CARBON IMPACT, REDUCTION AND OFFSETTING

Overview

The process of global industrialisation that has carried on for over 100 years has had a real, proven impact on our climate. At current levels of CO2 in the atmosphere the planet will warm up by 2 degrees before 2050, with significant impact on landscapes, ecology and our society. Even now we release more carbon into the atmosphere than the planet can absorb, accelerating the process of global warming.

There are climate sceptics who still dispute the widely accepted facts about global warming, and others who believe that the largest international polluters have such a significant impact that there is little point in taking individual action.

We take a different view. Like increasing numbers of people across the world we are looking at what we do, and the services we provide to all of our clients, and trying to find ways to reduce the carbon impact of everything that we are involved with.

Carbon Credits and Offsetting

It could seem hypocritical to incite people to travel, then tell them to consider the damage they are doing in the process. We’re fully aware of this rather strange position but our only answer to the question “so why do you do it?” is that we believe our holidays are as environmentally sensitive as possible and therefore travelling with us – since you’re probably going to travel anyway – is a good idea.

We also suggest that all clients do what we do and buy carbon credits to offset the carbon impact of your trip.

Purchasing one carbon credit is simply investing in a project that will result in the reduction of CO2 in the atmosphere by one tonne. As with any investment process there are good projects and not so good projects. For this reason we have taken advice from one of the UK’s leading environmental engineers and climate change experts on how to make sure we invest in projects that have real, verifiable impact.

Reducing Our Carbon Footprint to Zero

When you book a holiday or course with CycleActive we will let you know how many carbon credits you would need to offset the volume of carbon being released into the atmosphere by your travels. If you want to purchase these carbon credits then we can organise that for you – or you are welcome to take that information and make your own carbon reduction decision.

Our staff will all have their carbon impact calculated and the full value of this will be offset by the purchase of carbon credits. If every client does the same thing the overall carbon impact of every course or holiday can be reduced to zero.

The projects we recommend are all graded Gold Standard by the WWF. This is the highest standard of carbon offsetting project and is a guarantee to investors that their payment is genuinely being used to effectively reduce carbon in the environment, in a sustainable way.We accept that carbon offsetting is still a matter of choice and so we do not expect you to make any additional payments, or include anything in our prices to cover these costs. However, if you want to find out more about the process, the projects that you could invest in or to make your carbon offsetting investment, please get in touch with us.

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