CONSERVATION THROUGH EXPLORATION 2023 SUSTAINABILITY REPORT
2022 SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2023
TABLE OF CONTENTS
FROM OUR CHIEF SUSTAINABILITY OFFICER
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WORLD WILDLIFE FUND PARTNERSHIP
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NAT HAB PHILANTHROPY
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NAT HAB SUSTAINABILITY TIMELINE
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CARBON OFFSETTING PROGRAM
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OUR PATH TOWARD ZERO WASTE
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ELECTRIC SAFARI VEHICLE
32
Front & Back Cover & Inside Cover photos by Nat Hab Chief Sustainability Officer Court Whelan
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FROM OUR PRESIDENT & OUR CHIEF SUSTAINABILITY OFFICER We have a saying around Nat Hab that we are conservation-first in all we do. Thus, it should come as no surprise that our mission statement is conservation through exploration. Travel has tremendous power to transform lives—of our travelers, of people in communities in the places we visit, and of others beyond our travel operations. It happens in multifaceted ways: investing and injecting money into local economies, inspiring our travelers through encounters with the world’s most stunning natural phenomena, and using the force of education to elicit environmental change, even for issues as daunting as climate change and biodiversity loss.
growing awareness of the fragility of our precious planet Earth and our love for all its inhabitants. But with great power comes great responsibility. As travel expands, providing more of the inspiration and information we need to address global environmental challenges, we must also take pains to ensure the impact we have on the world is resoundingly net positive. And this is where tourism has a special benefit: We have the ability to transform the world for the better as we make our miles count for good. Through travel, we influence the influencers of our world—because in order to save a place, you have to love it, and in order to love it, you have to know it. And that starts with being there.
We strive to use the power of travel to change the world for the better—and it’s working.
Sincerely,
This is an exciting time to be in the travel business. Not only is there a renewed vigor both inside and outside our company as travel continues to boom in the wake of COVID-19, but with this re-emergence we are also seeing increased emphasis on sustainability, not only in the travel sector, but in many other industries and facets of daily life. We attribute this growing focus to better education, including more news and information about sustainability, conservation and the environment, and, of course, a
Ben Bressler Explorer, Founder, President Natural Habitat Adventures
Court Whelan, Ph.D. Chief Sustainability Officer Natural Habitat Adventures
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Photo by Nat Hab Chief Sustainability Officer Court Whelan
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WE STRIVE TO USE THE POWER OF TRAVEL TO CHANGE THE WORLD FOR THE BETTER—AND IT’S WORKING.
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NAT HAB & WORLD WILDLIFE FUND
TOGETHER, WE’RE CHANGING THE WAY PEOPLE THINK ABOUT TRAVEL.
Conservation and travel go hand in hand. By adding value to natural ecosystems, creating stakeholders for the environment, and working directly with local communities, everyone benefits— especially the planet. This concept is at the core of what we do at Nat Hab, and our work with WWF is an integral part of the conservation travel equation. Together, we offer conservation travel—sustainable travel that supports the protection of nature, wildlife and local communities.
20 YRS
$45M
1.3M
of partnering with World Wildlife Fund— since 2003
dollars donated to WWF by Nat Hab travelers
US members support WWF’s conservation work
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Hear how conservation travel has the power to protect wild places and the wild animals that depend on them from Natural Habitat Adventures Founder & President Ben Bressler. → nathab.com/meaningful Photo by Nat Hab Chief Sustainability Officer Court Whelan
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Since 2003, Nat Hab has partnered with WWF, the world’s leading conservation organization. We have provided more than $6 million to support WWF’s global conservation efforts and will continue to give 1% of gross sales plus $174,000 annually through 2028 in support of WWF’s mission to conserve nature and mitigate the most pressing threats to the diversity of life on Earth. And our travelers have donated an additional $45 million in support of WWF priorities in some of the most precious and imperiled places on the planet. WWF currently has more than 2,000 conservation projects in progress around the world.
When you travel with Nat Hab, your tourism dollars flow directly to the people who live within and steward natural ecosystems, creating jobs and improving livelihoods. Your presence becomes a powerful incentive for local communities to protect their natural resources, making wildlife worth more alive than dead, and wild lands worth more intact than degraded. You’ll go home not just moved by your experiences, but also as an informed and enlightened ambassador for conservation.
