Impact Report 2022

REPORT IMPACT

2022 ANNUAL IMPACT REPORT

Over the past year we experienced an eagerly awaited return to travel, with over 200 teams of students heading off on expeditions and trips across the globe. Many of our travellers had been waiting for their trip to depart for 2, 3 or even 4 years; far longer than ever before. COVID-19 continued to pose challenges to our operations, from restrictions and requirements on the ground, to a dilution of the destinations we were able to visit. Regardless of these challenges, it was fantastic to see so many young people enjoying these adventures, that had been so long in the planning stages; learning, growing, and developing whilst engaging with different cultures and experiences on the ground.

We’re delighted to be able to share the collective impact of those trips here, in our annual impact report, which overviews the key success stories across these three vital areas of our organisational impact: 1.

2. 3.

The success of our programme and trips in delivering our educational outcomes, and the impact this has on travellers’ personal development

The impact of our community initiatives with regards to engaging students on important global issues, and supporting local communities to further their goals

The size of our carbon footprint, how it has been mitigated though offsetting and reforestation programmes, and how we’re progressing towards our reduction targets

DELIVERING EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES OUR

Our 2022 cohort of travellers were the first to travel having had access to our online pre-departure learning modules. Spanning topics relating to Global Citizenship, Personal Growth and Wellbeing, these modules allow students to prepare for their experiences on trip and build a foundation of knowledge and skills that allow them to make the most of the experience.

The online learning material, combined with on-trip experiences, is underpinned by six educational outcomes:

Students will gain a greater understanding of how to act for a more sustainable future, at both local and global levels.

Students will be immersed in different cultures and experiences, growing to understand their role within our global community.

Students will be challenged to think critically about topical issues that affect our past, present and future around the world.

MEASURING SUCCESS

Students will be empowered to build on their self-care strategies, enhancing their physical and mental wellbeing.

Students will experience and reflect on the power of being pushed outside of their comfort zone, allowing the development of initiative, confidence, and resilience

Students will build a deeper connection to their own identity & personal values, developing their independence and sense of self.

We asked our trip leaders to feedback on the learning and growth experienced by students on their trips –here’s what they reported:

GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP WELLBEING

Did students demonstrate consideration of responsible travel in their decisionmaking on trip?

PERSONAL GROWTH

Did students demonstrate recognition of learning through reflection on experiences outside of their comfort zone?

Did students demonstrate that they were comfortable using self-care strategies on the trip?

applicable

Photo by Daniel Twort on Expedition in eSwatini

WHAT STUDENTS SAID THE

BEST MEMORIES

‘My best memory was in Puerto Lopez, we spent a day working with turtles, and learnt so much about the wildlife and damage to their environment. It was fascinating and just amazing being able to have such up close and personal interactions with the animals.’

Jacob, student

ECUADOR

THE PEOPLE

‘I will forever be thankful for the opportunity given to me and hope that I’ve made the people in Belize proud with my conciliatory effort back home to be more environmentally friendly and more open minded.’

Amy, student

BELIZE

THE SUMMIT

‘The atmosphere on camp the morning of our trek up Toubkal was tense as you could feel everyone’s apprehensions about what we were about to take on. We set off in the pitch-black, with the stars above us and pushed up the mountain. There was sickness, there were headaches but we all successfully reached the summit and beamed at one another with nothing but pride.’

student

MOROCCO

Emma,

‘As a parent I have two clear images- the first one is all the phone calls and photos from a young man throwing himself into an adventure of a lifetime, the second is picking up a more worldly, mature and contented young man from the airport.’

‘The change in our son has been enormous - his confidence, his understanding of his place in the world and how he can be a positive influence on it.’

WHAT THE PARENTS SAID

Jamie’s dad

Ewan’s dad

Photo by Thom Bell on Expedition in Nepal

COMMUNITY INITIATIVES

This year saw us return to visit many of our valued community partners for the first time since before the pandemic in 2019, as well as making our very first visits to several new partners in our network. In 2022 we collaborated with 69 initiatives around the world, including 25 conservation programmes and 44 community initiatives.

44

COMMUNITY INITIATIVES

69

25 INITIATIVES

CONSERVATION PROGRAMMES

The impact of the initiatives we visited spans 10 SDGs.

1 THE IMPACT OF THE INITIATIVES WE VISITED SPANS

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS

Photo by Daniel Twort on Expedition in eSwatini

1 road

2

36

CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS

2022

2 community centres

16

REFORESTATION PROGRAMMES

Across destinations

1,000 tre

mangrove

1 floating jungle walkway

school renovations

1 house

1 weaving centre

2022

30hours of wildlife monitoring

16

REFORESTATION PROGRAMMES

Across 6 destinations

ees and

es planted

1 sunbear house renovated

11

13 beach cleans and litter picks

WILDLIFE CONSERVATION PROGRAMMES

1 turtle hatchery constructed

SOME OF OUR KEY ACHIEVEMENTS

IMPACT STORIES

MALAYSIA

In Malaysia, our teams collected 27kg of litter off the beaches, creating awareness about the importance of beach cleanliness in the local community and protecting the nesting turtle population.

In Morocco, teams built a road so that villagers have clean roads to walk on instead of mud when it’s raining, better connecting the village and community.

In Peru, the newly constructed jungle walkway connects the lodge with the conservation area, making it easier to monitor the wildlife.

MOROCCO PERU CAMBODIA

In Cambodia, teams planted chilli, long bean and orange plants which will improve food security in the community.

CLIMATE ACTION

To find out more about how we’re working to reduce and mitigate against our impact on the climate crisis, read our CLIMATE ACTION PLAN.

