As of January 1st 2022, Radical Travel Group will be carbon neutral, and we’ve developed a five-point Climate Action Plan to guide us – committing to carbon reductions and evolving to support the transition to a low-carbon future. Here’s where you can find out all the details about how and why we’re doing it, and what it means for you

In 2020, Radical Travel Group worked with Synergy Enterprises, an independent consultant, to create a customised Tour Carbon Calculator to measure emissions linked to our tours in Scotland. The Tour Carbon Calculator captures our tour emissions from the moment you step onto our buses, to when we drop you off again, covering all included transport, accommodation and meals. Carrying out this work was a mighty undertaking but it is something we are insanely passionate about. If you are wondering how, exactly, we were able to measure our emissions – and why we wanted to.

Let’s begin with the why

We are all too aware that the climate crisis demands urgent action, so we began our journey to understand and measure the carbon footprint of our tours. Carbon neutral tours are part of a larger Climate Action Plan we have in place, which is focused on first and foremost reducing our emissions.

In the interim, we view investing in carbon credits (which are offsets) as a way to take immediate action to address our unavoidable emissions and transition towards a low carbon economy. These investments come with positive social impacts that keep local communities thriving by creating jobs, improving health outcomes and promoting local entrepreneurship.

The elephant in the room:

While our carbon offset covers your tour, it obviously does not include any flights to and from Scotland. Arguably, this flight will be the largest part of your travel carbon footprint if you’re travelling overseas to join one of our tours. We suggest using this footprint calculator, powered by our partner South Pole, to purchase carbon credits to offset your personal flight.

About our Tour Carbon Calculator

Our Tour Carbon Calculator was developed by Synergy Enterprises in line with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, an internationally accepted emissions accounting and reporting standard.

The most relevant and up to date emission factors at the time were selected from international reporting bodies. Emission factors are coefficients that allow us to convert activity data into greenhouse gas emissions. They may differ based on the country or region the activity is taking place in. Where emission factors were not available, custom averages were developed.

What’s in and out of scope?

Here’s what we considered in scope and our responsibility to offset:

• Transfer emissions: Include emissions from all forms of transportation during a Radical Travel Group. This includes transfers that are included as part of the tour and transfers to your Free Time Add On’s. Emissions from transfers are calculated by taking transfer modes, distances, fuel type, passenger numbers and number of used for selected tours.
• Accommodation emissions: Accommodation emissions are based on average energy consumption by room type from the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration. A regional energy factor is applied resulting in a unique average for each room type in each region.
• Meal emissions: Emissions from meals have been calculated based on two main identifying factors – buffet vs. non buffet and vegetarian vs. non-vegetarian meals. Synergy Enterprises developed customised emission factors for each meal type that accounts for food production and food waste. Emissions are only calculated for meals in the tour itinerary and do not include those purchased by the traveller.

Here’s what we considered out of scope and will not be included as part of our tour offset:

• Traveller’s air travel to and from Scotland (but you can choose to offset this through the footprint calculator)
• All pre and post services not included in the base price of the tour
• Emissions produced by facilities or buildings we visit on our tour (e.g., visitor attractions). These emissions are considered the responsibility of the facility as determined by internationally accepted principles for emissions accounting.
• Meals purchased by the traveller