Q: What do you consider Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions?

Scope 1 emissions are direct emissions from resources we own or control. It is divided into four categories: Stationary combustion (e.g. through fuels, and heating sources), mobile combustion (e.g. through cars, vans, and trucks), fugitive emissions (e.g. through refrigeration, and air conditioning units), process emissions (e.g. through the production of CO2 during cement manufacturing, factory fumes, chemicals). For us at Tourlane, an example could be the heating of our office. To reduce our fossil fuel consumption by up to 50% in the winter, we installed heat pumps at our Berlin headquarters. Scope 2 emissions are indirect emissions from the generation of purchased energy – usually from a utility provider. Meaning: Us consuming purchased electricity, steam, heat, and cooling. To reduce our scope 2 emissions, we purchase 100 % renewable energy to use at the office. On top of that, our building has photovoltaic panels that power the common areas and elevators. Scope 3 emissions are all indirect emissions that are not included in scope 2 as they occur in a company's value chain. Meaning: Emissions are linked to our operations of selling trips and the actual trips, our product, that we sell. This third scope represents the largest part of our carbon footprint, which makes it the most important area to measure and reduce. Examples for us are employee commuting, cloud storage, business travel, customer travel, waste, and purchased goods (IT equipment, office furniture, office supplies, food, drinks, etc).

Question 1

Do you also plant trees?

Accepted Answer

Each September is our Green Month at Tourlane. We do month-long activities involving our staff supporting tree planting. In the last 3 years, we’ve planted over 2,900 trees using the Active Giving app and Eden Reforestation Projects.

Question 2

How do you make working at Tourlane more sustainable?

Accepted Answer

Over 90% of our staff regularly use sustainable mobility such as bikes or public transportation to commute to the office.
We use 100% recycled paper.
We recycle our electronic waste and ink cartridges.
We offer vegetarian options when we buy food for the office.
We buy from local businesses when we order food, swag, or supplies.
Our coffee beans come from Coffee Circle in Berlin. Sustainably sourced and direct trade.
Our Tourlane swag is made with 100% organic cotton and/or recycled plastic.
Our office has photovoltaic panels on the roof that power all communal space, including the elevators. We also hope that our office will be a pilot project for heat pumps in 2023 to reduce our fossil fuel use for heating by up to 50%.
We have an Employee Code of Conduct that was a team-led initiative driven by the Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging workgroup to maintain a respectful and inclusive place to work.
We have pay bands and a formalized feedback and evaluation process for all staff; meaning we expect to pay our staff equitably and promote people fairly.
Our employee pension scheme provides sustainable investment options.
We benefit from our Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) who advocate for important topics and make us a better place to work. These include the Tourlane Employee Board; the Womxn of Tourlane; the Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DIB) workgroup, and the Sustainability Forum.
We are provided up to three paid hours per employee per quarter to get involved in a sponsored event. Some examples could be attending a climate strike, volunteering at a shelter or soup kitchen, or supporting a park cleanup.

Question 3

What do you consider Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions?

Accepted Answer

Scope 1 emissions are direct emissions from resources we own or control. It is divided into four categories: Stationary combustion (e.g. through fuels, and heating sources), mobile combustion (e.g. through cars, vans, and trucks), fugitive emissions (e.g. through refrigeration, and air conditioning units), process emissions (e.g. through the production of CO2 during cement manufacturing, factory fumes, chemicals). For us at Tourlane, an example could be the heating of our office. To reduce our fossil fuel consumption by up to 50% in the winter, we installed heat pumps at our Berlin headquarters.
Scope 2 emissions are indirect emissions from the generation of purchased energy – usually from a utility provider. Meaning: Us consuming purchased electricity, steam, heat, and cooling. To reduce our scope 2 emissions, we purchase 100 % renewable energy to use at the office. On top of that, our building has photovoltaic panels that power the common areas and elevators.
Scope 3 emissions are all indirect emissions that are not included in scope 2 as they occur in a company's value chain. Meaning: Emissions are linked to our operations of selling trips and the actual trips, our product, that we sell. This third scope represents the largest part of our carbon footprint, which makes it the most important area to measure and reduce. Examples for us are employee commuting, cloud storage, business travel, customer travel, waste, and purchased goods (IT equipment, office furniture, office supplies, food, drinks, etc).

Question 4

What is a carbon footprint?

Accepted Answer

A carbon footprint is defined as the total amount of greenhouse gasses produced, directly and indirectly, to support human activities, usually expressed in equivalent tons of carbon dioxide (CO₂). An example is the heating we use at Tourlane’s office. Our electricity comes from 100 % renewable sources. Our heating though is not from renewable sources and comes from fossil gas which emits greenhouse gasses. Our office consumption of heat is an example of something that contributes to our company's CO2 footprint.

Question 5

How do you calculate the flight portion?

Accepted Answer

We use the International Civil Aviation Authority's (ICAO) Flight Emissions Calculator. We take the total trips to a geographic area and then use the longest possible flight leg. For instance, for trips to any part of Africa, we assume every flight goes to Cape Town, South Africa, the longest possible journey. Or for Latin America, we assume the flight goes to Santiago, Chile.

Question 6

How do you calculate the share of emissions on land?

Accepted Answer

The land portion uses the total miles driven to the destination and the number of hotel nights for each customer. This is an overestimate since we do not assume a booking of two or more people will share a vehicle or a room. We calculate each person individually. For vehicles, we use the average vehicle from the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) global vehicle emission factors. For hotels, we use the calculation tool from Hotel Footprints by country.

Question 7

How do you calculate Tourlane’s emissions?

Accepted Answer

We calculate our company emissions based on annual consumption data for our electricity, heating, food and office supplies. Business travel, employee commuting, electronic purchases, electronic waste, recycled waste, and cloud use are also included in our calculations.

Question 8

Are your annual carbon footprint calculations based on estimates or actual figures?

Accepted Answer

To calculate our total emissions, we use actual trip data and work with estimates or averages. We start with our total number of bookings and break it down by destination region. For example, to calculate the flight emissions of a person traveling from Europe to anywhere in Africa, we used a flight from Frankfurt to Cape Town (9,383 kilometers one way) instead of a flight from Paris to Nairobi (6,488 kilometers one way). This way, while we improve our data points, we are overestimating our trip distances. And for the driving data, we have the expected kilometers from point A to B to C, etc but we do not know the exact kilometers a customer actually drove. We add 10 % on top to account for things like shopping trips or unplanned activities. So we use a mix of actual data and estimates. We would rather overestimate than underestimate, though we are working to add granularity to our data year over year so we can more accurately measure our impact and how far we are improving.

Tourlane Sustainability Agenda

Impactful & Measurable

Our contribution to responsible travel

Our team supports collective activism on the ground in Berlin – but also at Tourlane destinations worldwide:

We put together trips that are not only as ecologically sustainable as possible but also socially responsible – and consistently work on getting better:

AWARE & DETERMINED

Major emission factors & what we are doing to reduce them

Advocacy and Partners

Leaders for Climate Action

Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi)

Future of Tourism

Climate Partner

Time for Climate Action

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