Making student travel more responsible through transparency, collaboration, and action.
To support this work, collaboration across all stakeholders is imperative. CAS Trips has declared a Climate Emergency with Tourism Declares and is a founding signatory of the Glasgow Declaration. We believe that by asking students to engage with global challenges, we can lead by example and showcase how we take responsibility for our own impact.
To measure and understand our scope 3 emissions, we collaborate with eCollective, whose team helps us review and verify our trip emissions and our measurement methods. Accountability matters, and this data is one way we can all hold ourselves to our commitments.
Our Commitment
Our commitment is to increase the positive impact of our trips while reducing our negative impact.
To support this work, collaboration across all stakeholders is imperative. CAS Trips has declared a Climate Emergency with Tourism Declares and is a founding signatory of the Glasgow Declaration. We believe that by asking students to engage with global challenges, we can lead by example and showcase how we take responsibility for our own impact.
To measure and understand our scope 3 emissions, we collaborate with eCollective, whose team helps us review and verify our trip emissions and our measurement methods. Accountability matters, and this data is one way we can all hold ourselves to our commitments.
As a signatory of the Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism, we have committed to:
- Measure and publish our emissions each year
- Continue identifying ways to reduce the impact of our trips and operations
- Work with partners and others in the travel industry to share ideas and improve practices
- Report transparently on our progress
In essence, this is about understanding our impact more clearly and working with people we trust to continue reducing it over time.
Our Progress
Our core reporting includes: Prague HQ and home office emissions (mandatory Scope 1 & 2 reporting), all internal staff travel, and on-trip emissions.
Additionally, we track data on our schools’ travel, including transportation-related emissions to and from their trip destinations. We also record additional sustainability factors that guide our operations in ways that could have an impact on the overall CO2 emitted.
The graphs below provide a high-level overview of that data.
Reduce, Regenerate, and Collaborate
Measuring emissions is only the starting point. The more important question is what we do with that information.
Across our organization and our trips, our focus spans across the following three areas: Reduce. Regenerate. