Corporate Social and Environmental Responsibility in Travel & Tourism
CSR – Practicing What You Preach Jane Crouch Responsible Travel Manager Intrepid Travel
Global Ecotourism Conference 2007 - Oslo
Intrepid p Travel: • Operate affordable small group adventures trips. • Commenced in 1989 with a trip in Thailand. • Currently in 98 countries, through Asia, Australasia, Pacific, Middle East, Europe, Africa & Latin America. • 471 different trips this year – from 6 to 60 days in length. length • 7 different styles of trips including original style, family and active. • Directors are the original founders: Darrell Wade and Geoff Manchester. • 50,000 travellers this year.
CSR Definition from the World Business Council for Sustainable Development:
"Corporate social responsibility is the continuing commitment by business to contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the community and society at large."
S t i bilit Sustainability “Meeting the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. needs.� Brundtland - 1987
From a travel operators perspective: Travelling in a way that respects and benefits local people, their culture and the environment – and will enable our children to visit these places and find them just as special as we did.
Triple bottom line: People Social
+
Planet
+
Profit
+ Environmental + Economic
Business case for CSR Recognition business and society are interdependent Legality - Respecting and obeying the laws of the countries you operate. Eg Paying taxes; looking after employees health and safety. Eg Intrepid companies Thailand, Indochina, India and soon China Brand differentiation Your RT or sustainable tourism practices help your company image and build staff and customer loyalty Human resources H Attracts ‘right’ sort of employees and helps staff retention Manage risk Helps protect company reputation
People – your stakeholders – doing the h ‘right ‘ h thing’ h ’ by… b Your employees Your service providers Your customers Your hosts
Your employees - fair conditions: • equitable salaries • encouraging personal growth eg study leave • training opportunities, volunteering opportunities • flexible hours and other conditions • treated with respect, integrity & honesty • offer rewards and incentives • optimum health and safety measures
Service providers – our local friends • Spread the financial benefits amongst local people and operators. • Support and encourage fair employment practices. Be aware off local l l exploitive l practices. • Provide employment and leadership opportunities for local people. p p • Use local operators that adhere to our Responsible Travel philosophies and provide the best possible service to our travellers and staff. staff
Your customers (not always right but respected!) • Educate travellers about how and why we choose to travel this way. • Educate about local customs and culture. • Provide safe trips for travellers and staff. staff • Provide fun enjoyable trips to travellers. • Give our travellers the best possible value.
•Provide opportunities for travellers to interact with ith llocall people l and d make k meaningful i f l connections.
Your hosts and the wider community • Limit the negative impacts to daily lifestyles of local people not involved with our groups. • Actively ban staff or passenger participation in or endorsement of commercial sexual activities or illegal drug use on Intrepid trips. • Work to prevent the exploitation of children in tourism. tourism
Provide support to organisations and local communities. o u s
The Intrepid Foundation • Support a range of activities including: health care, education, human rights, child welfare, sustainable development, development environmental and wildlife protection. • Intrepid Travel matches all public donations dolla fo dollar for dolla dollar and pa pays s all the administration administ ation costs. • In last 3 years over AUD812,000 has been raised for over 30 beneficiary projects. • Asian Tsunami Appeal raised >$225,000. Children’s s Fund for Mike raised • Indochina Children $60,000.
There are 2 ways offered to support: The Intrepid Community Project Fund - Donations go to grassroots work of NGOs identified as making a valuable contribution to the local community. Includes many small ll organisations or projects that h may b be visited during an Intrepid trip. Deepalaya in India → Braille B ill With Withoutt B Borders d Tibet ↓
The Intrepid Perpetual Support Fund Donations divided each year: - half is retained in the account to conserve and grow capital for the future, -half h lf into i t an annuall grants t pooll tto 10 well ll respected organisations Intrepid has had a long relationship p with. Amnesty International Australia CHILD WISE, ECPAT in Australia Medecins Sans Frontieres Plan The Fred Hollows Foundation WWF — TRAFFIC Greenpeace WSPA — World Society for the Protection of Animals Tree Project Australian Conservation Foundation – Asia/Pacific program
Planet • Use locally y owned infrastructure for accommodation and transport where possible.
• Limit the physical impact of trips in all destination communities-particularly sensitive natural and cultural environments. • Actively discourage the participation of travellers in activities which exploit animals - wild or domestic.
Climate Change - Our travellers feedback Survey in Intrepid Express found from 1743 respondents: • 97% believe it is “somewhat to very" important th t climate that li t change h be b partt off Intrepid's I t id' responsible ibl travel commitments. • 70% told us they have a "good good to very good" good understanding of the issues relating to climate change and 50% are familiar with the process of carbon b offsetting. ff i . • 80% said they would be happy to pay 4% extra on their airfare to offset the carbon emissions and a significant 87% said they would be willing to pay USD1.00 a day to offset the land component of their trip.
In December 2006 Intrepid announced the goal of becoming a carbon neutral company by end of 2008.
What are Intrepid doing? • First step - identify areas we could measure our carbon foot print, then take steps to reduce: in offices, brochures, staff travel, our trips • Offices & retail stores - energy and water audit. audit • ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ ticket refund – 3,900 people took up our offer and we refunded AUD$38 AUD$38,765.80 765 80 in ticket costs. • Australian staff – discount home audits & g gifts of compact fluorescents.
Offsetting • First step - mandatory carbon offsetting of all exit flights from January 1st 2007- starting with exit Australia. • Intrepid I t id will ill conduct d t a 4 month th internal i t l review. i • Offsetting of staff flights. • This payment is made to an offset provider, Origin Energy, (www.originenergy.com.au) • Compensate Intrepid flight emissions by investing in programs: methane destruction, tree planting, home energy efficiency and waste composting. • These Th projects j t are audited dit d by b a third thi d party. t • Intrepid make NO profit from carbon offsetting. offsetting
Partnerships & Memberships with many a y international a o a and a d local o a organisations o ga a o to o tap into their areas of expertise and continually learn ways we can improve. For example: TIES – The International Ecotourism Society IIPT – International Institute for f Peace Through Tourism STI - Sustainable Travel International Eco-Club ATA- Aboriginal Tourism Australia
Measuring, monitoring & reporting your CSR efforts • External certification or accreditation schemes. p evaluations ((ATEs)) - evaluating g • Annual trip Responsible Travel and Safety performance: - Economic impacts - Physical impacts - Social impacts & - Safety management • Passenger feedback entered on-line. • Quarterly group leader reviews • Staff surveys eg Hewitt Survey www.hewittassociates.com
• CSR reporting ti
Some criticisms of CSR • Goal of company should be to maximise profits to shareholders, not spend resources on the environment, communities or charitable works. • Takes focus away from prime business purpose • Green washing – a creation of a firm’s marketing department. Do you walk the talk? • Distraction Di t ti from f the th companies i less l ethical thi l behaviour.
Good CSR Puts resources into all areas, not just supporting a few charities or carbon offsetting. People + Planet → Profits You can “Do well by y doing g good” g