Wilderness Scotland Unveils Carbon Emissions Framework Methodology

In its continued work to transform tourism to the benefit of people, communities, and the planet, Wilderness Scotland – together with sister companies Wilderness Ireland and Wilderness England – has released a ‘Carbon Emissions Framework Methodology,’ designed by the carbon consultancy eCollective, that outlines how the company calculates a highly accurate carbon footprint per guest. The goal is to not only demonstrate accountability on its pledged efforts to reach ‘true net-zero’ by 2030, but to also engage, inspire, and assist other tourism businesses in reducing their overall carbon footprint. 

Measuring the greenhouse gas emissions of the business, the scope of the methodology covers everything from office emissions, staff business travel, websites, and staff commuting, to virtual and in-person events, along with, of course, the various components (transport, accommodation, activities, food, and guides & trip leaders) of the adventure trips it offers.  

Looking at the tourism industry’s overall carbon footprint, in November 2021, the award-winning adventure travel company introduced Carbon Labelling across all of its itineraries, providing guests with rigorous calculations and true transparency of the carbon impact when they travel, helping adventurers make more informed travel decisions on where and how to travel.  

“Together with our colleagues in the travel and tourism industry, we believe carbon tracking across the industry can become standard,” says Paul Easto, CEO and Founder of Wilderness Scotland. “With the release of this new methodology as an ‘open source’ document, our hope is that others can use it as a guide in their own sustainability initiatives, with an end goal of making the industry as a whole a force for good in the conservation of our planet.” 

Carbon Reduction Strategy 

Through their work with eCollective, Wilderness Scotland has developed one of the world’s first carbon labelling schemes for travel. Like reading the nutritional information on a box of cereal, each itinerary now has a carbon label, or score, indicating the amount of kilograms of carbon attributed to each trip, with an average of 142kg CO2e per traveler per trip across the whole business (compare this with a week at a Maldives resort at 603kg CO2e, or a Caribbean cruise, which is 445kg CO2e per day). These labels were determined based on an analysis of the carbon footprint of over 5,000 services such as food, accommodation, transport, and activities. 

For more information on Wilderness Scotland and its sustainable tourism practices, please visit WildernessScotland.com/Sustainability.