climate change
Climate change is one of the most critical issues the world is facing today. Scientists are telling us that we must act with urgency to reduce our carbon emissions if we are going to stop catastrophic irreversible impacts to our precious home.
Here at Intrepid, we've taken a long hard look at all our operations and have initiated various actions to reduce our contributions to global warming. We're also endeavouring to help empower our staff and travellers to participate in emissions reductions measures.
In December 2006, Intrepid Travel announced the goal of becoming a carbon neutral company in 2010. It's a big goal, but we believe that with support of our staff and travellers, we know we can do it.
In our initial steps toward carbon neutrality, Intrepid underwent a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of our business. This was to help us recognise our impacts and identify the main sources of carbon emissions from our operations. From this process, we identified that our corporate emissions (offices and retail stores- globally), our trips and the flights that our passengers take to join an Intrepid tour, were our main sources of carbon emissions. We needed to come up with a plan to address these areas.
our carbon management plan in a nutsell
Intrepid's carbon management plan is made up of the following principles:
A. Measure
This principle involves reviewing what Intrepid already measures and understanding what needs to be measured and monitored in order to achieve our objective of becoming carbon neutral in 2010 and beyond. Identifying what we need to measure and manage will be assisted by:
- reviewing CO2 data we are already capturing
- setting organisational and operational boundaries
- creating a Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Inventory
As identified in the LCA, we would be concentrating on capturing data relating to our:
- corporate emissions
- trips
- passenger flights
B. Avoid
This principle involves activities through which emissions can be avoided. eg. not having a light on in a vacant room.
For emissions stemming from all Intrepid offices/retail stores (this includes offshore companies where Intrepid has operational/policy control), Intrepid will aim to put in place a number of Action Plans which will assist the organisation to avoid consumption of resources that contribute to emissions.
C. Reduce or switch to an alternative
This principle describes measures that decrease the emissions intensity of essential activities eg. making lighting more efficient, using a more fuel efficient vehicle.
Switching to an alternative may include sourcing from renewable sources or by exchanging fuel sources so that GHG impact is minimised eg. Converting to green energy to power the office.
Off-shore companies have also been consulted and have advised that they will ensure that they contribute to our carbon neutral goals and will seek to switch to an alternative source where it is feasible.
D. Assess
This principle is used to reconcile all the actions and initiatives to reducing our carbon footprint and match them up to our objectives. Are we achieving our reduction targets? If not, a review will need to be conducted and new, feasible reduction opportunities will need to be sought.
E. Offset
A carbon offset is any project or initiative that indirectly reduces GHG emissions at one source by investing in GHG emissions reductions elsewhere - effectively mitigating GHG emissions.
Intrepid will ensure that the offsets purchased are:
- cost effective
- have accreditation according to a recognised standard
- offered by an offset provider who is independently verified
- able to offer co-benefits as well as carbon offsetting (preferred but not essential)
Offsets will be reviewed annually and information regarding the rigour in the science and methodologies as well as the providers behind offset products will need to be monitored.
This plan should see Intrepid manage our carbon emissions and minimise our negative impact on the environment.
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