so other tour operators can similarly measure and reduce their footprints.
- Reduce and remove our emissions, so all our trips can be carbon neutral by 2025. We are currently evaluating ways to reduce our emissions where feasible, and designing community based travel offsets and rewilding projects in the regions we travel through – in order to remove what we can’t reduce. Unlike the easier option of buying trees halfway across the world, we believe these offsets will also benefit the local people and their ecosystems. Besides, our travellers have a chance to get involved in some of these initiatives during our trips. We’re excited to have launched our first carbon neutral trip to Cambodia in December 2022!
- Incorporate climate awareness in our trips. Our trips have always focused on immersing our travellers in the local culture of the places we visit – through visits to the homes and kitchens of our local friends, spending time at social impact initiatives, interacting with community kitchens, and more. We are now committed to enabling our travellers to understand how climate change is impacting the places we visit (through inspiring human stories and efforts – no doomsday jargon, we promise!), and inspiring their own climate action journey.
- Collaborate with the broader tourism industry, to measure and reduce food-based emissions. We pride ourselves on the 100% vegan and plant-based local culinary experiences our trips offer – giving our travelers the chance to explore a region through its food, while keeping both our suffering footprint and environmental footprint low. We already work closely with our accommodation and restaurant partners, and look forward to working with the broader tourism industry to incorporate more plant-based meals in their trips, with a view to reducing their food-based emissions.
- Continue to empower the communities we work with. We are one of the world’s few travel companies that not only develop and support community based tourism projects and local entrepreneurs, but also channel 50% of all our profits into the communities we work with – through programs focused on social impact, animal welfare, environmental sustainability, education and conservation. These take the form of building local schools, supporting students with scholarships, and setting up community kitchens, among many other initiatives that our travellers can experience during our trips. We commit to ensuring that the climate action we take will not only benefit the ecology, but also the communities in our regions of travel.