How to be a better traveller: the planet

Leave only footprints.

In 2005, Intrepid’s co-founder Darrell was sitting under a tree in the African savanna when it hit him: his company and all the travellers that we take around the world were contributing significantly to the planet's carbon emissions. At the time Intrepid was considered to be a leader in responsible tourism, but he realised that the travel industry had a long way to go when it comes to minimising our environmental footprint. That realisation kicked off an effort to measure, reduce and offset the emissions generated by our trips, travellers and offices. By 2010, Intrepid had become a completely carbon-neutral business, carbon-offsetting trips for all our travellers and as of 2021, all flights booked through us too.

Carbon offsetting and you

Lowering your carbon footprint helps reduce the impacts of climate change, such as sea levels rising and extreme weather events like bushfires. Many small individual emission reduction activities together add up to a large total reduction and carbon offsetting is one way you can manage your carbon emissions that you can't eliminate entirely.

As a traveller, you can cancel out unavoidable carbon emissions, such as the emissions caused by a flight, by travelling with companies like Intrepid who invest in projects that reduce or remove emissions on your behalf. And you can always find additional ways to purchase carbon offets yourself, either through airlines when you book, or by doing your own research and purchasing directly through emission reduction projects.

We can all make a difference, if we do it now. We can all vote with our wallets by supporting NGOs and businesses who prioritise the environment; we can all join a climate change group, or even pick up a placard in protest; we can all keep learning and educating ourselves and we can all continue to reduce and reuse in our everyday lives.

While the issue of climate change might feel overwhelmingly big, we want you to know that solutions do exist. But it’s up to us to stand together and embrace those solutions to help save the planet.

Learn more about carbon management

Spotlight on: the Intrepid Forest

Sign up to Ecologi and for every tree you plant, Intrepid will plant one on your behalf in the world's first travel-powered forest is in Kijabe, Kenya. With the help of Eden Projects and Kijabe Forest Trust, we’re reintroducing native species to a site deforested over 15 years ago. All you have to do is go online to the Ecologi x Intrepid Travel page and pick your subscription plan. That means for every tree planted through Ecologi, Intrepid will plant one too (so you’re effectively doubling your own reforestation efforts). If you commit to plant 12 trees each month, we’ll chip in 12 of our own. It’s the beginning of a real life Intrepid forest – grown by travellers, but for everybody.

Learn more about the Intrepid Forest