Trufflepig Joins Travel Movement to Declare A Climate Emergency

We’re a trip-planning company – that’s where our expertise lies. But we’re joining a rising tide of voices coming from companies, communities and countries in declaring a climate emergency. Why?

You don’t have to live in California, or Greenland, or Australia (or Burgundy) to recognise the scale of the crisis facing us all if nothing changes. And though we haven’t yet seen the end of political squabbling among climate sceptics, the serious debate among grown-ups is now around how to address climate change: how to increase mass awareness, and what actions to take.

In answer to the first question, consensus has settled on the word ‘emergency’ as one that conveys both the urgency of action and the scale of danger. Trufflepig has added its signature to Tourism Declares a Climate Emergency and signed up to the commitments outlined therein (and below). This movement attempts to reconcile the huge in-built complexity of the travel industry with the simple top-level requirements of the climate emergency, namely to reduce overall carbon emissions. Step 1 in the process is to accept and recognise the problem: a declaration.

We’ve done this because the travel industry has a significant role to play in the climate crisis, and we’re no different from every other travel company in needing to examine our operations, our responsibilities and impacts. Tourism can be a great power for good, or it can be a giant steamrolling beast when left unchecked. But tourism is what we know, so we are trying to do our part in developing and sharing best practises, examining old ways of going about business, and looking for the changes which will be necessary for travel to become part of the solution not the problem.

Anyone involved in pretty much any economic activity in 2021 (i.e. all of us) is operating in a world with a lot of systemic baked-in problems. It’s daunting to say the least. But without wanting to sound too high-minded about it, we have to hand over to our kids a world with a lot of systemic baked-in solutions. So the work is now.

In-house, we refer to that work as our Hoofprint Project, and you can read about it on the dedicated section of our site. When we say work, we should say work in progress – which is exactly the way it always will be, because questions around sustainability, impact and conservation are questions which never achieve perfect, static, easy answers.

However, it’s not just a talking project. The declaration through Tourism Declares commits us to:

• develop and publish a Climate Emergency Plan to cut carbon emissions following IPCC advice (55% of 2017 levels by 2030);
• share progress against the targets therein on a yearly basis;
• work with partners, competitors and colleagues in the travel industry to develop and share best practises;
• advocate for change up and down our supply chain.

Our plan, progress and processes are laid out in the Hoofprint section of Trufflepig’s website, alongside the other initiatives which go into the project. There’s also a Resources section there, with a collection of articles, books and other pieces addressing the questions of sustainability in travel.

Specifically as regards Tourism Declares and how the travel industry can address its carbon emissions, you can listen to a conversation between Jeremy Smith, founder of Tourism Declares, and Jack Dancy, one of Trufflepig’s owners (also embedded below). For those who feel paralysed by the complexity of the issues, and the seeming lack of solutions, listen to the end. Jeremy could have been one of the great doomsday merchants, but he ain’t, and there’s easily enough optimism to help the medicine go down.