Responsibletravel.com has today given its online carbon offsetting programme the chop – a move almost guaranteed to inspire differing opinions about how to highlight climate change with air travel-hungry travellers.
One of the first organisations to do so, the site proudly launched its offsetting programme in 2002 and spearheaded a round of soul-searching within larger travel firms as to how they should deal with the thorny issue of selling or promoting travel at the same time as appearing to be aware of its impact on the global environment.
Fast forward seven years and ResponsibleTravel has abandoned the programme, citing a Friends of the Earth report into the wider offsetting issue.
“Carbon offsets distract tourists from the need to reduce their emissions. They create a ‘medieval pardon’ for us to carry on behaving in the same way (or worse).”
The company has instead replaced the offsetting programme with a Carbon Caution page on its site which offers “tips and advice” for travellers.
Managing director Justin Francis says:
“We believe that the travel industry’s priority must be to reduce carbon emissions, rather than to offset. Too often offsets are being used by the tourism industry in developed countries to justify growth plans on the basis that money will be donated to projects in developing countries.”
Whether the move will inspire others – such as lastminute.com- to follow is another thing, but the reality of using strong language such as “dangerously distracting” by ResponsibleTravel is likely to trigger a new round of soul searching.
PS: Lastminute.com says “we launched it [Offsetting] in November 2006, and more than more than 15% of our customers have chosen to offset the CO2 emissions of their flying, which equates to nearly 50,000 tonnes (48,620).
NB and a side issue and a perhaps a lesson to learn for PRs trying to manage the message when something like this is announced:
ResponsibleTravel issued a press release regarding its decision, embargoed until midnight UK time 16 October 2009.
But no sooner had it hit in-boxes, Twitter was on it. Some had already picked up on it a few days ago.
ResponsibleTravel had also already uploaded the new Carbon Caution page.
The concept of embargoes for “traditional media” is on the wane. The social media universe doesn’t respect them – and why should it?
Until now, Tnooz has always abided by them – but we will now evaluate the value of whether to stick to them on a case-by-case basis. Feel free to disagree…
For more debate on this particular issue, read this treatise by TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington.
Carbon offsets always seemed to be a “Get out of jail free” pass for the guilty jet-setting traveller. Juding by the quotes, I get the feeling it was assumed travellers that were not going to fly due emissions still did so only because they felt these could be offset, but I wonder how often this was really the case? I’m sure the decision was well researched, but I had always assumed the offsets had some positive effect.
Graham makes a good point, which is that the majority of the people who offset are going to travel anyway. The recommendations contained in the Carbon Caution page are all very valid, but the company promotes itself as “a better way to see the world”, and I question how consistent this is with advocating short breaks and train journeys over exotic long haul travel.
Justin Francis is right to be concerned about the way offsetting funds are invested, and there remain many questions to be answered, as this industry matures, about the most effective ways to offset. I hope that other companies that promote more environmentally-friendly travel options will to continue to embrace offsetting and to work towards perfecting the model, rather than abandoning it.
I have never been a big fan of carbon offsets. Here is an article I wrote in 2007 comparing Carbon Offsets to Snake Oil.
http://tourismtechnology.rezgo.com/2007/12/are-carbon-offsets-the-new-snake-oil.html
And another I wrote post Snake Oil that talks about greening your company or organization. This is pretty common sense stuff, so to use it as a marketing ploy really only cheapens the effort:
http://tourismtechnology.rezgo.com/2007/12/are-carbon-offsets-the-new-snake-oil-planning-for-a-greener-2008.html