Exodus Travels Impact Report 2022 - UK

PEOPLE PLACES & PLANET

IMPACT REPORT | 2022

Incorporating our People, Places and Planet Plan and the Exodus Travels Foundation

Our Sustainable Travel Journey

We welcome the opportunity to share our 2022 impact report with all of our stakeholders. This report, based on our actions and performance, shows where Exodus and the Exodus Travels Foundation have made progress against our goals, and areas where we struggled to have the impact we intended.

2022 was a whirlwind year. We were relieved to see the easing of disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, but the devastating war in Ukraine, the increasing effects of climate change and the rising cost of living have required continued agility in our operations and sensitivity to our responsibility to the people and places where we travel.

The tremendous commitment and support of our suppliers are what allowed us to return to travel in 2022. These partners are instrumental in helping us to ensure that our adventures do their utmost to inspire transformational experiences for our customers and to help local communities and nature thrive in the places we visit.

Businesses like ours must address carbon and biodiversity decline so that these amazing places are around for future generations. Through our Nature First commitment, we have the ambition to remove and reduce the negative impacts we create and outweigh them with our efforts to restore nature. Our suppliers and partners help us to facilitate biodiversity protection and restoration, create diverse and local experiences for our customers to engage with and they find local initiatives on the ground that would benefit from our important Community Kick Start grants, channelled through the Exodus Travels Foundation. These pages provide a number of examples of how we are attempting to do this.

Our wonderful community of clients is incredibly generous in support of our Foundation projects and helps us realise its aims of improving life through travel in hard-to-reach places. The Trustees of our Exodus Travels Foundation have also provided excellent governance of the funding for projects to support community empowerment conservation and disaster relief, and I thank them enormously for their engagement.

Finally, the Exodus Travels team was transformed over 2022 with the hiring of 88 new starters - an increase of 50% compared to the previous year. These fantastic new recruits say that they were attracted to Exodus as we are a business that acts with purpose. Our people are instrumental to achieving success over the years ahead and living up to our staff expectations is a responsibility that we look forward to meeting.

SAM SEWARD Managing Director

This impact report covers progress against our sustainability goals set out in our sustainability strategy. Our progress covers the period of January to December 2022.

IMPACT at a glance

94 % OF ALL TRIPS VISIT AT LEAST ONE NATIONAL PARK, WILDLIFE RESERVE OR OTHER PROTECTED NATURAL SPACES

thousands of lives

IMPROVED THROUGH THE EXODUS TRAVELS FOUNDATION

zero waste to landfill for UK HQ

Business

100 of land rewilded per passenger

85% of all accommodation used on our trips is locally owned* *at least 50% owned by a local resident or citizen of the country

44 % OF THE PEOPLE EMPLOYED ON OUR TRIPS WERE WOMEN

square metres

94% of trips are single use plastic free (direct distribution)

In 2022 Exodus rated 4.7 In 2022 Headwater rated 4.6

Our Business

took a group of travellers to Afghanistan nearly 50 years expanded to offer more than 500 itineraries across 90 on small group and self-guided adventure holidays for who have a passion for travel and adventure.

OUR TEAM

provide invaluable insights that enrich all trips, and staff share their enthusiasm for the world. Our team been professional wildlife guides, mountain leaders, specialists and mountain bike gurus and want to use their customers the very best adventures possible. We take extensive planning, research, fact-finding and training to this expertise comes through for our customers.

EXODUS TRAVELS STAFF AT END OF 2022

50% more than at end of 2021

540

TRIP ITINERARIES

62 new itineraries created in 2022

COUNTRIES TRAVELLED TO

Countries like Japan, New Zealand and Vietnam reopened in 2022 after being shut since 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic

540%MORE

PASSENGERS IN CALENDAR YEAR 2022

An increase of 540% compared to 2021 when the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in a significant drop in the number of people able to travel

Exodus Travels and Headwater are part of the Travelopia group, the world’s leading collection of experiential travel brands.

VISION & purpose

OUR PEOPLE, PLACES & PLANET PLAN

Collaborating with our clients, staff and partners across the globe, we have developed our sustainability strategy, or what we like to call our People, Places and Planet Plan. Through this plan, we aim to consolidate and accelerate our efforts to reduce any negative impacts and give back to the places we visit through social community empowerment projects and conservation efforts.

In this report, we share our progress against the sustainability goals laid out in our People, Places and Planet plan, together with the impact of our wider business areas in 2022.

OUR PURPOSE AND CULTURE

Our mission is to improve life through travel, for the places we visit, the people we meet and the planet we explore.

The Exodus Travels Foundation provides a key channel through which we aim to achieve our People, Places and Planet goals. Established in 2019, our foundation is a catalyst for funding projects that empower communities, increase employment opportunities for locals and support the conservation of biodiversity and wildlife in the countries we travel to. Our foundation is also reactive in providing relief efforts should natural or man made disasters occur in our destinations.

Our core values are to Bring Happiness, Take Responsibility, Be Ambitious and to Always be Passionate. And these core values continue to underpin all the work that we do.

EXODUS TRAVELS Foundation

Any content which relates to our Foundation activity is tagged with our Foundation globe icon, so that it can be easily identified.

Our People, Places & Planet Plan

IMPROVE LIFE THROUGH TRAVEL

IN THE PLACES WE VISIT, FOR THE PEOPLE WE MEET, ON THE PLANET WE EXPLORE

PEOPLE PLACES PLANET

PRIORITY FOCUS AREA: Economically empowering communities

PRIORITY FOCUS AREAS: Protecting wildlife, biodiversity and reducing waste.

OUR TRIPS

PRIORITY FOCUS AREA: Taking action on climate change

OUR OFFICES | PEOPLE | PLACES | PLANET | OUR TEAM | FOUNDATION | CONCLUSION | APPENDIX

GLOBAL context

GLOBAL TRENDS AND CHALLENGES

Our People, Places and Planet plan is regularly reviewed to ensure it continues to align with the key challenges we have identified for our business: nature and biodiversity loss, climate change and increased inequality and vulnerability. Across the year, we seek and receive input from stakeholders, key scientific reports, Foundation trustees, industry sustainability meetings, partnerships, and our staff teams. These contributions help our teams identify and address emerging trends or key challenges that allow us to revise our plans and budgeting allocations so that resources are being channeled into areas that need it the most.

Urgent action to limit global warming to 1.5°C

Our planet faces unprecedented challenges – not only the climate crisis but biodiversity collapse. The nature and unique ecosystems that we continue to explore on our adventures are vital for the survival of our global society but are left increasingly under threat. This is why were one of the first travel companies to declare a climate emergency, by agreeing to join the Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism and acclerate our own emission reductions in line with the IPPC advice. And at the beginning of 2021, we made a promise to our planet - to halve our per passenger carbon footprint by 2030, to rewild 100 square metres per passenger and to invest in nature-based carbon sinks.

We use our People, Places & Planet framework to set annual goals and KPIs. To accurately assess the progress made against these goals, we use a combination of data sources, including our annual supplier sustainability survey, carbon reporting process, client surveys and holiday evaluation forms, and our Exodus Travels Foundation impact measurement process. In the pages to follow, we report back on the progress we have made in the past year.r progress against the goals we have set.

Urgent action to stop biodiversity loss

Global biodiversity is declining faster than at any other time in human history1, and this is caused by human activity, including land use, pollution, and climate change. We welcome the global agreement for biodiversity that was decided in December 2022 at COP15 in Montréal, Canada. It is a critical component of driving more action to reverse biodiversity loss in this decade. Through our nature positive goals, we want to ensure that everything we do to create and run our trips not only reduces any negative impacts on natural ecosystems, but proactively seeks to support nature’s restoration and regeneration. Our clients have also identified that the protection of biodiversity and wildlife is the number one issue they feel we should address.

1 Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), “Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services“, 2019

Around the world, inequality is rising and vulnerable groups are increasingly impacted

The continuing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, conflicts in many parts of the world, and the accelerating effects of climate change are all adding to global instability, insecurity and economic inflation. These effects impact people from vulnerable groups the hardest and lead to increasing levels of inequality. Our trips seek to protect the people we visit and drive economic empowerment in their communities. This means supporting local businesses, boosting employment opportunities, and ensuring that our clients’ money has a positive impact on all the communities we visit.

Working towards THE UN SDGS

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide a framework for collective action to tackle global issues, such as poverty, gender equality and climate change. Companies have an important role to play in contributing to achieving the SDGs.

We have aligned the goals in our People, Places & Planet plan to nine of the SDGs and share some of the highlights of our activities specifically related to each:

Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages

• Exodus Travels provides a safe and healthy workplace for our entire workforce with a dedicated internal staff-led wellbeing committee.