WWF has 6 main areas of focus: WWF works in FORESTS
OCEANS
FRESH WATER
WILDLIFE
CLIMATE
FOOD
100 COUNTRIES around the world
Nat Hab trips help showcase WWF priority places around our planet
NAMIBIA | Namibia, highly progressive when it comes to conservation, was the first African country to incorporate protection of the environment into its constitution. Through Namibia’s communal conservancy program—a model for balancing the needs of people and wildlife—WWF partners directly with local communities to help them manage their natural resources, ensuring a future that includes both healthy wildlife populations and sustainable economic growth across vast landscapes comprised of conservancies, national parks, state-managed protected areas, and private land.
EASTERN HIMALAYAS | Home to the highest mountain range in the world, this region plays a significant role in climate regulation while also supplying fresh water to a vast area. WWF helps protect, restore and reconnect natural landscapes across the Eastern Himalayas, where people live in a unique and delicate balance with nature. One of WWF’s original project areas since its founding in 1961, the Eastern Himalayas is a region where the organization works tirelessly to facilitate the sustainable use of natural resources from forests, grasslands and freshwater systems to prevent habitat loss, reduce human-wildlife conflict and combat climate change.
THE AMAZON | A vast biome that spans eight rapidly developing countries, the Amazon basin holds 10% of the world’s biodiversity. The Amazon rain forest, which contains 90-140 billion tons of carbon, is integral to stabilizing the local and global climate. Because of this, deforestation in the region poses a serious environmental threat. WWF works directly with local communities to promote sustainable agriculture and prevent illegal logging while promoting the infrastructure local people need to survive and thrive, such as sustainable road systems (with wildlife corridors in mind) and clean, renewable hydropower.
BAJA CALIFORNIA | Stretching more than 900 miles, the Gulf of California and surrounding area supports an extraordinary diversity of marine life. It is also one of Mexico’s most important fisheries, a context that often creates conflict with sensitive marine species such as the world’s smallest porpoise—the highly endangered vaquita—and the Pacific gray whale. WWF works to protect these species via intensive research and monitoring projects to better understand migratory patterns, and through the creation of robust conservation programs and marine sanctuary development.
THE ARCTIC | The Arctic is ground zero for climate change, warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet. This creates significant impacts, both locally (including for the 4 million people who live in the Arctic) and for the world at large. WWF is focused on key climate change projects in the Arctic with regard to sustainable development and infrastructure, especially around new oil and gas drilling, and ensuring that local communities have renewable energy options. In addition, WWF takes a holistic approach to protecting Arctic wildlife via research and novel conservation measures including polar monitoring and alert programs. research and novel conservation measures such as polar bear monitoring and alert programs.
THE PANTANAL | Located in the heart of South America, the Pantanal is the world’s largest tropical wetland, sprawling across three countries— Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay. Not only is it a significant biodiversity hotspot, it also helps regulate floodwaters across the region from more than 1,200 rivers and streams that converge here. WWF works directly with local and national governments and communities in the Pantanal to reduce pollution, strengthen water governance, mitigate climate change and expand scientific knowledge, while protecting the rights of the Indigenous peoples who live in the area.
Photo by Nat Hab Chief Sustainability Officer Court Whelan
SCAN TO WATCH Experience a first-time visit to the edge of the Greenland ice sheet through the eyes and words of Lou Leonard, a World Wildlife Fund climate expert. → nathab.com/ice-sheet
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NAT HAB PHILANTHROPY
NAT HAB’S CONSERVATION PHILANTHROPY ALSO INCLUDES SUPPORT FOR LOCAL GRASSROOTS EFFORTS WORLDWIDE.
$175K
donated to philanthropic efforts worldwide
Conservation travel has transformative power. It benefits communities, safeguards wildlife and preserves cultural heritage. In addition to our partnership with World Wildlife Fund, Natural Habitat Adventures also supports various philanthropic initiatives in the destinations we visit. We are proud to have donated more than $175,000 to date to these important organizations and projects, and we are committed to supporting innovative conservation and sustainable development efforts that protect the environment and promote the welfare of local communities in the places our guests have come to know and love.
