© ATTA / Border Free Travels - AN Near East 2017

Neutral Together

Carbon Offsetting for Adventure Travel Tour Operators and Accommodations

May 26, 2023 Update:
The processes for carbon offsetting through Neutral Together are being updated.

Businesses seeking to submit emissions volumes are invited to please contact [email protected] for information and guidance on carbon offsetting.

The travel industry, while providing very positive benefits in terms of its economic impact, delivers negative impacts in terms of its carbon dioxide emissions. Recent research indicates tourism is responsible for 8 percent of global emissions when considering the carbon emitted directly during tourism activities as well as the carbon embodied in the commodities purchased by tourists (food, accommodation, transport, fuel and shopping). Addressing carbon impacts can be a challenging and intimidating endeavor, particularly for small and medium sized businesses with limited resources. As a result, most companies view the barriers to entry as too high, and end up doing nothing to mitigate their contribution toward global climate change.

To combat these challenges and facilitate action, the Adventure Travel Trade Association (ATTA) has developed an innovative program for the adventure travel community to address their carbon impacts. ATTA tour operator and accommodations members can measure their emissions for free using a specialized carbon calculator developed for the industry by ATTA in partnership with South Pole. ATTA will aggregate industry reported volumes, realize a reduced per ton price for carbon offsets, and pass that reduced rate on to ATTA members.

Please read our FAQ page.

2022 Participant Announcement

In order to offer affordable carbon offsets as prices increase, Neutral Together takes a portfolio approach to projects, mixing higher cost forestry offsets with lower cost renewable energy and cookstoves projects. 

Your carbon offset purchase will be allocated as follows:

  • 60% to support a clean cookstove project
  • 20% to support a renewable energy project
  • 20% to support a forestry project. 

Neutral Together participants find out the exact price per ton for their offsets once all industry emissions are in, however we are working closely with South Pole to keep the final price under $14/ton. 

Submissions for 2022 will be accepted until March 31, 2023.