• 56% of our trips are active and 94% visit protected natural areas, inspiring our customers to embrace nature and live healthier lives

• Tackling the cultural stigma surrounding menstruation in rural Nepal, by providing washable sanitary kits and reproductive health education through the Exodus Travels Foundation. We have also introduced free sanitary provisions in the bathrooms of our UK head office.

Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

• Developing unconscious bias training for all our team members

• Funding catch-up lessons for children in Zambian rural communities who were unable to access learning facilities during Covid, providing school and vocational scholarships to Nepalese children and young women and funding the renovation of two schools in India through our Foundation

Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages

• Improving gender balance among the ownership of our suppliers

• Providing training for porters and guide training scholarships for 30 women on Mt Kilimanjaro, Tanzania, through the Exodus Travels Foundation

You can find out more about the UN Sustainable Development Goals at sdgs.un.org

Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

• Pursuing equality and the protection of human rights across all of our trips, and have high standards of welfare for guides and porters

• Avoiding (and where appropriate, actively removing) contrived cultural experiences that are not respectful of people. Instead, we actively seek to support the preservation of cultural and traditional heritage, through our itineraries and knowledge of our local guides

• Supporting local guides, accommodations, food venues and experiences — which not only help the local economy but make our trips more compelling

• Where possible, our trips visit and contribute to community-owned cooperatives and local social enterprises

• Supporting alternative income generation classes through the Village Savings and Loans groups in Tanzania, to help with money management and budgeting, to improve the participants economic prospects

Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable

Supporting a range of grassroots initiatives in hard-to-reach communities across the Himalaya through the Exodus Travels Foundation Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

• Inspiring and enabling people to live healthier, more sustainable lives and encouraging this on our trips through our Nature First Travel tips

• Eliminate the distribution of any single-use plastics to clients on trips in our direct operations

Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts

• Measuring, monitoring and reducing GHG emissions across the Exodus Travels value chain

• Increasing plant-based meals and engaging with local suppliers to do the same

• Halving our carbon footprint by 2030, investing in nature-based carbon removal projects

• Achieve zero waste to landfill across our offices

Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable develoment

Eliminating the distribution of any single-use plastics to clients on trips in our direct operations

Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss

• Rewilding 100 square metres per passenger and supporting innovative rewilding efforts

• Ensuring the protection of wildlife and the reduction of human/wildlife conflict

• Building the eBioAtlas and enabling travellers to collect samples to support the IUCN’s global conservation work

• Supporting wildlife protection initiatives such as Wildlife Heritage Areas from World Animal Protection

PEOPLE PROGRESS against our goals

The ‘People’ pillar of our People, Places & Planet plan looks at how we engage with the communities across our destinations –ensuring our adventures help to improve lives and livelihoods.

Impact 2022

THOUSANDS OF LIVES

IMPROVED IN HARD-TO-REACH PLACES, INCLUDING...

13

FEMALE PORTERS TRAINED AS MOUNTAIN GUIDES IN TANZANIA

500 FRUIT TREES PLANTED IN A REMOTE REGION OF INDIA

150 HOT MEALS PROVIDED FOR DISADVANTAGED CHILDREN IN NAMIBIA

78 PEOPLE

450

FREEDOM KIT BAGS

DISTRIBUTED TO YOUNG WOMEN IN NEPAL

957

CHILDREN

GIVEN EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES

280

FAMILIES IN INDIA

PROVIDED WITH ENERGY EFFICIENT SMART STOVES

GIVEN INCOME GENERATION TRAINING IN TANZANIA

48

18 COMMUNITY MEMBERS IN KENYA GIVEN PERMACULTURE TRAINING FOR IMPROVED FARMING

COUNTLESS

HAPPIER BEES, TIGERS, ELEPHANTS, IMPALAS, DIK DIKS, AND OTHER CREATURES, GREAT AND SMALL

EMERGENCY FOOD PARCELS DISTRIBUTED

FOR A FULL LIST OF PROJECTS FUNDED DURING 2022

SEE PAGE 47

EXODUS TRAVELS Foundation

PEOPLE Goals

We choose to work with who align with our values healthy work environments, long-standing partners at Hotel Our company of Europe with negative growth. To help attract people, we introduced a week in 2022. Our staff 5 days and use the extra day for as studying, tending their gardens family. The results have positive. Our customer evaluation the highest they have ever been. reason to go back to 40

Goal:

EXODUS TRAVELS Foundation

MEASURABLY INCREASE EMPLOYMENT AND INCOME GENERATION OPPORTUNITIES THROUGH TOURISM FOR DISADVANTAGED, UNDERREPRESENTED AND HARD-TO-REACH COMMUNITIES.

AREA OF IMPACT: Our trips

PROGRESS: Across the world on our adventures, we take pride in finding locally owned businesses that can give our customers a more authentic experience on their holiday.

Our Supplier Sustainability Survey helps to provide an understanding of the current impact. Each of the suppliers that we engage for these trips directly employs over 13 people on a full-time basis, 44% of whom are women, 48% are from low-income communities or chronically unemployed populations and 12% from a minority population in the country.

Through our Foundation, we also support a small number of projects that contribute towards this goal.

NEXT STEPS: In pursuit of this goal, we aim to continue develop a better understanding of the impact of our trips on communities and identify areas for improvement. We recognise that while it is important and possible to measure certain economic metrics, other elements such as increased confidence, pride and happiness are far more subjective. We will continue updating the Exodus Travels Foundation’s impact monitoring methods to track our progress.

with local operators values of promoting environments, like our Hotel Torrecerredo: company is in a region negative population and retain great a 4-day working staff still get paid for for activities such gardens or visiting have been extremely evaluation scores are been. We have no 40 hours a week!

Goal:

AREA OF IMPACT: Our office

PROGRESS: We spent much of 2022 reading materials, watching videos, engaging in conversations with external organisations, and attending webinars on EDI topics.

These helped to shed light and create awareness of the ongoing struggles that many people face in their day to day lives and where we needed greater action.

We also started forming our policy and plan of action for where and how to address diversity and inclusion within Exodus Travels. While this is not completely implemented, we are progressing well on this journey.

NEXT STEPS: Our EDI plan of action involves cultivating a diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment where everyone can flourish. We are committed to building awareness of the biases we may hold and build a culture of learning.

We now spend more time recognising, celebrating and learning about significant dates and events from an EDI perspective. Our monthly all staff newsletter now specifically recognises these efforts.

Over the coming months, we will be rolling out specific training on identifying and counteracting unconscious bias. We will also be doing more to increase and benefit from diversity of thought that comes from having more inclusive representation.

SPOTLIGHT ON Community Kickstart Project

We set up Community Kickstart Grants in 2020 to provide our local operators, leaders, porters and guides with financial support for their communities. The pandemic resulted in major travel restrictions and lockdowns that affected locals whose livelihoods depended on tourism, so we were pleased that these grants brought much needed relief to our destination communities during these unprecedented times. This positive impact is evident through initiatives like education catch up lessons, food parcels and hot meals for 150 children.

FIND OUT MORE:

WWW.EXODUS.CO.UK/FOUNDATION/KICKSTART

PILAR SAIZ Hotel Torrecerredo

Disaster relief

Supporting our destination communities in their immediate need after a disaster is one of the key areas that our Foundation supports. In 2022, our contributions focused on providing hot meals and shelter for Ukrainian citizens fleeing from violence. These funds are channelled to our partner, the disaster relief NGO, REACT Disaster Response, who share our vision of providing much-needed support in hard-to-reach places. In 2022, we helped fund over 57,300 hot meals in Dnipro, Ukraine across three locations: at the train station for those arriving from conflict areas, at a centre for mothers and children in need of shelter and at a centre providing longer term support for people with disabilities.

Following natural or man-made disasters in our destinations, Exodus Travels remains committed to raising awareness, money and support to assist communities with relief efforts. FIND OUT MORE:

ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT OF LOCAL COMMUNITIES

Our supplier surveys give us an idea of how our trips support the local economies and people in our destinations.

IN

85 % OF NIGHTS

ACROSS OUR TRIPS ARE IN LOCALLY OWNED ACCOMMODATION (80% in 2021)

2022:

61% OF BUSINESSES USED ON OUR TRIPS ARE OWNED BY WOMEN

90% OF MEALS

PROVIDED ACROSS OUR TRIPS ARE FROM LOCALLY OWNED RESTAURANTS (91% in 2021)

44 % OF THE PEOPLE EMPLOYED ON OUR TRIPS WERE WOMEN (40% in 2021 and 35% in 2020)

12 % OF BUSINESSES ARE OWNED BY SOMEONE WHO IS FROM A MINORITY POPULATION IN THE COUNTRY

3 % OF BUSINESSES ARE OWNED BY SOMEONE WITH A PHYSICAL OR MENTAL DISABILITY

PLACES PROGRESS against our goals

The “Places” pillar in our People, Places & Planet plan is all about how we seek to protect and preserve the places we explore on our adventures. Our primary focus is on nature conservation and regeneration, while also ensuring that animal welfare rights are upheld and waste reduction policies are put in place.