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current projects across four continents
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past projects across five continents
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Photo by Nat Hab Chief Sustainability Officer Court Whelan
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Humanitarian
12
Conservation & Biodiversity
Education
Research
Featured Project Oncafari Jaguar Program
Featured Project Ride4AWoman
Featured Project Primary School in Karatu
PANTANAL, BRAZIL
BUHOMA, UGANDA
KARATU, TANZANIA
Having supported Oncafari’s past rewilding and reintroduction of jaguars in Caiman Ecological Refuge, Nat Hab support continues toward research and understanding of ecotourism’s effects on jaguar populations, along with assistance for orphaned jaguar reintroductions.
Ride4AWoman is a successful bike rental business started by local women who live just outside Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, where Nat Hab observes mountain gorillas. Now these women are seeding other women-owned entrepreneurial efforts.
The Gyekrumalambo Primary School in Tanzania needed a boost, and Nat Hab has become the school’s main benefactor since funding its first water tank. Now, we’re helping to build a second tank to supply clean drinking water for the school and community.
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NAT HAB’S COMMUNITY RELIEF FUND The COVID-19 crisis affected everyone on the planet. During the height of the pandemic shutdown, travel ground to a halt, which paralyzed many small vendors around the world, such as boutique hotels, park headquarters, transportation companies, etc. In an effort to directly help those suffering from the economic fallout of closed borders and a sudden halt of tourism, Nat Hab initiated the Community Relief Fund as a way to provide money, healthcare, education and food to communities in need in the areas where we operate. While the negative effects of COVID will be felt for some time, we’re proud to have raised—in conjunction with our generous travelers—more than $340,000. This was a critical lifeline for thousands of people in communities across Africa, Asia and Latin America.
1,119
$340K+
2,000
30
number of travelers who donated
total amount donated by Nat Hab and our travelers
local tourism workers & family members supported
parks & reserves supported worldwide
NAT HAB SUSTAINABILITY TIMELINE A History of Conservation Travel Milestones
1985 Ben Bressler founded Natural Habitat Adventures
1985
1998 Ran first Harp Seal Watch, tours to replace seal hunting with seal watching
1988
Photo by Nat Hab Chief Sustainability Officer Court Whelan
2003 Partnered with World Wildlife Fund to begin running trips to areas that WWF focuses on
2003
2007 Became the world’s first 100% carbonneutral travel company, offsetting all office operations and trips
2007
2008 Built the world’s first hybrid safari vehicle, SafariOne, for use on U.S. national parks trips
2008
2011 Eliminated single-use plastic water bottles from all trips
2011
2013 Formed a strategic partnership with WWF where Nat Hab runs and operates 100% of WWF member trips
2013
2016 Joined forces with Lindblad Expeditions to create a family of highly sustainable travel companies
2016
2017 Ran the first Monarch Butterfly Scholarship program, providing free spots on Nat Hab’s monarch migration adventures for educators
2017 Began providing grant funding to roughly a dozen small organizations each year through Nat Hab Philanthropy
2017
2019 Ran the world’s first Zero Waste Adventure in Yellowstone National Park
2018 Started planning the world’s first Zero Waste Adventure
2018
2019 Began offsetting all our travelers’ flights, nearly quadrupling the total amount of carbon we offset each year
2019
2020 Formed the Community Relief Fund to help local people impacted by the devastating tourism halt due to COVID-19, raising and distributing more than $340,000 across the world
2020
2022 Began to invest and offset some of our emissions using Direct Air Capture technologies to physically remove and sequester carbon
2022
2023 Built and deployed our first Electric Safari Vehicle (ESV) in Botswana
2023
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WE ARE THE WORLD’S FIRST 100% CARBON-NEUTRAL TRAVEL COMPANY NAT HAB ACHIEVED FULL CARBON NEUTRALITY IN 2007 AND WE CONTINUE TO PROVIDE SUSTAINABILITY LEADERSHIP TO THE TRAVEL INDUSTRY.
68K+
metric tons of carbon dioxide offset by Nat Hab since 2007
18K+
metric tons of carbon dioxide offset by Nat Hab in 2022 alone
The Carbon Problem Did you know travel-related activities account for approximately 10% percent of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change? Or that a long-haul flight generates more carbon emissions than the average person in many countries generates in an entire year? Even a round-trip flight from New York to California emits more CO2 than your car produces annually. And with more people flying more often, there’s no way around it. Still, the benefits of conservation travel are vital to the protection of species and habitats. That’s why we’re doing all we can to offset the emissions generated by our operations.
