What it means to travel with a B Corp

Intrepid just recertified as a B Corp – this time under new, more rigorous criteria. But what does a certification that involves policies, processes and whole lot of (recycled) paperwork actually look like when you’re travelling on an Intrepid trip? Follow Kylie through Vietnam to find out.

Intrepid first became a B Corp in 2018 and has recertified twice since, but this year, B Lab (the organisation that certifies B Corps) introduced a new set of standards designed to take a closer look at how companies operate and the impact they have on people and the planet.

The assessment shifted from a points-based system to a set of mandatory performance requirements across seven impact topics:

purpose and stakeholder governance
climate action
justice, equity, diversity and inclusion
government affairs and collective action
fair work
human rights
environmental stewardship and circularity

All of it must be verified through independent, third-party auditing. While B Corps in the past could overperform in one area and underperform in another and still get the points required for certification, this new framework means B Corps must be on top of their game in all areas, because it all matters.

And B Lab looks well beyond Intrepid’s trips, assessing everything from our 93 local businesses around the world and the accommodation we own to our suppliers, policies and subbrands. There’s plenty of work that happens far from a traveller’s view – but some of it shows up in surprisingly ordinary moments on a trip.

So, what does this mean for travellers?

Meet Kylie. She’s an Australian traveller who really wants to go to Vietnam. We made her up, to be honest. But her trip is real, and by following her journey from booking a trip and travelling to coming home, you’ll see where she got to experience the evidence of Intrepid being a B Corp, and where you can, too.

Dreaming of Vietnam

It starts before Kylie even knows what Intrepid is. Last night she Netflix-and-chilled with Luke Nguyen’s Railway Vietnam series and a banh mi from a place down the street. That sealed it – she promised herself she’d go to Vietnam one day.

While waiting for the tram to take her to work in Melbourne, she spots an Intrepid ad featuring travellers in Vietnam. Later that day she visits Intrepid’s website to learn more, and while browsing trips, she sees images representing travellers of different races, ages and body sizes. She reads stories on The Good Times that centre diverse voices and lived experiences. The diverse representation across all of it reflects Intrepid’s Responsible Marketing Policy, developed to ensure our marketing and communications are grounded in ethics, inclusion, transparency and accountability. That’s the kind of thing B Lab expects to see under its justice, equity, diversity and inclusion requirements.

As she flips through different itineraries, she spots carbon labels on each trip that reveal how much CO2e she’d generate on that particular trip, calculated based on the accommodation, transport, activities, meals, local operations and waste associated with the itinerary. For B Lab, measuring climate impact is the first step to reducing it.

Getting serious, she switches from her phone to her laptop for her big-screen phase of research and dives more into who Intrepid is and what the company is all about. She scans the latest Integrated Annual Report, which reveals not only Intrepid’s financial performance but also its environmental impact, community investment, climate targets and advocacy work. As a private company, Intrepid isn’t required to share all that publicly, but we do so in the name of transparency, a key part of stakeholder governance.

Making the choice and booking the trip

After comparing itineraries, cross-referencing dates with her annual leave allowance and closing 46 of her 47 browser tabs, she books a trip. Yeah Kylie! She picks Scenic Vietnam, a 15-day trip from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City.

When she pays, she learns that a portion of her trip cost is going towards Intrepid’s Climate Impact Fund, which is used to transition Intrepid offices and accommodations to 100% renewable energy, switching owned and leased vehicles to EVs, helping suppliers decarbonise their businesses and sourcing lower-carbon fuel alternatives. Climate action in… action.

She decides to take Intrepid up on their call to donate 1% of her trip cost – about AUD 25 – to The Intrepid Foundation, which supports carefully vetted local organisations working on issues that affect the communities travellers visit. The Intrepid Foundation matches all traveller donations so Kylie’s contribution is immediately doubled.

Her payment gets funnelled to the appropriate suppliers that she’ll encounter on her trip. And while she may not know it yet, those suppliers have been selected on the basis of impact, not just cost. Before any of the suppliers who provide experiences, accommodation and transport on the trip could welcome Intrepid travellers, they went through Intrepid’s supplier checks, which look at fair pay and working conditions for staff, child protection measures and their waste, water and energy management, and they committed to Intrepid’s supplier code of conduct.