Back in 2021, we adopted a nature positive focus, the lead goal in our Sustainability Strategy 2025.

Our nature positive goals identify key areas in our destinations where we can help to reduce, halt or eliminate pollution, waste and ecosystem exploitation. Our trips already avoid and reduce some of tourism’s worst impacts on nature – our use of eco-lodges and hotels with smaller environmental footprints, and our stringent animal welfare policy, for example. We have strict rules on avoiding waste generation, have measured the carbon footprint of all of our trips and we contribute towards nature regeneration – through our commitment to rewild 100 square metres per passenger and our on-trip support of local conservation efforts. We look to significantly expand on these efforts, including setting further biodiversity restoration goals over the years ahead.

PLACES Goals

Goal:

COLLABORATE ACROSS THE SECTOR TO ADVANCE INDUSTRY’S NATURE REGENERATION STRATEGY AND ACTIVITY

AREA OF IMPACT: Restore, Regenerate, Transform - Strategic target

PROGRESS: The World Travel & Tourism Council (our parent company Travelopia is a WTTC Member) has called on the industry to integrate biodiversity and take action to protect and restore nature by becoming a ‘Guardian of Nature’. Exodus Travels has committed to support this cross-industry initiative and continue to share its own approach to prioritising nature.

NEXT STEPS: Towards the end of 2022, Exodus Travels became one of the first UK travel companies to support the new Wildlife Heritage Areas initiative from World Animal Protection. The project aims to create responsible wildlife watching experiences in a way that gives back to communities, generates local pride in natural heritage and connects our clients with nature and organisations who are passionate about protecting the natural world.

Our partnership with Bee1

Bees play a crucial role in supporting our ecosystem, regenerating our biodiversity and even bolsters our planet’s food production, which is why we strongly believe in protecting and preserving the world’s bee population. Partnering with NGO Bee1 in Wales, we have helped to sponsor 50,000 bees in hives that are pollinating over 200 million plants, flowers and fruit across 10 acres of land.

PHOTO CREDITS: BRUNO D’AMICI

Goal:

REWILD 100 SQUARE METRES PER PASSENGER AND EXPAND SUPPORT FOR REWILDING.

AREA OF IMPACT: Reduce and mitigate - Ecosystem exploitation

PROGRESS: Our partnership with Rewilding Europe started in 2021 when we launched the ‘Nature and Carbon Corridors Project’ in the Italian Apennines. Across 2022, we continued to commit to rewilding 100 square metres for every passenger and expanded our support of Rewilding Europe to their work in the Velebit Mountains, Croatia. Our funding has enabled baseline studies of biodiversity and carbon capture potential in the region, vital community engagement and the drawing up of a milestone agreement with local municipalities for the rewilding of 300 hectares.

NEXT STEPS: We are committed to continuing our support for rewilding and to ensure that every passenger on an Exodus Travels holiday rewilds 100 square metres of land.

We have also set ourselves a number of further targets to support the conservation and restoration of biodiversity across our destinations.

Our partnership with Rewilding Europe

In the face of climate crisis and biodiversity loss, we recognise the crucial need to protect our natural ecosystems and restore biodiversity. In January 2021, we launched our partnership with biodiversity experts, Rewilding Europe, and together launched the Nature and Carbon Corridors project in the Italian Apennines. The project aims to create 5 nature corridors that regenerate natural habitats and allow safe passage for wildlife. Once rewilded, this area will provide a rich carbon sink, with the potential to remove 85,000 tonnes of carbon over five years.

Our ‘Rewilding the Apennines’ trip aims to inspire customers and encourage nature-based tourism, with all trip profits being donated to support Rewilding Europe’s work. Our short film, “Restoring Italy’s Wild Heart”, showcases the Apennines’ landscape and unique wildlife, while shining a spotlight on how the team at Rewilding Europe and local people are making all the difference to preserve and protect the Apennines for generations to come.

Goal:

ACTIVATE CUSTOMERS IN CONTRIBUTING TOWARDS NATURE AND REGENERATION THROUGH PARTNERSHIP WITH NATUREMETRICS.

AREA OF IMPACT: Reduce and mitigate

PROGRESS : NatureMetrics is our new partner that will help us enable our clients to collect eDNA samples on our trips to build the eBioAtlas – the IUCN’s pioneering initiative to map species globally and support vital conservation and regeneration work.

In FY22, our work on the eBioAtlas was in the early planning stages and not yet customer-facing. We worked to identify our trips where samples could be taken, engaged with our suppliers to generate their support to facilitate this activity and garnered the required licences from country authorities that would allow us to transfer the eDNA across borders and back to the UK lab for analysis.

NEXT STEPS: The first Citizen Science trips to collect eDNA for the eBioAtlas took place in Spring 2023. We are offering a number of departure dates across 17 trips throughout the world.

To help ensure that our adventures give back far more to nature than they take, in 2022, we embarked on an initiative that would put the ability to measure biodiversity into the hands of our clients.

We have partnered with the tech science company NatureMetrics, who, together with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) are building the eBioAtlas – a global atlas of life in the world’s river basins and wetlands. Through our Citizen Science departures on selected adventures across the world, our customers will collect environmental DNA data from freshwater samples. These samples will then be mapped to find which species are living in those areas and the data will feed into global conservation databases.

Supporting pioneering research to collect data on animal species allows us to learn more about the different animal species in an area and then how the wildlife and nature that support those species should best be conserved.

Goal:

ENGAGE WITH SUPPLIERS AND TOUR LEADERS RE: IMPORTANCE OF NATURE CONSERVATION AND REGENERATION.

AREA OF IMPACT: Reduce and mitigate - Ecosystem exploitation

PROGRESS: Research undertaken during our trips in the Rodopi Mountains of Bulgaria have been written up in academic journals and published in a book as best practices in fostering favourable attitudes towards Brown bears among local village populations. The research recommends that the approach used on these trips could be replicated in other countries to help mitigate human-carnivore conflicts.

NEXT STEPS: We will continue to share this research and identify where it is possible to expand the methodology into other destinations with a view to seeing whether we can help with further awareness and understanding.

Goal:

ANIMAL WELFARE AUDIT UNDERTAKEN ACROSS ALL TRIPS

AREA OF IMPACT: Reduce and mitigate - Ecosystem exploitation

PROGRESS: Exodus Travels is an active member of the ABTA Animal Welfare Working group alongside industry peers to collectively tackle Animal Welfare issues globally. Over the past 18 months, we have updated our animal welfare policy that follows ABTA’s guidelines see www.exodus.co.uk/sustainable-travel/animal-welfare and we have also incorporated these guidelines into our supplier sustainability minimum standards. Unfortunately, we have not yet completed the full audit. We have, however, completed some preliminary work to understand the kinds of animal interactions that take place in our trips. Around 15% of trips involve a wildlife encounter.

NEXT STEPS: We are committed to undertake a fuller animal welfare audit to better ensure our partners and other suppliers are adhering to our animal welfare policy.

Expert guide and award-winning wildlife photographer, Paul Goldstein, launched the Worth More Alive campaign over a decade ago to advance the protection of the endangered Bengal Tiger. Paul set a target of raising £100,000. His aim was to fund the renovation of two schools in Bandhavgarh, India, deliver conservation’s benefits to local communities and engage local people in protecting their stripy neighbours. Paul has completed a number of marathons in his full tiger suit, but none more challenging than the epic Tenzing Hillary Everest Marathon which he finished on 29th May 2022. With the suit now safely hung up for good, the campaign is still continuing to raise money - £108,775 and counting!

FIND OUT MORE: WWW.EXODUS.CO.UK/WORTH-MORE-ALIVE

Goal:

INCREASE EQUITY OF BENEFIT THAT FROM NATURE IN DESTINATIONS

AREA OF IMPACT: Reduce and mitigate

PROGRESS: Through the Exodus Travels support of wildlife and biodiversity in a number

Our Fruit Tree Project in rural India has restored income opportunities for local people. Planting difficult terrain has regenerated the ground and stores carbon.

Zambia is among the most deforested countries their homes every year due to deforestation. Learning Partnerships in Zambia with an of bees, how to care for hives, and for the regenerative income though agriculture.

