Wanderlust Sustainability Wildland Trekking

Wanderlust Sustainably With Wildland Trekking

BY TYLER BUTLER

WWildland Trekking’s Leave No Trace principles differentiate them in a world where travel and adventure are at a premium. Launched from a garage, the humble beginnings of this company hail back to 2005 when cofounders

Steve Cundy, Scott Cundy and Brad Ball began offering trips to Grand

Canyon National Park.

The business quickly grew, adding tours to Yellowstone National Park and southern Utah in 2007. Many more locations such as Joshua Tree and the Pacific Northwest followed. And in 2015, trips to the Blue Ridge and Smoky Mountains were added. By 2016, the company had expanded to international destinations. Today, Wildland Trekking has grown to operate in 35 national parks and wilderness areas in 11 states, in addition to 12 premiere international destinations. Wildland Trekking was started with a mission to provide exceptional hiking adventures in a responsible and sustainable way. The owners, having deep experience in forestry, wildlife science and professional communications, had the needed expertise to bring this mission to fruition. With a focus on making nature accessible, Wildland Trekking has created a holistic approach to their sustainable business model. Their deliberate all-inclusive model provides guests with gear, a guide, meals, routes and everything needed. Thus allowing guests the unique experience to be present in their surroundings and have a life-changing experience. Sustainability and preservation are top priorities at Wildland Trekking. These principles are hard baked into everything the company does. Their Leave No Trace initiative is led by expert guides who are knowledgeable practitioners. Through Leave No Trace, Wildland Trekking ensures that their impact on the environment is minimal and ideally not harmful to the ecosystems they are visiting.

As Scott Cundy, founder and general manager of sales and marketing shared, “We are excited to continue to grow so that we can better support national park conservation and organizations focused on land preservation.” This mindset is more than a motto. The company’s philosophy to respect wildlife, ensure waste of all kinds is properly disposed of and leave what they find are all important to their operations and their ethos. Even their all-inclusive model is representative of their sustainability efforts whereby the gear used is repurposed by the company until it eventually is donated to a worthy cause that can still benefit from the gently used gear. This model not only keeps unnecessary waste out of landfills, but also serves to aid valuable community organizations. These Leave No Trace principles continue even further into Wildland Trekking’s operations, as the company uses public transit to transport guests. Giving clients the chance to experience everything from national park shuttle services to local bus service through destinations such as the scenic Italian Alps, all while taking a sustainable approach to travel. Wildland Trekking employees continue to work remotely in addition to a plethora of other eco-friendly work solutions, further reducing their carbon footprint. The company takes great care in selecting brand partnerships to ensure that the gear they use meets their standards, in both production and performance. They eliminate food waste by having multiday meal plans prepped in advance and often sourced locally when available and accessible. Several partnerships highlight how Wildland Trekking is driven by their belief in conservation. To support their tours, they purchase copious amounts of gear. Naturally, these buying decisions are not taken lightly. The trekking poles guests use are from Leki, which maintains a transparent manufacturing process and fair labor practices, as well as a robust repair program to keep their poles on the trail and out of landfills. Oboz footwear, another partner of Wildland Trekking, began their journey to B Corp status in 2021 and are making big strides in the sustainable footwear space. Furthermore, through alliances with many National Park Conservancy organizations, the Wildland

The Wildland Philosophy Trekking team regularly participates in trail maintenance The key philosophy behind Wildland’s and trail cleanup days. This sustainability mission is a deep conviction that if thoughtful and comprehensive approached conscientiously, tourism can create approach to sustainability has very positive outcomes locally and globally. led the company to consider They believe there are three key ingredients to more complex conservation creating positive outcomes: efforts such as carbon neutrality. 1. Having an awareness of the company’s impact Tomorrow’s Air is the world’s 2. Eliminating or offsetting the negative first collective of passionate impacts, such as waste production, pollution travelers who clean up carbon and carbon emissions from the atmosphere. Working 3. Actively contributing in thoughtful ways to local economies and communities to promote the conservation of regional ecosystems and with this partner, Wildland Trekking is helping to fund carbon dioxide removal the well-being of the local populations alongside innovative education and outreach to engage communities in the effort. As Steve Cundy put it, “There are so many moving parts to Wildland Trekking; we have a great team that really lives and breathes our values, that helps keep us aligned and moving forward. I am especially proud of how we handle guest education; the knowledge shared will hopefully help those guests be more aware and tread a little more lightly in the world.” Leaving guests with the lasting imprint that they can commune with earth and support conservation, all while traveling. Join Wildland Trekking and Tomorrow’s Air and sign their Clean Up Pact Today. The Clean Up Pact is uniting travelers towards a stable climate future. Join this community of brave travelers cleaning up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. www.tomorrowsair.com/act/clean-up-pact. Visit www.wildlandtrekking.com to learn more about Wildland Trekking and their unforgettable hiking vacations.