3
ongoing carbonreduction projects funded by Nat Hab
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Join Court Whelan, Nat Hab’s Chief Sustainability Officer, for a look at the past, present and future of carbon emissions and carbon offsetting in the travel industry. Photo by Nat Hab Chief Sustainability Officer Court Whelan
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WANT TO CALCULATE YOUR ANNUAL CARBON FOOTPRINT? Check out this interactive carbon calculator from UC Berkeley to determine an estimate.
We Are Industry Leaders Through our pollution-reduction program, we’ve made pioneering strides in the travel industry. In 2007, Natural Habitat Adventures became the world’s first 100% carbon-neutral travel company. We embarked on that ambitious project in partnership with Sustainable Travel International, reducing and offsetting the carbon emissions that result from all office- and trip-related activities. In 2018, we began partnering with South Pole, a sustainability company that works with businesses and governments to reduce carbon impacts by offsetting greenhouse gas emissions via third-party verified projects around the world.
Photo by Nat Hab Chief Sustainability Officer Court Whelan
In 2019, we took our commitment to a whole new level: We began offsetting all our travelers’ flights to and from our global adventure destinations, increasing the total amount of our carbon offsetting by 300–400%. How It Works We calculate the carbon emitted from all activities on a given trip, the majority of which result from burning fossil fuels for transportation. Then, we fund carbon-reduction projects to balance emissions in an amount equal to what is released on our trips and via our guests’ transportation to and from our adventures.
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CARBON-OFFSETTING PROJECTS In addition to helping us offset all of our operations, the projects below align with multiple United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. UN SDGs, as they’re often referred to, provide a blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet. If you’d like to read more about the past, present and future of United Nations SDGs, please visit sdgs.un.org/goals
ENERGY-EFFICIENT COOKSTOVES
Improving health and reducing pressure on forests in rural Ethiopia
In rural Ethiopia, the majority of households cook on traditional open fires that require large amounts of wood fuel and produce harmful smoke. Deforestation and degradation have become major concerns in rural areas of Africa, as demand exceeds the available renewable woody biomass. Approximately 141,000 hectares of forest are cleared each year in Ethiopia alone. This project distributes two different types of high-efficiency cookstoves to households that currently use the traditional method of cooking on open fires. The stoves are manufactured locally using available materials including clay, cement, pumice and metal. The cookstoves reduce greenhouse gas emissions and alleviate pressure on surrounding forests. This helps preserve habitat, allowing wildlife to thrive, and improves water quality by protecting trees and their root systems and preventing soil erosion. This ultimately protects village farmland from degradation. The risk of house fires, which is prevalent in rural Africa due to the combination of open fires and thatched-roof homes, is significantly lowered thanks to the contained cookstoves. Additionally, less of the household budget needs to go toward purchasing wood and can instead be directed to other areas, such as food or schooling. United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
ULUBELU GEOTHERMAL POWER
Harnessing southern Sumatra’s geothermal fields for clean energy
Dominated by volcanic geology and situated on the Pacific Ring of Fire, Indonesia is one of the most seismically active countries in the world. The movement of tectonic plates and molten rock beneath the archipelago triggers approximately 1,000 tremors a month. Heat from this seismic activity can be harnessed to the country’s advantage, offering a sustainable way to power homes and industry. Located in southern Sumatra, the Ulubelu geothermal power plant taps into the nearby geothermal field to generate clean electricity for the Sumatra Interconnected Grid. Heat from the underground geothermal reservoir produces steam, which spins a turbine and drives a generator to produce clean and renewable electricity. In addition to producing clean electricity and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the geothermal power plant contributes to Indonesia’s sustainable development. By investing in the region, the project creates employment opportunities, which boosts the local economy. As an inexhaustible source of energy, the geothermal power plant also diversifies Indonesia’s sources of electricity generation, improving energy security and driving the country toward a low-carbon energy future. United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
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ASAHAN RIVER HYDRO
Transforming the power of Indonesia’s rivers into renewable energy
Massive rivers cut across Indonesia’s lush landscape. Situated on one of Sumatra’s largest rivers, the Asahan, this run-of-theriver project channels the strength of flowing water to produce renewable hydroelectric power. Eliminating the need to build a dam or reservoir, the project preserves Sumatra’s unique and biodiverse ecosystems while powering Indonesia’s economy, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and supporting the country’s transition toward renewable energy.