We continued to raise money for Paul Goldstein’s Bengal Tiger conservation in Bandhavgarh Free to Roam Project in Kenya, which has self-sustaining farming, leaving the remaining

NEXT STEPS: We are actively reaching are aware of these grants and available benefit from nature and wildlife. We are increase equity of benefit.

TRAVELS oundation

mitigate - Ecosystem exploitation

Travels Foundation, we were able to extend our number of ways.

restored biodiversity in the area and increased Planting 500 fruit trees in remote areas with ground soil and created a carbon sink that absorbs

countries in Africa and thousands of bees lose deforestation. Our funding purchased beehives for Baraka aim of teaching children of the importance the community as a means to develop self-

Goldstein’s Worth More Alive campaign , in aid of Bandhavgarh National Park. We also raised funds for the has fenced off 10% of local people’s land to allow remaining 90% free for Wildlife to roam.

reaching out to our communities to ensure that they to help support people who might need help to committed to taking more concerted action to

ON Exploration Without Boundaries Grant program

SPOTLIGHT

One of our key focus areas is to improve life through travel for the people we meet, the places we visit on our adventures and the planet that we explore. We have been thrilled to partner with The Explorers Club, an international organisation that’s dedicated to the advancement of field exploration and scientific inquiry.

Through this partnership, we’ve created the Exodus Exploration Without Boundaries Grant program. These grants help fund projects that advance the global understanding of the social and natural world through cultural, scientific, and conservation fieldwork. These projects are led by explorers who may have taken alternative routes to acquire the skills necessary to conduct their research. Open to researchers of all skill levels who are 18 or older, we’re keen to support projects led by indigenous explorers, or projects that may benefit and amplify the work of indigenous knowledge.

FIND OUT MORE:

WWW.EXODUS.CO.UK/EXPLORERS-CLUB-GRANT

Biodiversity Conservation and Restoration

Visits to national parks, wildlife reserves or other protected natural spaces not only support the protection of nature and encourage local pride, but they also provide funding and an economic incentive for local communities to continue supporting conservation initiatives.

On average, 2.6 national parks, wildlife reserves or other protected natural spaces are visited on every Exodus Travels trip, only 6% of our trips do not include visits to any of these areas.

There are many other ways in which our local network of operator partners is proactively supporting the protection and regeneration of biodiversity through our trips; currently, operators for 70% of our trips say they have policies or practices which proactively support nature conservation and restoration. Here are just a few examples of the ways in which this is being done…

In addition to those highlighted, the yellow points represent the location of a number of other exciting initiatives that are being run or supported by our operators:

Creation of a woodland in North Wales which the team tends, manages regrowth and plants new trees

Cycle to work scheme taken up by nearly all staff in Italy

Educating and promoting better waste management practices especially in regard to river pollution in Albania Engaging and educating our global customers about the problems caused from buying souvenirs that can damage

NAMIBIA support communities and schools in conservation education

wildlife (such as corals or wild woods)

Environmental preservation and animal welfare education for young people in partnership with WildAct in Vietnam Fostering and then releasing a baby elephant back into the wild in Sri Lanka Funding native tree and mangrove planting in Botswana , Costa Rica , Italy , Kenya , Namibia , New Zealand , Rwanda , Uganda and Wales

NORTH WALES

Creation of a woodland managed by the team

COSTA RICA

Fund native tree and mangrove planting

enhance

Marsican bear protection in Italy

Predator control services to enhance biodiversity and protect threatened species in New Zealand

Providing or supporting communities and schools in conservation education in Namibia and Romania

Researching and conserving the wildlife and rural heritage of the Rodopi Mountains in Bulgaria

Rubbish clean ups in Italy , Namibia , UK

Saving sausage trees in Botswana

Staff participation in rewilding in Japan

Supporting “Green Life Halong”, Vietnam , a women’s initiative that focuses on turning bricks/old panels into daily use commodities such as bags, wallet and other goods

Supporting Community Based Tourism in Da Bac village, Vietnam , by funding,

training and taking clients to experience the homestays and preserving/promoting local culture

Undertaking activities to try to increase customer sustainability behaviour among our suppliers around the world Various donations to conservation and wildlife research projects around the world

SRI LANKA Fostering and then releasing a baby elephant back into the wild

NEW ZEALAND Predator control services to

biodiversity

VIETNAM Supporting Community Based Tourism

JAPAN Staff participation in rewilding

ITALY Cycle to work scheme taken up by nearly all staff in Italy

BOTSWANA Saving sausage trees

BULGARIA Conserving the wildlife and rural heritage of the Rodopi Mountains

Goal:

MEASURABLY REDUCE FOOD WASTE ACROSS OUR TRIPS

AREA OF IMPACT: Reduce and mitigatePollution and Waste

PROGRESS: As in 2021, last year, operators for 58% of our trips say they make use of leftover food, either through redistribution to staff, local communities or use for animal feed or compost. Operators for 33% of our trips (up from 18% in 2021) say they avoid food waste altogether by ensuring only what’s needed is prepared.

NEXT STEPS: Our survey showed that 9% of our operators do not have any initiatives in place to reduce food waste. We will continue to work with them over the months ahead, sharing best practices and offering encouragement in this area.

Goal:

ELIMINATE DISTRIBUTION OF ANY SINGLE-USE PLASTICS TO CUSTOMERS ON TRIPS (DIRECT OPERATIONS)

AREA OF IMPACT: Avoid - pollution and waste

PROGRESS: In certain parts of the world, it is very difficult to find suitable alternatives for some single use plastics – particularly water bottles. We do not directly give out any single use plastic products on 94% of our trips.

NEXT STEPS: Our People, Places and Planet Plan initially set the goal of being 100% single-use plastic free by the end of 2022 and we are now at 94%. While total removal is a challenge, we continue to engage with suppliers and customers to influence continued reductions wherever possible.

Goal:

ENGAGE CUSTOMERS WITH REDUCING WASTE ON TRIP

AREA OF IMPACT: Reduce and mitigate - Pollution and Waste

PROGRESS: In 2022, we updated our website communications and all the post-booking information that we send to customers. Our trip notes and Nature First Travel Tips now specifically mention how our customers can help our waste reduction goals.

NEXT STEPS: We will continue to share waste reduction tips and ideas with customers, so we can especially help places with minimal waste facilities.

Goal:

ACHIEVE ZERO WASTE TO LANDFILL ACROSS OFFICES

AREA OF IMPACT: Avoid - Pollution and waste

PROGRESS: Our office in Surbiton, near London, houses around 80% of all Exodus Travels’ staff. Here, our staff separate their waste for composting, recycling and into general waste. All general waste left over after recycling is sent to facilities in the UK and northern Europe where it is used as fuel to generate electricity. None of it goes to landfill.

NEXT STEPS: We are working with the landlords of our smaller offices to support similar zero waste to landfill initiatives.

Our us an plastic we offer

SINGLE-USE FOOD OR CONTAINERS

SINGLE-USE PLASTICS ACROSS OUR TRIPS:

Our Supplier Sustainability Survey gives an understanding of levels of single-use plastic across our trips. We want to see how are performing against our goals and offer opportunities for best practice sharing:

90 % OPERATORS ACROSS OF OUR TRIPS

ARE ACTIVELY USING RE-USABLE OR BIODEGRADABLE ALTERNATIVES INSTEAD OF SINGLE-USE PLASTICS, SUCH AS RE-USABLE FOOD CONTAINERS AND BIODEGRADABLE FOOD WRAPPING

(83% IN 2021 AND 60% IN 2020).

94 %

OF OUR TRIPS ARE FREE OF SINGLE-USE PLASTICS (EXCLUDING THOSE PROVIDED IN HOTEL ROOMS)

(UP FROM 82% IN 2021)

SINGLE-USE PLASTIC FOOD WRAPPING OR PLASTIC FOOD CONTAINERS ARE USED ACROSS

5 % OF OUR TRIPS

1 %

SINGLE-USE PLASTIC CUPS OR PLATES ARE USED IN JUST OF OUR TRIPS

1 %

USE OF SINGLEUSE PLASTIC BOTTLES ACROSS OUR TRIPS HAS FALLEN BACK TO THE 2018 LEVELS (DOWN FROM 9% IN THE COVID YEAR OF 2021).

45 %

TRIP NIGHTS SPENT IN ACCOMMODATION THAT SUPPLIES SINGLE-USE TOILETRY BOTTLES

(UP FROM 39% IN 2020)

PLANET Goals

The ‘Planet’ pillar of our People, Places & Planet plan is all about how we take action on climate change – seeking to understand, reduce and mitigate the carbon footprint of our offices and adventures.

