Carbon Reduction Program

We believe in the transformative power of travel. We believe that adventurers who see amazing sites and experience intercultural interactions will be inspired to make environmentally conscious choices to preserve the Earth. We believe that offsetting travelers’ emissions footprints is a step forward in combatting global climate change. That’s why every Journeys International trip purchase includes carbon offsetting through the Earth Preservation Fund’s (EPF) Carbon Reduction Program. Through carbon offsets and overall reduction of our carbon footprint, Journeys International strongly supports efforts to mitigate climate change.

Visit the Earth Preservation Fund homepage to learn more about the EPF, and how to donate to this and other projects.

What are carbon offsets?

Any activity that consumes fossil fuels also releases carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. For example, aircraft unavoidably burn jet fuel and their exhaust contains carbon dioxide. It is possible to calculate the amount of greenhouse gas emission attributable to each passenger on an airplane, as well as the amount of greenhouse gas emissions attributable to meals in restaurants, nights in hotels, and other aspects of travel. Collectively, these amounts are the carbon footprint of a particular trip.

There are also ways to reduce the amount of greenhouse gas released into the atmosphere. Two common ways are (1) reducing energy usage through projects that improve efficiency and (2) replacing fossil fuel energy with renewable energy. When these greenhouse gas emissions reduction projects conscientiously measure the amount of carbon they prevent from entering the atmosphere, and when they participate in a rigorous verification process validating those amounts, they create certified credits that represent the amount of greenhouse gas emissions that the project preempted. These are called carbon offsets, or carbon offset credits.

Emissions reduction projects can sell their carbon offset credits to gain funding to expand their implementation. This fuels a market that allows travelers and others with a positive carbon footprint to offset their impact on the environment by providing dollars that will reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases elsewhere.

Why offset through Journeys and the Earth Preservation Fund?

Through Journeys International’s partnership with the EPF, travelers support the purchase and permanent retirement of carbon offset credits in amounts that equal the carbon footprints of their trips.

Unfortunately, the processes of determining a particular trip’s carbon footprint and finding a reliable provider of carbon offsets are not always easy for individual travelers. The EPF’s Carbon Offset Project strives to make the process of offsetting travel as easy as possible for travelers in order to encourage more travelers to participate in offsetting.

• Journeys International works seamlessly with the EPF to calculate carbon footprint estimates specific to your itinerary.
• The EPF allows travelers to make donations supporting the purchase of offsets for partial tons of carbon, not just whole tons.
• The EPF only purchases carbon offset credits that are certified by the most-rigorous Gold Standard, which ensures that every credit purchased is retired upon purchase, and that all projects are vetted to the highest standard to avoid controversial problems with some alternative standards.

For detailed information on how we calculate the carbon footprint of Journeys trips, read the Earth Preservation Fund’s white paper Adventure Travel and Carbon Offsets.

Historical Trip Offsets

Travelers may be aware of the carbon footprint of their current trips, but they may not have had the same awareness for trips they took ten or twenty years ago, and yet greenhouse gases can linger in the atmosphere for decades. The EPF can create a custom estimate of the carbon footprint for past travel and help travelers to offset their historic carbon footprint. We can access many archived itineraries for Journeys’ travelers or, using our knowledge of the travel industry, recreate an itinerary from a different trip provider. For more information, contact info@earthpreservation.org.