In addition to diligently selecting and vetting suppliers, Intrepid works with them on responsible business practices, offering guidance and training on things like human rights, modern slavery awareness and safeguarding. It’s one of the ways Intrepid demonstrates responsibility beyond its own walls and across its supply chain.

Intrepid leader with a traveller and local woman in Vietnam

A homestay host in Vietnam cooking pancakes for Intrepid travellers

Off she goes on a journey through Vietnam

Finally, Kylie has arrived in Hanoi and it’s the first day of her trip! At the welcome meeting, she meets her leader, Anh, who has an uncanny knack for remembering names after hearing them once, and the nine other travellers she’ll spend the next 10 days with.

Anh grew up just north of Hanoi and is highly trained, fairly compensated and supported by policies that promote fair work and respect in the workplace. In short, she’s respected for who she is.

Anh encourages the group to use reusable water bottles rather than purchasing disposable bottles throughout the trip. The tap water available throughout the trip isn’t safe to drink, so Intrepid provides access to large refill containers or filtered water stations, so Kylie can top up her bottle when she needs to and reduce single-use plastic.

On Day 2, Kylie and her group head out to the first of two homestays on the trip where they share meals, stories and daily life with their host family. She’d been nervous about imposing on someone’s daily routine but the welcome she gets and the laughs they all share despite the language barrier put her at ease. These experiences create genuine cultural exchange while ensuring the money Kylie paid for her trip flows directly into the communities she’s visiting, supporting livelihoods beyond major tourism centres.

On Day 4, they visit the Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation, a community project established to help vulnerable children and end human trafficking in Vietnam. Through The Intrepid Foundation, Intrepid has raised funds for Blue Dragon since 2007 to support education and training opportunities; provide health checks, counselling and emergency shelter; ensure the prosecution of traffickers and legal representation for victims; and help reunite children and trafficked people with their families.

Afterwards they swing by Cat Ba Island and cruise and kayak in a quieter pocket of Ha Long Bay, a deliberate choice to take travellers beyond the busiest spots which are at risk of environmental degradation due to overtourism.

On Day 11, she boards an overnight train for a relaxing journey south. This leg of the trip was once a short flight, but as part of Intrepid’s work to reduce unnecessary short-haul flights – and relish in the joys of slow travel – the flight was replaced with a train journey back in 2023.

Two days before her trip ends, she and her group take a boat through the Mekong Delta, visit a honey farm (Kylie LOVES bees), eat local food, paddle sampans beneath coconut trees and stay overnight at a small local guesthouse. At this point, she can confidently say hello and thank you to her hosts in Vietnamese and has already figured out where she can get Vietnamese coffee back home.

Trying the local food in Halong Bay, Vietnam

Intrepid travellers canoeing along the Mekong

Intrepid travellers receive a warm welcome at a homestay along the Mekong

Heading home

What a trip! Kylie heads home with a phone full of a photos, a head full of memories and heart full of love for Vietnam.

A couple of days after her trip ends, Intrepid asks Kylie for feedback. That feedback is read by multiple people at the company and shapes future itineraries, improves customer experiences and identifies social or environmental issues still to be addressed. We call it customer feedback; to B Lab it’s an important part of how B Corps listen and respond to their stakeholders.

She’s still struck by the stories she heard during her visit to Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation and looks up the walking marathon fundraiser Anh told her about. She decides to register to do her own walk, raising an additional AUD 550. Those funds continue to help the foundation do its meaningful work on the streets she strolled on Day 4 of her trip.

She follows Intrepid on social media and learns more about other Intrepid travellers, trips and impact on The Good Times.

As she starts daydreaming about her next trip, Kylie now knows that being a B Corp doesn’t make a company perfect, but it does give her a way to know she’s choosing one that’s willing to measure its impact, be transparent about it and keep improving.

This is just a slice of what makes Intrepid a B Corp, and there’s so much more going on behind the scenes. Learn more about Intrepid’s purpose and B Corp journey and see it all come to life on your own small group adventure.