 SCOPE 1 EMISSIONS SUMMARY

NATURAL GAS, DIESEL

Total tonnes of CO2e: 3.82 (0.02% of total)

 SCOPE 2 EMISSIONS SUMMARY

PURCHASED ELECTRICITY

Total tonnes of CO2e: 9.32 (0.05% of total)

 SCOPE 3 EMISSIONS SUMMARY

Total tonnes of CO2e: 18,990 (99.9% of total)

 HOLIDAY FLIGHTS - 75%

 HOLIDAY ACCOMMODATION - 10%

 HOLIDAY MEALS - 4%

 HOLIDAY OTHER TRAVEL - 8%

 OTHER - 1%

 BUSINESS TRAVEL - 1%

 EMPLOYEE COMMUTING - 1%

All values are shown in metric tonnes of CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent) and include impacts for carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide

SCOPE 1-3

EMISSIONS

SUMMARY 2022

SCOPE 3 EMISSIONS IN DETAIL 2022

THE

CARBON FOOTPRINT OF OUR BUSINESS

In measuring our carbon footprint calculated that we produced an

19,003 TONNES OF CO2 e EMISSIONS

FOOTPRINT BUSINESS

footprint for 2022, we absolute total of:

TONNES EMISSIONS

This year, to help us understand the impact of our trips at a more granular level, we calculated the footprint of every component of every trip including the carbon impact of all accommodation, transfers, meals and other services used.

This allows us to look at our intensity or the amount of CO2e per passenger per night ( PPPN ), measured in kilograms. For all our trips in 2020, the average was:

47.1 KG CO2e

PER PASSENGER PER NIGHT

European trips average: 27.2 KG CO2e PPPN

UK Trips average: 14 KG CO2e PPPN

Long Haul trips average: 54.66 KG CO2e PPPN

All Headwater holidays average: 16.2 KG CO2e PPPN

THE CARBON FOOTPRINT OF OUR TRIPS

To see how this works in detail across our trips, we have broken down our popular and representative trips around the world.

Trip footprint (in kg CO2e)

footprints for flights from/to trip (in kg CO2e)

PLANET PROGRESS against our goals

Here we report on progress against our Planet goals.

Goal:

VERIFY CARBON REDUCTION TARGETS BY SBTI

AREA OF IMPACT: Reduce - Carbon emissions

PROGRESS: At the start of 2021, Exodus Travels set a science-based target to reduce the carbon footprint of our offices and trips (per passenger) by 50% by 2030 against our 2019 baseline.

Our parent company, Travelopia, is currently undertaking an exercise to measure and develop science-based targets for emissions. As we share many of our facilities and services, we determined it was best to start our process after we receive the outcome of Travelopia’s figures, so we did not achieve this goal for FY22.

NEXT STEPS: We will begin the development of science-based carbon targets for Exodus Travels from autumn 2023 . We will also explore the opportunity for setting Science Based Targets for Nature.

Goal:

COMPENSATE FOR ALL TRIP AND EMISSIONS

AREA OF IMPACT: Reduce - Carbon

PROGRESS: We compensate for all and the flights we sold through purchase (VCS) carbon credits (purchased through

Our Nature and Carbon Corridors Project’ (see box page 21), has the potential to carbon in its first five years.

NEXT STEPS: As the world aims for on reducing emissions elsewhere will Together with the wider Travelopia group, can shift investment from offsets to longer-term solutions. These, together with a plan continued Nature Positive commitment support for biodiversity conservation Science Based Targets by the end of 2023, to carbon reductions.

Carbon emissions

all carbon emitted by our trips purchase of Verified Carbon Standard through South Pole).

Project’ in the Italian Apennines to sequester 85,000 tonnes of

for net zero, offsets that rely simply become too scarce. group, we are looking at how we longer-term emissions reduction for carbon reductions, a commitment (see page 55), expanded and regeneration and verified 2023, highlight our commitment

Goal:

IMPLEMENT CARBON REDUCTION PLAN (HALVE FOOTPRINT BY 2030)

AREA OF IMPACT: Reduce - Carbon emissions

PROGRESS: In 2022, we mapped the carbon footprint for every one of our trips. We looked in detail at the carbon emissions of the transport, accommodation, activities, food and, excursions the number of guides used on these trips plus added in a factor for our head office.

For more on this target, see our Carbon Management web page.

NEXT STEPS: This mapping allows us to see where anomalies and opportunities exist and we will be working with our supplier partners to make reductions towards our 2030 goal of reducing the carbon footprint of our offices and trips (per passenger) by 50%.

Over the coming months, our customers will start to see carbon labels of our trips listed on our web pages. We believe that this will help to inform them of the footprints involved in each.

This work will be driven by our ‘Low Carbon Lab’.

SPOTLIGHT ON Low Carbon Lab

Our ‘Low Carbon Lab’ brings together a group of people from across the business to find and implement opportunities to reduce the carbon footprint of our trips. This year, they have been instrumental in our trip carbon footprint measurement process, diligently quantifying the exact distances, methods of transport, fuels used, accommodation choices and foods eaten across over 300 trips.

“Gathering all this data about the footprint of each of our trips leads us to an exciting next step. This is where we look for more electric vehicle options, encourage more of our suppliers to embrace low carbon energy, offer more plant-based meals and, of course, ensure we are doing all of this while continuously improving the quality of our trips at the same time.”

Sarah Ahern Product Manager and Low Carbon Lab Member

Goal:

MAKE TRAIN TRAVEL BOOKING AVAILABLE TO AT LEAST 25% OF OUR TRIPS

AREA OF IMPACT: Reduce - Carbon emissions

PROGRESS: With our partner Byway, we are now able to offer rail travel to over 30% of our total portfolio of trips.

NEXT STEPS: Recently partnering with flight-free travel specialists, Byway, our customers now have the flexibility to reach our destinations, in an easy, environmentally friendly way. Creating personalised slow travel alternatives and accommodation packages for Exodus customers, Byway are taking our travellers to A Coruña in Spain, Bari in Italy, Innsbruck in Austria and more, so they can extend their adventure. Going forward, we’re aiming to ensure our communications to global customers align with our intentions to encourage more people to travel by train in Europe over the months ahead, and that our current rail passengers have a seamless experience and do not receive information regarding flight-inclusive trips.

SPOTLIGHT ON

Travelling by train

Increasingly, many of our customers tell us that they would like the option to take the train to our trips where possible. In fact, in our last sustainability survey, 53% of customers said they are now more interested in rail travel than they were 5 years ago. So in 2021, we launched our rail service, booking train travel packages to 16 of our more popular European trips from the UK, with an intention to expand this offering over time. Rail not only offers a significantly lower carbon mode of transport (often emitting up to 80% less carbon than flying) but also offers the opportunity for our customers to extend their European adventures, indulging in the delights of ‘slow travel’, passing through stunning landscapes and, in some cases, stopping overnight in some beautiful cities.

FIND OUT MORE:

WWW.EXODUS.CO.UK/RESPONSIBLE-TRAVEL/TAKE-THE-TRAIN

We have partnered with Byway, one of the UK’s leading personalised slow travel providers, to arrange your train travel (travel (including accommodation along the way , should you need it). The majority of our small-group adventures in Europe can now be reached by train.

Exodus Travels in partnership with Byway

OUR TEAM & wider stakeholders

Crafting amazing travel experiences for over 45 years requires skilled, dedicated, and enthusiastic talent. We want our people to flourish and feel encouraged to be their unique selves.

2022 STAFF ENGAGEMENT SURVEY RESULTS:

I believe we are a socially and environmentally responsible business:

I have a clear understanding of our purpose as a business:

I would recommend Exodus Travels as a great place to work:

Our sustainability and social impactactivity is important to my motivation to work here:

After an enormous impact to our business during the years of the pandemic, we spent 2022 deep in recruitment, finding the best people to help us recover. We hired 88 new staff members in the year, increasing our numbers by 50% on 2021.

We work hard to create a welcoming and supportive environment for all staff and offer enticing benefits in exchange for their dedication

2 paid volunteering days in addition to holiday entitlement

Extra day off for birthday

Adventure Representative Committee (ARC) for staff to share recommendations and concerns to senior management

Monthly ‘learning for development’ time set aside for all staff to continue their learning journeys at work

Subsidised sporting events (i.e. 5-aside football, netball)

Staff ‘educationals’ where they can experience our trips

Regular training and professional development

Flexible and hybrid working environments

Healthcare benefits

Individual and company performance bonus for all staff

Quarterly staff awards for living the company values

Our focus for 2023 is to ensure we continue to offer compelling benefits and a supportive work environment so people feel challenged, engaged, happy and willing to bring their best selves to our workplace every day.