United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
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TOMORROW’S AIR – DIRECT AIR CAPTURE
Investing in carbon dioxide removal with permanent storage
Nat Hab is proud to contribute to the new and progressive technology of physically removing carbon from the atmosphere through direct air capture. In addition to removing carbon, direct air capture technology via Tomorrow’s Air locks carbon away in permanent storage in several forms, including soils, aquifers, plants and even rocks. While nature provides its own carbon-removal solutions like traditional carbon sequestration via trees, direct air capture happens at a much more rapid, controlled and predictable rate, making it particularly important in the race to combat climate change. Although this technology is still new and rather expensive, we believe that investing in creative solutions is key.
GOING FORWARD While offsetting is a commendable way to lessen one’s carbon impact, the way forward must be decarbonization. Actively reducing our emissions is one of Nat Hab’s top priorities as a leader in conservation travel. Through the guidance of WWF and the Science Based Targets Initiative, we are working on a robust climate action plan to align with the 2015 Paris Agreement, joining world governments in committing to keeping global temperature rise to well below 2°C above preindustrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit warming to 1.5°C. Toward that end, we are adopting a multifaceted approach that will measure, reduce, offset, influence, innovate, and invest. We aim to combine our decades-long strategy of collecting emissions data, offsetting our CO2 output, and educating our travelers with new technologies and bold investments, as we continue to lead the travel industry into a new era of sustainability.
YOU CAN OFFSET YOUR PERSONAL TRAVEL, TOO Want to offset your carbon emissions for your own trips in addition to those you take with Nat Hab? This handy carbon calculator on South Pole’s website lets you calculate and offset your emissions at the same time. It doesn’t cost much and the collective impact is significant!
68,093 TONS OF CO2 WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE? From January 1, 2007, through the end of 2022, Nat Hab had offset 68,093 tons of CO2 emissions. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, this is equivalent to each of the following:
1,125,924 TREE SEEDLINGS GROWN FOR 10 YEARS
157,630 BARRELS OF OIL NOT CONSUMED
459
14,672
8,577
ACRES OF WOODLANDS PRESERVED FROM DEFORESTATION
CARS NOT ON THE ROAD FOR A YEAR
HOMES NOT USING ELECTRICITY FOR ONE YEAR
7,662,091 GALLONS OF GASOLINE NOT CONSUMED
2,980,559 TRASH BAGS OF WASTE RECYCLED INSTEAD OF LANDFILLED
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OUR PATH TOWARD ZERO WASTE
NAT HAB IS LEADING THE WAY IN ELIMINATING DISPOSABLE PLASTIC, CREATING THE WORLD’S FIRST ZERO WASTE ADVENTURE, AND REDUCING WASTE IN OUR OFFICE OPERATIONS.
4.4 lbs the amount of trash the average U.S. citizen produces per day
Waste is as much of a problem in the travel industry as it is in our daily lives. But as with all things at Natural Habitat Adventures, we aim to use the power of conservation travel to reform and inspire how we do things and to challenge the status quo regarding what’s possible for sustainability. Every year, global travelers create an estimated 5.7 million tons of waste in airline cabins alone, not to mention in hotels, restaurants and other travel destinations. The planet faces a growing scourge of disposable plastic washing up on beaches, entangling turtles and clogging the stomachs of whales. A staggering 1.3 billion tons of food is thrown away every year. Food is also the biggest form of waste in the travel industry. And while Nat Hab is a relatively small contributor, given all this, we simply can’t do “business as usual” when it comes to addressing waste woes.
SCAN TO WATCH Learn what’s possible when it comes to reducing our waste footprint in this Zero Waste Webinar with Erin Simon, WWF’s Head of Plastic Waste and Business, and Court Whelan, Nat Hab’s Chief Sustainability Officer. → nathab.com/waste-webinar
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THIS QUART-SIZED JAR HOLDS THE TOTAL WASTE GENERATED BY 12 TRAVELERS OVER A 6-DAY TRIP IN YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK.
