Responsibletravel.com Reject Carbon Offsetting, but are There Much Better Alternatives? says Adventure Tour Operator
Tuesday, 25 Nov, 2009
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Said Alex Narracott of MuchBetterAdventures.com: “When renowned responsible travel experts responsibletravel.com decide to publicly withdraw their support for carbon offsetting, many committed environmentalists will have nodded their heads approvingly. Most will agree that carbon offsetting has proved a ‘dangerous distraction’ to the real issue of reducing carbon emissions in the first place. However, muchbetteradventures.com fear that important and valuable alternatives may be ignored as companies now clamour to distance themselves from offsetting and create a bit of good pr in the process.”
Alex, founder of muchbetteradventures.com continues“The problem is largely in the message associated with a term like carbon ‘offsetting’ and the claims of ‘carbon neutrality’ that come with it. We absolutely agree that this has been a ‘dangerous distraction’ from meaningful action. There are however some important alternatives out there which have a far greater impact than just ‘offsetting’ our own guilt. They should not be ignored just because traditional offsets are rightly no longer popular.”
“One such alternative comes in the shape of Bristol based charity ‘The Converging World’. Their innovative model involves raising funds to build wind turbines, and investing the income from electricity generation and sale of gold standard carbon credits in building more wind turbines, putting money into local social development projects and carbon reduction back home. As a result, donating the equivalent amount of a normal carbon offset will make your money go so much further towards tangible results.”
Ed, co-founder of muchbetteradventures.com adds; “Donations, like offsets, are by no means a replacement for taking meaningful steps to cut carbon emissions in the first place. We try to make that easy and desirable, by choosing a growing range of UK and European active holidays and providing the advice and resources needed to get there with a lower carbon footprint. However, people will still choose to fly long distances. If a traveller wishes to recognise the impact of their trip and make a donation to important projects like The Converging World, and others like them, we still feel this is better than nothing.”
Muchbetteradventures.com recently went live, promising a clean break for active people. They will put visitors directly in contact with a wide selection of active holidays and accommodations from providers chosen for their passion for the outdoors, local expertise and strong commitment to a sustainable future.
Their model is designed to use tourism to advance sustainable development and conservation goals around the world by providing a free, commercially competitive, platform for small operators, not for profits, community tourism and charities to reach a larger market than they could otherwise afford.
The site was inspired by Alex Narracott’s experiences with community tourism in Ecuador, and has been live for just two weeks. They are still contacting their shortlist of suppliers, and report the initial response has been overwhelmingly positive. They will be building a large community over the next few months, as well as developing a clothing and gear shop and filling the adventure sports guides with information supplied by the muchbetter community.
The Converging World is a UK-based charity whose objectives are to tackle climate change whilst supporting the move towards a just and sustainable world. They say they use a unique business model that makes every donation work 3 times harder than normal to create an ever bigger impact.
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