At Choose a Challenge we firmly believe that challenge events are one of the most worthwhile activities that a person can choose to do. They combine the exercising of the desire to challenge oneself, with fundraising for worthwhile charitable causes and discovering some of the world’s most treasured sites. As part of this, we believe that for any trip to be worth running, it should be carried out in a sustainable, ethical and transparent operational manner - from initial booking, to your return home, and we are committed to ethical and sustainable practices in all areas of our work.
Green House Gas ‘GHG’ Emissions
The current challenge posed by global climate change stems from the excessive release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere at an unsustainable pace. This phenomenon is altering natural seasonal climates, affecting local temperatures, weather patterns, and extremes. For further insights, I encourage you to explore the resources available on the ABTA website.
In addressing this issue, Choose a Challenge employs GHG calculators to assess our package emissions accurately. Subsequently, we establish 'Science Based' targets aimed at reducing our environmental footprint, ultimately striving towards carbon neutrality. Our approach involves categorising emissions into three distinct scopes, as delineated by the Carbon Literacy Project. Typically, this entails contributing to climate initiatives that actively remove carbon from the atmosphere, such as tree planting efforts.
We extend the opportunity to all participants to offset the majority of their trip's carbon emissions. For a comprehensive understanding of our progress and operational mechanisms, please refer to the provided link.
We all know that overseas trips, including our amazing challenges, can come with a not-so-amazing side effect: Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) that contribute to climate change. These GHGs act like a blanket around Earth, trapping heat and messing with the weather patterns we rely on. ☀️❄️☔️
At Choose a Challenge, we're passionate about creating unforgettable experiences, but we also want to make sure we're doing our part for the planet. That's why we're taking some cool steps to minimize our environmental impact.
Taking Stock:
First things first, we're using science-based GHG calculators to figure out our total travel package emissions. Think of it like a virtual scale – it helps us measure and understand exactly how much impact our adventures have in terms of emissions.
Setting Goals:
Once we know the ‘GHG footprint’ of a given challenge, we set some science-based goals to reduce it! Of course, as a humble challenge operator, it’s tricky for us to do much about the flights that are part of some of our packages. But we can still take action on the ground-based elements of our trips.
Going Carbon Neutral (Kind Of!):
While eliminating GHG emissions from our challenges entirely is tough (hello, airplanes!), we're working towards becoming "carbon neutral." This basically means that any leftover emissions we can't avoid, we'll offset by supporting projects that remove carbon from the atmosphere, like planting trees. Pretty cool, right? And we’re not just randomly planting trees either: by purchasing verified offsets generated by science-backed forest creation projects in the regions where our challenges take place, we’re investing in the green economies of the global south and ensuring that the landscapes that make our destinations such special places can be enjoyed by generations to come.
Travel Green with Us!
The good news is, that you can be part of the solution too! If you’re signing up for one of our life-enhancing challenges then we offer you the choice to offset your chosen trip's carbon emissions. This way, you can explore amazing destinations with peace of mind, knowing you're minimising your environmental impact.
Want to learn more about our initiatives and how you can travel green with Choose a Challenge? Read more about our progress and how it works here.
LOCAL IMPACT & WELFARE
We firmly believe that all challenges should be locally led, which is why our in-country teams are made up of local people with expert local knowledge and a genuine passion for the sites and communities in which they are based, rather than sending Western guides over to run trips.
All of the guides, porters and support staff that represent Choose a Challenge are paid a fair wage, and we operate with strict limits on how much weight they are each permitted to carry. Many of our in-country partners are also members of their local porter welfare associations, and are affiliated with local community projects in addition to their commitments through partnering with us.
FUNDRAISING & CAUSES
All of our challenges have one thing in common: they're all designed to raise as much money as possible for some of the world's most worthwhile charitable causes, and our fundraising packages are built on an industry-standard 50:50 fundraising ratio with this in mind. We’re extremely proud to be part of a growing movement which helps to nurture the dedicated fundraisers of tomorrow for our partner charities.
We currently partner with multiple charities across a wide range of causes, and in the 2018/19 season alone we raised over £1 million in direct donations to the work of our wonderful charity partners.
INTEGRITY & TRANSPARENCY
We are proud to be members of multiple accreditation agencies, and we’re always working towards new schemes to ensure we remain the most informed, transparent, sustainable, safe and inspiring travel company around. We’re currently members of multiple standards agencies, including ABTA and ATOL, and accredited by Travellers Against Plastic (TAP) and Tourism Concern as an Ethical Tour Operator.
Our commercial partners are granted access to our risk assessments, as well as all up-to-date licences and certificates, providing the reassurance that they are collaborating with a professional tour operator.
SINGLE-USE PLASTICS
In 2018, we took the Travellers Against Plastic (TAP) pledge to help fight the harmful consumption of single-use plastics through our operations. In all our destinations, water is purified from local sources for our participants.
In remote areas where this is not possible, our team prioritise large, decantable cooler bottles which are later recycled. Where the provision of safe drinking water is not possible, our teams adhere to a ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’ mantra.
ANIMAL WELFARE
We take animal welfare extremely seriously, and we do not produce or promote itineraries which facilitate or encourage the mistreatment of animals. Our animal welfare policies are strongly influenced by industry-standard ABTA guidelines on the treatment of animals. When sourcing ground agents, we will not partner with non-compliant agents and take the opportunity to help to educate non-compliant agents in best practice.
We’re proud to be an active member of ABTA’s Animal Welfare Working Group, which means we’ve got our ear to the ground on all animal welfare issues the world over, meaning we’re literally at the table helping to report animal welfare issues and enforce positive change within the industry.
PROTECTION & ADVICE
As a tour operator, we recognise our responsibility to inform and educate all of our participants on all of the necessary requirements and need-to-know information ahead of their travel. This includes entry requirements and visas, vaccinations, training, currency and more.
Our in-house Operations team receive daily bulletins from ABTA regarding all safety and security incidents occurring the world over, and we work to the guidance of these bulletins and those of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office to inform our incident response.
All of our packages feature financial protection for our participants, thanks to our participation in ABTA and ATOL financial protection schemes.
The Choose a Challenge Tree Planting Project
We’ve been supporting tree-planting in Zambia Luanshya through WeForest since August 2019. Your contributions to offset your flights will help us on our journey to carbon neutrality by supporting the smallholder farmers in reversing deforestation there. Find out more here.
Still have questions?
If you still have questions about our sustainability and ethical policies and practices, please feel free to get in touch with our team via email at hello@chooseachallenge.com