Photo by Nat Hab Chief Sustainability Officer Court Whelan
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THE WORLD’S FIRST ZERO WASTE ADVENTURE In 2019, Nat Hab operated the World’s First Zero Waste Adventure, an ambitious quest to reduce waste so dramatically that everything we generated on a weeklong trip in Yellowstone National Park would fit into one quart-sized bottle. And we did it! While we would love to make all our trips zero waste immediately, we recognize that it’s a process—opportunities to refuse, repurpose or recycle don’t exist at the same level in every destination—but we learned many things from this initial endeavor that we’re integrating across multiple trips, working with our partners around the world to up the bar on waste reduction.
INSPIRING OUR TRAVELERS We know it’s not enough to reduce waste on our trips alone. Our goal is for our travelers to make it a way of life, at home, on the road, and in the air, too. Toward that end, check out these Tips for Zero Waste Travel. → nathab.com/waste-tips
Photo by Nat Hab Chief Sustainability Officer Court Whelan
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The Zero Waste Adventure in Yellowstone National Park, a landmark achievement, was a team effort nearly 18 months in the making. Here are the details:
of trash avoided by proactively refusing single-use items during the trip-planning stage
6
4
EXPEDITION LEADERS
12
RESTAURANTS
4
DAYS
3
TOWNS
9
TRAVELERS
2
HOTELS
1
of trash diverted from landfills while on the trip
27.8lbs COMPOST
20.4lbs RECYCLING
2.7lbs
TERRACYCLE
VANS
JAR OF TRASH
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GUIDING THE INDUSTRY As a result of all we learned on the World’s First Zero Waste Adventure, we’ve created a list of 12 lessons to share with other companies to inspire and assist them in their own waste-reduction efforts. Below are a few of our top lessons learned. Visit nathab.com/12-lessons to read all 12 of them.
→ Minimize Food Waste at Restaurants
→ Eliminate Single-Use Soap and Shampoo
Food compost constitutes a significant portion of on-trip waste. In fact, we learned it is the largest source of waste generated while traveling.
Complimentary soap and shampoo are ubiquitous in the hotel industry. Most properties provide small, single-use versions of the basics—soap, shampoo, conditioner and lotion. While wellintentioned, these items, when used only once and then discarded, create a substantial amount of waste. Fortunately, a simple solution is providing dispensers that hold refillable bulk stores of liquid soap, shampoo, etc.
Sharing meals is a solution and can also build camaraderie among the group. “Hey, who wants to share the pasta?” “Me!” “Okay, cool!” “Clean Plate Club” is a playful way to remind folks that “you don’t get dessert until you finish your lima beans.” This of course should be handled judiciously, but generally, humor keeps the directive light, rather than a strict order or expectation. Referencing the World’s First Zero Waste Adventure that Nat Hab conducted in July 2019 is a great way to raise this approach, as the Clean Plate Club was a vital practice to successfully go zero waste on that trip. Asking for half portions may seem odd at first, but it’s amazing how much more satisfied people are when they don’t have to stuff themselves to the gills or feel bad for leaving food on their plate. Many restaurants may still not be “ready” to offer half portions, but we noticed that prompting, and asking the question while ordering, works most of the time. In the travel industry, we budget for folks to have full meals (with “all-inclusive” pricing,) so it’s okay to tell the restaurant, “I’ll pay full price, I just want a half portion.” This works well for minimizing waste, and it saves the restaurant money.
Food waste is a big problem in travel, but small actions like sharing meals or politely asking for smaller portions can be part of the solution.
→ Source Recycled Content We should be more concerned with sourcing recycled goods (e.g., trash bags made from recycled materials) while worrying less about the actual material (compostable trash bags vs. traditional ones). If we are to encourage acceptance of recycling in communities around the world, we must help create a market for recycled goods. By deliberately requesting or seeking out products made of recycled materials, we help create that demand, which ultimately translates to more recycling centers and fewer recyclable materials going to landfills.
Although it may involve a higher up-front cost, this system is significantly more cost-effective in the long run for hotel operations. And it’s more sustainable for the environment, too. Asking about such sustainable systems at the outset, during the trip-planning process, not only helps gauge a hotel’s commitment to sustainability, but it also demonstrates that it’s important to you as a travel company and consumer. Creating a conservation culture is one of the most important things we can do, and this sort of inquiry helps tremendously. Alternatively, we can put the power in the hands of our guests, instead of relying on hotels to change their operations. By encouraging guests to bring their own soap and shampoo from home in reusable containers like GoToobs, we can cut back significantly on single-use soap and shampoo containers.