Our Leadership Team

MICHELLE VENTRE GM Headwater

JULIA TOWNSEND People Director

RICHARD ISAACS Finance Director

BEN COLBRIDGE Head of Commerical

BRENDAN PHELAN UK Customer Director

ANDY CRANG Marketing Director

ROCHELLE TURNER Head of Sustainability

SAM SEWARD Managing Director

KATY ROCKETT Regional Director, North America

OUR WIDER STAKEHOLDERS

Our key stakeholder groups are:

COMMUNITIES:

We engage in the communities where we operate to learn, share ideas and collaborate to create positive impacts on the environments, livelihoods and local economies.

CUSTOMERS:

To provide the best adventure holidays, we need to understand the needs of our customers. Exodus Travels engages with customers in many ways, such as via our sales consultants, online, on our trips, and through our customer services teams at all stages of their customer journey. The information that we receive from them is used to improve and develop our adventures.

DONORS:

Many, but not all, of the generous donors to the Exodus Travels Foundation are former customers. We take great care to ensure that their money is being used ways that create the greatest possible positive impact.

Exodus Travels staff: our team from around the world shares a special set of values and a vision to create incredible adventures, run responsibly. Each of us is encouraged to offer our own unique perspectives and experience to support an inclusive and open working environment.

PARTNERS AND COLLABORATORS:

Exodus Travels collaborates with many external organisations that are committed to tackling travel industry challenges that both impact and are impacted by our business.

PARENT COMPANY, TRAVELOPIA:

As a brand that cares deeply about the people and places it visits, we have much to share with the other brands within our wider group as well as learn other ways that might help support our own journey.

SUPPLIERS AND PARTNERS:

We work with hundreds of direct suppliers and service providers to help support our trips. There are many more, who through our suppliers we engage to provide essential services, food for the restaurants and clean linens for tired heads. Our Destination Community Council (page 44) helps inform our priorities and actions.

An essential part of reaching our goals is developing strong and meaningful relationships so that we can work collaboratively with others to support change and find the best sustainability ideas and actions.

Over the year we have worked to support and collaborate with a number of organisations including:

ENGAGEMENT & Communication Goals

To help achieve our wider strategy, we have set ourselves some goals in relation to engagement with our different stakeholder groups. Here we report on progress against these goals.

Goal:

AREA OF IMPACT: Customers

PROGRESS: In our 2022 client survey, 72% of respondents across our Exodus Travels UK and North America brands and our Headwater customers agreed that we were a socially and environmentally responsible business.

We revised the sustainability-related question on our Holiday Evaluation Form to get a better understanding of how much clients know and engage in our sustainability activity. (See chart)

NEXT STEPS: Our UK customers are far more likely to agree than those of Headwater or Exodus North America clients are less aware and this is where we need to focus extra attention across the months ahead.

From our Holiday Evaluation Forms, we can see that our benefit is clearest for communities and then the places we visit. We have some work to do to show our customers the actions we are taking to reduce our carbon impact.

We are looking to update and improve how we share information on the impact we make.

Minimised CO2 emissions options, locally sourced food,

Benefitted conservation,

Benefitted the communities support, employment

Goal:

BETTER ENGAGE AND EDUCATE STAFF ON OUR SUSTAINABILITY ACTIVITY, POLICIES AND MESSAGING

AREA OF IMPACT: Staff

PROGRESS: Frequent all-staff communications, a monthly sustainability section in our monthly all staff meeting and an annual staff survey enables us to keep staff updated on our sustainability activity.

Within a month of starting, all new hires are also given an induction on our sustainability work and a crib sheet for them to take away for easy reference. A number of staff further engage in our sustainability goals through our Foundation’s fundraising campaigns.

In June 2022, we launched a programme called ‘Ecosystem Advocates’ that we had hoped would enable many more staff to proactively engage with our sustainability agenda. We encouraged staff to identify ways in which their ‘business as usual’ remit could help deliver on our goals or take on additional tasks or workstreams in areas they are passionate about.

Despite a high profile and fanfare launch, the programme was not well received in a year when teams were being stretched and rebuilt post Covid.

NEXT STEPS: We know that staff are keen to support our Foundation activities and we will be doing a number of things to encourage their involvement in early 2023. Actions to offer the Foundation as a recipient for payroll giving and match funding employee donations are in process. We have set ourselves a target to triple our donor income by 2025, from 2020 levels.

On reflection, our overall communication of the Ecosystem Advocates programme to internal staff wasn’t as efficient as it could have been. Our teams do not want to feel that they are being asked to do more on top of their busy workloads. Everyone in the business is already working to ensure that we can offer the best adventure holidays run responsibly, so we are looking to find a clearer way to embed these actions in personal KPIs.

2022 CUSTOMER HOLIDAY EVALUATION FORM RESPONSES

Goal:

ESTABLISH A DESTINATION COMMUNITY COUNCIL

AREA OF IMPACT: Suppliers and partners

PROGRESS: Our Destination Community Council was established at the end of 2021 and convenes a group of global partners (operators, tour leaders or suppliers) who broadly represent our destination communities. All council members have been involved in transformative social and environmental initiatives across their regions. We use their expertise as a sounding board for our ideas to increase our sustainability activity and we held two meetings in 2022.

More broadly among our supplier group, the information that they regularly provide to us in surveys and other communications is of enormous value in helping with our continuous improvement.

NEXT STEPS: In 2023, we will be hoping to engage the Council’s support in reviewing our Operator and Tour Leader handbooks and training which we are revising to better reflect our latest sustainability policies and goals.

We are using the DCC and their network to expand our reach of ETF projects in our destinations by encouraging applications for our Community KickStart grant to further support conservation and community empowerment.

Goal:

COLLABORATE WITH OTHER BRANDS WITHIN EXODUS TRAVELS’ PARENT GROUP (TRAVELOPIA) TO IMPROVE SUSTAINABILITY ACROSS THE GROUP

AREA OF IMPACT: Parent group (Travelopia)

PROGRESS: Exodus Travels’ Managing Director, Sam Seward, is the Chief Sustainability Officer for Travelopia group and Exodus Travels’ former Head of Sustainability has moved to a role where she is now responsible for Group wide action across the 27 travel brands.

NEXT STEPS: Exodus Travels will continue to support the development of the group-wide strategy, assisting, collaborating and sharing best practices with the sustainability leads across the other brands.

Goal:

EXODUS TRAVELS Foundation

TRIPLE DONOR INCOME TO THE EXODUS TRAVELS FOUNDATION BY 2025

AREA OF IMPACT: Donors, customers, staff

PROGRESS: We developed a plan for increasing our ETF communications throughout the entire customer journey - before, during and after trips, to engage customers with our projects in the destinations they are visiting. This includes sharing more information on projects, encouraging our leaders to talk about the Foundation during the trip and following up with customers on their return.

NEXT STEPS: We will continue testing ideas and our roll out of our customer engagement strategy. We will further develop our disaster response communication and campaign action plan to increase awareness of support that is needed when a disaster strikes in any of our destinations.

For our staff, we are increasing the communications about the Foundation and its work in all of our internal communications.

Exodus has also agreed to match fund staff donations to the Foundation.

lockdown, he

to distribute baked bread parcels to people in need across the community in Kathmandu. Passionate about plastic reduction and organic farming, Karma helped to empower local staff living in remote villages by teaching them how to grow their own vegetables and crops to sell at farmers’ markets in Kathmandu.

INTRODUCING Our Destination Community Council

At the end of 2021, we established our Destination Community Council. It aims to convene a group of global partners (operators, tour leaders or suppliers) who can broadly represent our destination communities. All council members have been involved in transformative social and environmental initiatives across different regions, and their voice, insight and unrivalled expertise will be invaluable as we continue to implement our sustainability goals.

With a passion for gender equality and protection ofvulnerable groups including women, LGBT and native communities, Fernando was one of the driving forces for educating trip leaders in gender equality. Doubling the number of female trip leaders during his time as operations manager, Fernando also extended educational training in sexual misconduct. Currently Fernando and his team are working with the local government on a reforestation program to plant 1M trees around the conservation area of Machu Picchu.

KARMA LAMA Nepal

One initiative Karma has been actively involved in is ‘Karma’s Food Packages’. During

and his staff worked diligently

FERNANDO RODRIGUEZ Peru

MOHAN Taking a pivotal Tiger Conservation Tala, Bhandavgarh, 2016, Mohan contacts to the tools they park management empowering find alternative, of income. Showing on the social impact of worked a local better

PAULO Tanzania Paulo, Land African Safari involved in and helping encourage porters to guides Guide roles still seen as profession, so his team and down these trips are now female crew. about their Leave no collect litter

India

pivotal role in the Exodus Conservation Project in Bhandavgarh, from 2005 to Mohan collaborated with to provide locals with they needed for effective management and spent time empowering local communities to alternative, sustainable sources

Showing a keen interest social and environmental tourism, Mohan also with us to provide school in Tala with better infrastructure.

