our trips
- emissions reduction |
- carbon offset trips |
- offset cost |
- offset projects |
- offset assessment standards
emissions reduction
When designing our trips, we make the following considerations for the minimization of carbon emissions:
- Local Services: We engage locally-owned and operated services thereby supporting local people and not using long and carbon-intensive supply chains.
- Local Transport: We use local public transport wherever we can to reduce fuel usage per passenger.
- Water Conservation: We support initiatives that encourage conservative use of water and hot water such as low-flow shower roses.
- Local Food: We endeavour to include and strongly encourage our travellers to eat locally produced and minimally processed food. This reduces the 'embodied energy' (energy consumed through production and transport) of the food and refreshments consumed.
- Water Bottles: The provision of purified drinking water bottle refills from water 'bubblers' to avoid unnecessary purchasing of bottled water and the subsequent waste disposal issues. In addition to the water in bottles, the production of a 1 litre plastic bottle takes 2 litres of water and 200ml of oil. Therefore for every 1 litre of water sold, 3 litres of water are used.
- Local Goods: Our leaders facilitate travellers' identification and knowledge of authentic locally produced crafts that helps to support these local industries and we encourage travellers to use some local language to bargain or barter for these items and keep the prices fair.
- Economic Empowerment: Economic empowerment of local communities through tourism can help improve education and health services, water supplies and sanitation and reduce the dependence on non-sustainable livelihoods such as deforestation.
- Local Employment: We use local leaders and local guides so that we are learning about the culture and way of life directly from those who live it and put money into local hands and economies. We can particularly learn from indigenous rural communities about their relationship to the land and how they have practiced sustainable agriculture for centuries.
- Recycling: Intrepid leaders also provide travellers with awareness on how they can practice principles of reduce, reuse, recycle and appropriate waste disposal at their destination. back to top
- Transport - all intra-trip travel including flights included as part of the trip, taxis, tuk tuks, boats, trains and elephants (well maybe not elephants!). As direct emissions from transport makes up the vast majority of the emissions when travelling, offsetting this component is vital!
- Accommodation - all included accommodation - hotels, guesthouses, camping - with details including inclusion of air conditioning, solar heating, firewood burners, etc.
- Waste - While we will attempt to reduce waste in all ways possible, recycling is not accessible in all countries we visit. We have therefore, also considered emissions generated through the disposal of paper, plastic and glass bottles, other plastics and food scraps.
- Activities - all emissions created through included activities.
- The provision of reliable, renewable power to the electricity grid.
- Provision of local employment to nearby villages.
- All parties involved in the design, construction and operation of the wind farms are Indian, the project helps to develop the wind power industry locally and sustainably.
- The carbon finance plays a major role in increasing the country's energy capacity in a clean and renewable way.
- The clean electricity delivered to the local grid displaces electricity that would otherwise have been generated by fossil-fuel power stations.
- Creates jobs and contributes to the local economy through the improvement of local infrastructure.
- Helps address the shortfall of electricity available on the regional grid, with benefits to local households and economic development of businesses as well as providing energy security to the general community.
- The development of renewable energy capacity will displace electricity that would otherwise have been produced by fossil-fuel power stations.
- Improves the reliability of regional electricity supply which will benefit the running of key public services such as health clinics and schools.
- Provide jobs in this relatively undeveloped district of Peru.
- The subsequent successful registration of the project with the Clean Development Mechanism has enabled a tree and shrub planting scheme to proceed, transforming uncultivated land and generating income for local communities.
- Displacing electricity generated by fossil fuel power stations, which mainly run on coal in China.
- A dramatic reduction in heat pollution within the facility and reduction in local air pollution.
- Greenhouse gas emissions generated as a result of stationary energy use, transportation and waste generation and disposal were assessed in accordance with the GHG Protocol (A Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard Revised Edition, World Resource Institute & World Business Council for Sustainable Development - 2007).
- Information relating to energy use and waste generation and disposal rates were based on data provided by Sustainability Victoria and the United Nations Statistics Division.
- Emission factors were derived from a number of sources including the Department of Climate Change (DCC), Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change and the World Resource Institute.
carbon offset trips
As part of Intrepid's rollout to carbon neutrality, we have conducted detailed assessments of the carbon emissions of 38 of our most popular trips around the world - trips such as our Classic Cuba, Roam China, Moorish Spain and Tanzania Adventure. By choosing to travel on one of these trips, you are essentially travelling in a way that has no net emissions.
The emissions assessments of each trip have been calculated very thoroughly. With so many trip components potentially emitting greenhouse gases, we defined clear boundaries of what we would assess and subsequently offset. Our group leaders, given their experience and expert knowledge of the precise activities, locations and transport modes of the trips, collected the data. We then sent this data to an independent assessor to determine the carbon emissions associated with each element. The scope of components included in our emissions assessment was:
A Carbon Offset trip means that the assessed emissions for each of these trips have been offset through the purchase of carbon credits representing reductions in greenhouse gases of an equivalent volume. For example, if a Carbon Offset Trip emits 1.3 kg of CO2 per passenger per trip, Intrepid purchases and surrenders 1.3 kg worth of carbon credits.
back to topoffset cost
The offset cost is embedded in the cost of the trip - you have no additional fee to worry about! We have aimed to ensure that the total trip costs are not raised by more than AU$1.50 per day and 70% of them cost less than 50 cents extra per day.
back to topoffset projects
The Carbon Offset Trips are being offset by four projects with the CarbonNeutral Company. Three are certified under the VCS standard and one under the VER+ standard. The CarbonNeutral company commissions PricewaterhouseCoopers annually to assure customers that the credits they purchase are valid and retired correctly. For more information about the CarbonNeutral Company's quality assurance, please go to:
http://www.carbonneutral.com/pages/carbonstrategy.asp
The 4 projects are:
Jamnagar Wind Power Project - India
This project supports the construction and operation of new wind turbines at various sites in the states of Rajasthan, Gujarat and Karnataka. The wind turbines have a combined capacity of 147MW. The project is expected to generate emission reductions of more than 200,000 tonnes CO2 equivalent in 3 years.
Benefits of the project include:
Sichuan Province Hydro Power Project - China
This project bundles four small run-of-river hydro power stations in southern Sichuan Province, western China - a remote and mountainous region of China with much untapped potential for hydro power projects. The project displaces electricity generated by fossil-fuel power plants and will generate emission reductions of an estimated 360,000 tonnes CO2 equivalent between 2006 and 2012. The four plants will have a total capacity of 17.15 MW.
Benefits of the project include:
Callahuanca Hydro Efficiency Project - Peru
This project improves the operating efficiency of a hydro power plant in the Huarochirí Province of western Peru. The project displaces electricity mainly generated by fossil-fuel power plants and will generate emission reductions of 20,000 tonnes CO2 equivalent in 2007. The project is located alongside the Santa Eulalia River in the western foothills of the Peruvian Andes. The installation of new turbines and generators at the Callahuanca plant will increase capacity by 7.5 MW and so maximize productivity using the current available water flow.
Benefits of the project include:
Quzhai Waste Heat Recovery Project - China
This project involves the construction of a waste heat recovery power plant at a cement production facility in the northern Chinese province of Hebei. The project will generate emission reductions of an estimated 50,000 tonnes CO2 equivalent between 2006 and 2008. Cement production is a highly polluting process, and creates a considerable amount of waste heat which is usually vented into the atmosphere. The new equipment will increase the efficiency of the facility by utilising the waste heat to generate electricity for use on-site.
Benefits of the project include:
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