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→ Choose Sustainable Partners One of the easiest ways to up your sustainability game quickly is to work with people who are already thinking and doing things sustainably. We found that while we did need to influence various partners and providers, we were able to find some who were already doing things at a high level of sustainability, with waste mitigation a key component. This was true for restaurants, hotels and on daily activities. In fact, by partnering with businesses that are already thinking and operating sustainably, we learned things that we were able to integrate, bringing everyone up to a higher level.
→ Use Dry Bags for In-Room Recycling and On-Trip Clean-Up These “dirt bags” are lightweight dry bags that function as reusable trash/recycling bags when you’re on the go. These are easily washable, highly multi-purpose items that function in a few different ways: • A bag to use when finding trash on trails, leaving places better than we found them. How about a waste-negative trip?! • A bag to use for in-room recycling or composting. If someone generates trash that can be diverted, they have this bag in their room to store it in until rejoining the vehicles the next morning (or wherever the group may next have access to recycling or composting). • A bag for personal use during the day to store individual recyclables/ compostables before the next opportunity to dispose.
→ Reuse Packed Lunch Containers There are many options for brands and types of to-go containers, and there are regional preferences around the world. For instance, stacking tiffin pots are commonplace in Asia and parts of Africa. Silicone or rigid plastic containers are typical in the Americas. And as the world becomes more connected, we’re seeing plenty of overlap in these goods and approaches. The main point is that tour operators should consider sourcing and offer reusable containers to their food vendors and providers to minimize container waste from packed/to-go lunches. Utensils matter, too, and it’s feasible to provide reusable cutlery in various ways. It can be provided to restaurants or caterers when they pack to-go meals. Perhaps more effectively, a set of reusable cutlery can be given to guests to keep with them throughout the trip. It’s an opportunity to offer a practical gift they can use both during and after their trip, and it’s also a means of integrating company branding into a reusable product. However, the primary challenge is how to wash and store reusable flatware over the course of the trip. Guests on our Zero Waste Adventure were okay with a quick trip to the washroom to clean their utensils in the sink, or saving the cutlery to be washed in their hotel room at the end of the day. But this may be asking more of our travelers on all trips in all settings than all guests are prepared to commit to.
WE ESTIMATE THAT WE HAVE ELIMINATED MORE THAN 1.3 MILLION PLASTIC WATER BOTTLES FROM USE ON OUR TRIPS SINCE BEGINNING THIS PROGRAM. Photo by Nat Hab Chief Sustainability Officer Court Whelan
Pursuing Plastic-Free Travel In 2011, we opted to get rid of single-use plastic water bottles on our trips, accomplishing that goal worldwide within two years. We now give all our travelers a reusable stainless steel water bottle, which we refill with safe, filtered drinking water. And in destinations where a hot beverage is welcome on a chilly excursion, we also provide reusable insulated mugs. In 2018, we eliminated plastic straws. We’re a proud supporter of Travelers Against Plastic, a campaign to spread awareness about the impacts of using disposable plastic water bottles while traveling.
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Reducing Waste in Our Home Office When we created the World’s First Zero Waste Adventure in 2019, we made a parallel effort to ramp up waste reduction at our Colorado headquarters. We have bins for conventional recycling and composting, we recycle plastic bags and we’ve added a TerraCycle box for hard-torecycle plastics like candy and snack wrappers. In our company kitchen, we provide bulk snacks for our staff, refilling dispensers with raw nuts, pretzels, chocolate and the like, and providing fresh, unwrapped fruit. We use bulk tea to fill reusable tea balls. (Did you know most tea bags contain plastic and aren’t compostable?) And when it’s time to pour a cup of fair-trade coffee, it goes in a ceramic reusable mug.
Photo by Nat Hab Chief Sustainability Officer Court Whelan
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MONARCH BUTTERFLY SCHOLARSHIP GRANT To inspire the next generation to care for our wild world, we must engage and inspire teachers as well. Since 2018, Nat Hab has chosen two outstanding educators each year for an all-expenses-paid trip to Mexico to be part of our Kingdom of the Monarchs adventure. Many dedicated teachers discuss the monarch butterfly in their classrooms, using it as an example to demonstrate important principles across the entire biology curriculum, from life cycle biology to ecology to environmental issues. Yet most teachers never get a chance to see the very phenomenon that makes the monarch so spectacular and enchanting: its wondrous annual migration to Mexico’s Central Highlands where the butterflies roost and breed each winter. This scholarship grant aims to change that—two teachers at a time—in order to educate, influence and inspire generations to come.