Co-Founder of the communitybased tour company, Secret Paradise, Ruth’s passion lies in supporting the local Maldives community through employment and training opportunities.

Coordinating with NGOs, she educates her guides on sustainable practices so they can provide guest presentations on topics like coral reef preservation and waste management. The company also regularly supports clean up events, tree planting and educational events within the community.

MIKE STEWART Thailand

Operator and partner, Mike has collaborated on a number of social and environmental initiatives over the years including working with networks on the ground to develop community-based tourism in Myanmar, improving elephant welfare with World Animal Protection in Northern Thailand and Laos, and helping to train locals on midwifery in remote villages in Indonesia. He is particularly passionate about animal welfare and social welfare for marginalised groups.

JOHNNY VILLALOBOS Costa Rica

Renowned naturalist and Exodus tour leader, Johnny Villalobos, has been guiding travellers since 1995. Taking a keen interest in educating younger generations about the importance of conservation, he’s played a pivotal role in the Exodus Travels Inspiration Project. Teaching conservation and nature activity workshops to primary school children, he leads groups to places in the rainforests that they wouldn’t have access to, so they can get a deeper understanding of the country’s unique biodiversity.

Tanzania

Land Operator for The Safari Trails, is actively recruiting female crew helping to empower and encourage their transition from guides on Kilimanjaro. roles on Kilimanjaro are a predominantly male so Paulo is working with female porters to break social stigmas. A few now being led with a 90% crew. He is also passionate recycling programme, Trace, where porters litter on the mountain.

Managing partner of responsible tourism company, Green Visions, Thierry, has been at the forefront of sustainable tourism development throughout the Via Dinarica. He has also been involved with the creation of Eko Akcija, a citizens mobilisation organisation for the protection of the environment, and establishing Balkan Green, a regional sustainable tourism organisation that coaches and audits businesses to ensure they comply with the GSTC’s global standards for sustainability in travel and tourism.

PEDRO PEDROSA Portugal

Pedro, Operator Partner for Portugal, has been actively involved in building reforestation partnerships with local companies and government authorities since Portugal’s devastating forest fires in 2017. Introducing company staff volunteering days, Pedro and his team have participated in volunteer reforestation work on a regular basis and aim to invite like-minded travellers to help in the effort of reforesting the former Atlantic pine forests in the centre of Portugal.

ANDY MCKEE UK, Zambia & Laos

Andy is Exodus tour leader and founder of Baraka, an NGO that supports projects in rural and suburban communities in Laos and Zambia. Working for over 15 years on development initiatives, Andy has been involved in building classrooms, sanitation facilities and developing water provision projects. His recent initiatives with Exodus Travels have brought bees and their hives to the Baraka Learning Centre in Zambia and provided books and school supplies for Ou Book Boat in northwest Laos.

MOHAN TICKOO

PAULO LAIZER

RUTH FRANKLIN Maldives

THIERRY JOUBERT Balkans

Foundation

MISSION & Governance 2022

MISSION

To improve life through travel in hard-to-reach places.

Community empowerment: The increase of employment and income generation opportunities through tourism.

FOCUS

Conservation: The engagement of destination communities in protection and recovery of wildlife and ecosystems, and the reduction of human/wildlife conflict. Disaster relief, across our destinations.

Follow the Foundation icon through this report for goals and stories which incorporate Foundation activity.

EXODUS TRAVELS

PROJECTS SUPPORTED IN 2022:

Tiger Habitat project India

Provided 280 families with energy efficient cookstoves which has not only improved their health and wellbeing due to significantly less smoke inhalation during cooking, but also far less woodland is removed in the roaming areas of the endangered Bengal tiger.

Sal & Mahua Schools Project India

Delivered a second phase of this project to renovate two schools in Bandhavgarh, India, to significantly improve educational facilities for the 827 children who attend. The refurbishments included a new roof as well as a clean water pump, kitchen, toilet blocks, playground and library.

Community Kickstart Project Global

Disbursement of 3 Community Kickstart grants for implementation of community initiatives by our local supplier network. These were largely to help support communities due to the impact of the pandemic and included education catch up lessons for 102 children in Zambia, food parcels for 44 trek staff and their families in Morocco and hot meals for 150 children at the Solitaire School food clinic in Namibia.

Himalayan Community Project India & Nepal

Support for a number of small, community-based initiatives across several villages in the Nepalese and Indian Himalaya, including 500 trees planted in remote Ladakh region, building of the Ranibirpura Temple and giving educational opportunities to 28 children and young adults. The post pandemic re-opening has also allowed for us to continue funding three women’s ecocafes and the 44 women employed in them as well as felting workshops for 35 women in small communities.

Free to Roam Project Kenya

233 people in households in the Kamungi conservancy benefitted from the fence construction, which increased employment and food security. The “10% Fence Plans” on farmsteads empower and enable WeKamba communities to give 90% of land back to elephants, impalas, Dik Diks and other wildlife, while increasing food security through permaculture on the remaining 10%. Our funding allowed a further 18 people to receive permaculture training for self-sustaining farming.

Freedom Kit Bags Project Nepal

Delivery of 450 Freedom Kit Bags (hygienic, re-usable sanitary wear) by Exodus Tour Leaders, to women across rural Nepalese villages, along with stigma-reducing community training on reproductive health. Our colleague organised an internal fundraiser to raise the money for 60 of the kit bags and then hand-delivered them in his hometown in Nepal.

Kilimanjaro Porter Project Tanzania

Delivery of mountain guide training to 13 women through our ‘Mountain Lioness Scholarship’. We are now twothirds of our way towards our goal of 30 trained female mountain guides. This year, two of our female colleagues climbed Kilimanjaro guided by our Lionesses, in support of the Mountain Lioness Scholarship.

Within this wider project, we have also been supporting the delivery of “Village Savings and Loans” workshops that empower participants to better manage money and generate alternative streams of income. In 2022, 78 mountain crew participated, and we funded certification of 17 community-based trainers to deliver future sessions. These community led, micro-savings classes help the local mountain crew to overcome social and financial barriers in order to increase economic opportunities.

Read more about all of these projects: EXODUS.CO.UK/FOUNDATION

Sam heads up the Adventure business (Exodus, Headwater and Sawadee) and is Chief Sustainability Officer for the wider Travelopia group. Sam has a passion for delivering expertly crafted adventures that benefit both travellers and local communities.

Our Trustees

An experienced Finance Director and travel industry professional, having worked with such notable brands as Kuoni and TUI Travel before joining Exodus, Richard has a passion for travel, development and sustainability. He is an active member in his local community, notably volunteering his finance skills to help with school and local swimming club accounts. He is also a keen cyclist.

Olympic Gold Medallist Hockey player, adventurer and conservationist, Crista is determined to change the world for the better. She already sits on the board of a number of organisations and has set up her own charity, Tofauti Foundation, empowering communities and supporting conservation in Africa. Crista brings to the board of Trustees her breadth of experience and her passion for conservation and development.

An experienced fundraiser with nearly 20 years’ experience in the not-for-profit sector, Hilary is a corporate partnerships specialist who is passionate about harnessing the power of the private sector to drive positive change in the world. Her career and passion for travel has taken her around the world and she looks forward to sparking the same spirit of adventure in her two young children as they grow up.

Currently UK finance director of an INGO working across Africa and Asia, Giles has extensive experience of financial management and governance across a number of charities both large and small. He is particularly passionate about helping rural communities to thrive and prosper through economic development. Giles is also a regular Exodus customer, combining his love of travelling with cycling and trekking.

HILARY THOMAS TRUSTEE

SAM SEWARD INTERIM CHAIR OF TRUSTEES

RICHARD ISAACS TREASURER

CRISTA CULLEN TRUSTEE

GILES TOTTERDELL TRUSTEE

Our Accounts

wating for updated accounts

For more detailed accounts, please refer to the Accounts and Annual Returns section of the Exodus Travels Foundation record on the Charity Commission’s register of charities (registered charity number 1182265).

Looking to the future

At Exodus and Headwater, we believe that when delivered well, tourism can enrich lives, broaden opinions, inspire cultural pride and protect and regenerate the places and destinations we visit. The adventures that we create and the goals that we set are based on finding ways to measurably build and enhance the positive benefits of travel while reducing aspects that cause harm.

Through our Foundation, our partnerships and our committed community of staff, customers and supporters, the year ahead provides exciting opportunities for Exodus and Headwater to further account for our impact, give back even more to nature and communities and play our part in creating a more regenerative travel sector.