We’re committed to transparently reporting our carbon emissions, which we began tracking and measuring in 2021. To benchmark our progress, we use 2019 (our last ‘normal’ year of operation) as a baseline against which we measure progress.

Per passenger

This metric allows us to compare our annual emissions without the totals being swayed by the number of travellers we take overseas, so we can compare future years to the baseline more accurately.

Customer flights 1,363 KG

2019

Total

1,777

Per travelling passenger

Staff

15,797 TONNES

Our Carbon Footprint in Total of emissions

Customer flights

Trips

Office and staff

2021

In 2021, we had an unusual year, with closed offices, only one trip departure to a domestic location, and much less activity across the organisation than in a typical travel year. Our footprint was therefore somewhat unusual as well.

READ OUR CLIMATE ACTION PLAN

2022

In 2022 we returned to travel, at a lower volume than pre-pandemic, but to a large portion of the destinations we had travelled to in the past. Our overall footprint per passenger is down 35% on our 2019 baseline, which is great progress towards our target of achieving a 50% reduction by 2028.

OUR FOOTPRINT IN 2022

There were many aspects of 2022 which were unique, resulting from changing travel trends which have been influenced by the pandemic, as well as some changes to the ways in which we operate our trips, as such, we may see these figures fluctuate in 2023 and beyond.

OFFICE AND STAFF EMISSIONS

IN 2022

Emissions resulting from the operation of our office and from our staff team were down 88% on 2019.

That said, we were still working remotely for parts of the year and had not yet transitioned to our permanent new office base. We’d also seen staff travel limited by the pandemic for the majority of 2022. This aspect of our footprint is therefore likely to increase slightly as we move forward in 2023.

OUR TRIP EMISSIONS

Our trip emissions were down 31% compared to 2019. In 2022 we operated trips to a limited range of destinations, due to ongoing restrictions resulting from COVID-19. It is therefore possible that the data was slightly skewed towards more efficient destinations such as Norway and Nepal.

We also saw a larger proportion of shorter duration trips travelling, 76% being two-weeks or less in 2022, compared to 45% in 2019, which will have significantly impacted this outcome. This may change if we see a return to longer trips in future years, as confidence travelling increases post-pandemic.

Overall, this demonstrates significant progress in terms of reducing this aspect of our organisational footprint and is an area we will continue to monitor closely as we move forwards. Alongside measuring the emissions of departed trips, we will continue to monitor the footprint of each itinerary in our portfolio to ensure product development stays aligned to our carbon reduction targets.

TRIP EMISSIONS

IN 2022

31% down on 2019

Our overall footprint per passenger

35% down on 2019

FLIGHT EMISSIONS

Finally, flights were down 33% on 2019. This is perhaps most surprising of all, as there is little we can do to control the emissions generated by air travel, beyond selecting the most direct available routings, the impact of which is quite small.

The most likely cause of this reduction is a trend towards shorthaul travel- in 2022, 38% of our departures travelled to short-haul destinations, compared to just 11% in 2019. There are two drivers behind this trend, firstly, in 2022, several of our schools favoured short-haul travel for their first post-pandemic trip, as a gentle step back to travel, with less complicated COVID-19 restrictions and challenges to navigate.

Secondly, during the pandemic we had developed and released a wider range of short-haul itineraries, providing more options for schools to travel closer to home. As we move forward, we may see, more schools opting back to long-haul travel as confidence travelling increases, though others, inspired by increased awareness around sustainability may continue to trend towards closer to home destinations.

We will continue to monitor this data to assess the patterns better over the coming years.

Our flight footprint per passenger

Short-haul travel in 2022

MITIGATION REGENERATION AND

As per our commitment to be climate positive, we have offset 100% of our emissions in 2022 through gold standard certified programmes – the equivalent of removing 3,530 tonnes of harmful greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.

To achieve this we have supported several projects, including:

- Funding a wind power plant in Northern Thailand which can generate clean energy in place of more polluting, traditional forms of energy production

- Supporting efforts to make India’s metro rail system more efficient through electrification – the country aims to have the world’s first 100% solar powered metro system, reducing reliance on more polluting forms of transportation

We continue to support nature regeneration programmes as well. This year we planted 5 trees for every passenger who travelled with us –12, 605 in total, as well as an extra 1,000 in place of sending Christmas cards.

Our 2022 traveller’s forest was planted in Marotola, Madagascar where mangrove forests are being planted to restore the coastline. Mangroves are 2-4 times more effective, and faster at removing carbon and greenhouse gases from the atmosphere but also provide habitats for many marine, bird, and wildlife species, and protect the coastline from the erosive impacts of the climate crisis.

Through our conservation initiatives we planted an additional 1,000 trees across Cambodia, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Nepal, Belize, Borneo, and contributed to a range of nature regeneration and wildlife conservation programmes too.

We offset 100% of our emissions

IN 2022

WE HAVE OFFSET 100%

OF OUR EMISSIONS

NEXT STEPS

As we move forward into 2023, we will continue to prioritise sustainability as part of our organisational decision-making and development. Some of our key goals will be to:

- Review our product portfolio to consider ways we can reduce emissions on trips by tailoring the itineraries offered

- Continue to develop partnerships with conservation organisations to provide experiences which also benefit the planet as part of our trips

- Continue to consider the environmental impact of the flights we book and opt for lower emission routes where available and viable

- Implement a new approach to carbon mitigation which focuses on nature regeneration rather than traditional offsetting as a means to neutralise our impact

Prioritisin g s u stainability

CO2