AN ENDANGERED MIGRATION Learn about the monarch, the conservation challenges it faces, and what is being done to save this beloved butterflyand its extraordinary migration. → nathab.com/butterflies
Photo by Nat Hab Chief Sustainability Officer Court Whelan
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ELECTRIC SAFARI VEHICLE (ESV)
IN 2023, WE EMBARKED ON ANOTHER BOLD MISSION TO SHAPE NOT JUST OUR OWN COMPANY’S PRACTICES BUT THE TRAVEL INDUSTRY AT LARGE. ENTER SOLAR-POWERED SAFARI VEHICLES.
With climate change growing as a global problem, offsetting carbon emissions is no longer enough—we must set our sights on decarbonizing the travel space. This is, of course, a tall order, as travel and tourism rely heavily on emission-based vehicles for transportation. However, numerous technologies are emerging to help abate these near-ubiquitous sources of carbon emissions. In 2019, the first electric plane flight took place in Alaska, and before that, the first electric safari vehicles emerged on the scene in Africa. Though still a novel endeavor, the electric safari vehicle is an innovation that captured our attention, and as testing and experience proved its efficacy and worth, we created a reliable offgrid solar-powered mode for exploring in remote areas.
3 HOURS
4 YEARS
100%
to recharge via the sun for a half-day’s worth of exploration
for the investment in our ESV vehicle to pay for itself in saved fuel
renewable energy is the goal for our flagship camp in Botswana
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2023 SUSTAINABILITY REPORT
While we aren’t the first to create an ESV, we may be among the very first to produce an off-grid solar-powered vehicle. We’re excited to be an early adopter of this technology, pushing the bounds of innovation. While most electric vehicles in Africa still rely on shore power (i.e., a hard line into the power grid), we wanted to go beyond that to invest in the future of off-grid, totally sustainable solar power. And that’s exactly what we did. Our new ESV—operating from Gomoti Camp in the Okavango Delta on our Botswana safaris— can be recharged for a half-day of exploration in as little as three hours, entirely with the energy of the sun. In addition to building the solar array for charging the ESV, we have made significant inroads that will allow the camp to convert to 100% renewable energy in the near future.
Photo by Nat Hab Chief Sustainability Officer Court Whelan
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We expect to make a substantial investment in the quest for decarbonization, laying the groundwork for more electric vehicles—and perhaps electric skiffs, too—in the near future. With an expected 8+ year lifespan for the ESV, we anticipate the investment will pay for itself (in saved gasoline costs and other diesel motor maintenance) after four years. Beyond the sustainability merits of this ESV, it offers an inherent benefit to our travelers while on safari: a whisper-quiet drive. While the sound of safari trucks isn’t known to affect wildlife, we look forward to an age where the guest experience is even better as we rove quietly through the savannas, deltas and forests, hearing nothing but the sounds of nature all around us.
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TRANSFORMING THE GAME DRIVE EXPERIENCE
Photo by Nat Hab Guest Charlie Sumners
2023 SUSTAINABILITY REPORT
RAISING THE BAR ON CONSERVATION
The realm of sustainability and conservation is constantly evolving. The strides made by the global conservation movement in the last few decades are nothing short of remarkable. Although a long road still lies ahead to adequately protect our natural world, there’s much to celebrate in the victories we have already achieved. It’s also important to acknowledge that sustainability is not necessarily a goal or a finish line—it is a never-completed journey. As we grow and adapt, new understandings will be revealed about the state of our planet and the impact humans have had and continue to have on it. But our only option is to continue moving forward, to learn and do what we can with the resources we have, as we continually raise the bar on conservation—an integral Nat Hab commitment!
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Photo by Nat Hab Chief Sustainability Officer Court Whelan
Natural Habitat Adventures is the world’s first 100% carbon-neutral travel company.
PO BOX 3065 • Boulder, CO, USA • 80307 • 800-543-8917 • (Int’l) 303-449-3711 • nathab.com • info@nathab.com