Since joining Exodus Travels in November, I have been so inspired by colleagues, suppliers, customers and industry peers who continually seek to challenge behaviours and identify new ways to improve and support our journey to greater sustainability. The goals we set and the actions we achieve are only possible because of their willingness to invest in bringing about solutions that our world needs.

ROCHELLE TURNER Head of Sustainability

Awards

Constantly pushing the boundaries when it comes to creating incredible adventures, run responsibly, we’re proud that our inspirational leaders, impeccable customer service, innovative sustainability projects and itineraries are recognised by the British Travel Awards, National Geographic Traveller Which? and more.

BES T OPERA TO R

WINNER  GOLD SUSTAINABILITY INITIATIVE TOUR OPERATOR 2022

CARBON FOOTPRINT BY SCOPE HOLIDAY

Appendix

A warming planet and the corresponding damage this creates is an increased risk to all of nature and humanity. We know that travel is carbon intensive and that our business can only exist with a thriving planet. Not only are we therefore taking actions to halve our per passenger emissions by 2030, we are also investing significantly in rewilding and other nature-based initiatives. We proactively support nature restoration and regeneration through our commitment to rewild 100 square meters of land for every passenger that travels with us. The Exodus Travels Foundation also provides funding for projects to regenerate biodiversity, particularly inhard-to-reach places.

The right hand page sets out our carbon emissions and where they come from. Our 2019 data has been through a re-baseline with refined calculation methodologies across all scopes and now also includes a figure for radiative forcing (the non-CO2 impacts of flying) . The data shows the emissions that we are responsible for directly through our offices, from the fuel we burn, and from our Scope 3 emissions through our supply chain that we are working closely with others to reduce.

CORPORATE ACTIVITY BY YEAR

Holiday travel (Scope 3) was the most significant contributor to emissions in both 2019 and 2022. There is a 78% reduction in emissions from the 2019 baseline year to 2022, largely due to COVID-19 travel restrictions. Exodus also saw a large decrease in electricity consumption, as offices in the USA, Australia and Canada were all closed in 2022.

EMISSIONS BY YEAR ACTIVITY

Summary of Changes

This report is part of a re-calculation of the emissions previously measured for all 10 Travelopia business units for 2019 and 2022. Data was collected by Carbon Responsible and Travelopia brands, and Synergy performed the carbon analysis. Synergy did not conduct a full data collection process with Travelopia and instead worked with Carbon Responsible's data collection summaries. Where data was not available, Synergy estimated material emissions activities to ensure a complete carbon footprint assessment.

During the re-calculation from initial measurement, some gaps were identified. The following table identifies the major changes done in this re-calculation.

EMISSIONS SOURCE NOTES

Well to Tank To align with the Scope 3 Standard, Well-to-Tank emissions were calculated for all scope 1 fuel purchases.

Staff commuting Limited data was available from brands; Synergy estimated emissions based on numbers of FTEs, average method and distance commuted.

Flights Exact distances were calculated for flights that had airport codes or city locations. Where flights had no location data distances were estimated.

Radiative Forcing Radiative forcing has been included in emission factors used. This emissions factor is 89%higher than emissions factors without radiative forcing.

Holiday Activity Data Adventure had significant activity data that was not originally calculated, and was estimated in this footprint.

Exodus and Headwater have done additional work with the carbon consultancy Ecollective to measure holiday emissions for 2022 trip activity. The 2022 holiday accommodation, holiday meals and holiday other travel emissions totals in this report were generated by Ecollective; these calculations have not been reviewed by Synergy.

2025 Strategy

OUR TRIPS

Start producing an integrated annual sustainability report (including Foundation activity)

Collaborate cross sector to improve tourism impact, and lead change within parent group

IMPROVE LIFE THROUGH TRAVEL, IN THE PLACES WE VISIT, FOR THE PEOPLE WE MEET, ON THE PLANET WE EXPLORE OUR OFFICES

Develop and implement a proactive ED&I policy

Establish a Destination Community Council

Measurably increase employment and income generation opportunities through tourism for disadvantaged, underrepresented and hard-to-reach communities

BECOME NATURE POSITIVE BY 2024

We have a lot of work to do in the coming few years across a diversity of different areas, and we have identified a handful of headline goals to spearhead our three year sustainability strategy and focus our efforts on the biggest priorities. OUR GIVING

Triple donor income to the Foundation

Our Nature Positive commitment is the lead goal in our Sustainability Strategy 2025.

In 2020, we were one of the first travel companies to declare a climate emergency, and at the beginning of 2021, we published our first climate action plan – spearheaded by our commitment to halve our per passenger carbon footprint by 2030, to compensate for all trip and flight emissions, and to rewild 100 square metres per passenger (through our partnership with Rewilding Europe – see page 21). However, our increasing awareness of the biodiversity crisis we

face – inextricably linked to the climate emergency –fuelled a desire to go further in our efforts to support the regeneration of nature. Our customers agree, identifying the protection of biodiversity and wildlife as the number one sustainable travel issue they feel we should address, in our customer surveys. On the right hand page, are the targets we have set ourselves in order to further reduce our negative impact on nature and – importantly – support the regeneration of biodiversity, through our adventures and our Foundation.

TOURISM’S NEGATIVE IMPACT ON NATURE:

Carbon emissions (IPBES driver: Climate change)

Pollution and waste

(IPBES driver: Pollution)

Ecosystem exploitation (IPBES drivers: Over-exploitation of natural resources, change in land use, invasive and non-native species and disease)

OUR NATURE POSITIVE PLAN 2021 2022 2023

Identify nature impacts and define targets and KPIs.

Make the Council for Sustainable Business Nature Positive Pledge.

Continue to collaborate across the sector to advance and advocate for climate solutions.

Sign up to Global Tourism Plastics Initiative to engage in cross-sector change.

Rewild 400 hectares through rewilding partnership.

Support the restoration of endangered species and engage communities on more restorative land use (through Exodus Travels Foundation).

Start engaging customers re. importance of nature regeneration with our rewilding documentary.

Measure carbon footprint and establish carbon reduction roadmap (for goal to halve footprint by 2030).

Compensate for all trip and flight carbon emissions.

Engage destination communities in waste reduction (through Exodus Travels Foundation). Support reduction of human/ wildlife conflict in destinations (through Exodus Travels Foundation).

Collaborate across the sector to advance industry’s nature regeneration strategy and activity.

Verification of carbon reduction targets by SBTi.

Rewild 100 square metres per passenger and expand support for rewilding.

Engage with suppliers and tour leaders re. importance of nature conservation and regeneration.

Activate customers in contributing towards conservation and regeneration through Nature Metrics partnership.

Increase equity of benefit that comes from nature in destinations (through Exodus Travels Foundation).

Implement carbon reduction plan (halve footprint by 2030).

Compensate for all trip and flight carbon emissions.

Engage with customers on reducing waste on trips.

Engage with customers on minimising nature damaging practices on trips.

Engage with suppliers on how they protect against over-exploitation of natural environments.

Alignment of our targets with global, cross-sector benchmarks, e.g. Science Based Targets for Nature.

Rewild 100 square metres per passenger and expand support for rewilding.

Increase and diversify the way in which our itineraries support local conservation efforts.

Engage with accommodation suppliers re. how they can support nature regeneration.

Continue to increase support of nature conservation and restoration activity through destination community engagement (through Exodus Travels Foundation).

Continue carbon reduction plan (halve footprint by 2030).

Compensate for all trip and flight carbon emissions.

Increase plant-based meals and engage with local suppliers to do the same.

Reduce food waste in directly provided meals.

Engage with accommodation suppliers re. pollution and waste reduction.

Reduce nights in over-exploited destinations.

Continue avoiding:

• Highly emitting trip types, e.g. big cruise, big tour groups.

• Accommodation with big environmental footprint.

• Damaging wildlife interactions or animal practices.

Eliminate distribution of any single-use plastics to customers on trips (direct operations). Achieve zero waste to landfill across offices.

Animal welfare audit undertaken across all trips.

Engage with accommodation and other suppliers on how to avoid ecosystem exploitation.

REFERENCES:

IPBES (Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services): Drivers of biodiversity and ecosystem change UN Convention on Biological Diversity: Proposed headline indicators global biodiversity framework Council for Sustainable Business’s Nature Handbook Science Based Targets for Nature: Initial Guidance for Business

Responsible Travel: 10 year plan for just, nature positive and lower carbon holidays

You can read more about why and how we developed this plan, as well as the different activities within it, at:

EXODUS.CO.UK/SUSTAINABLE-TRAVEL/PLACES-AND-PLANET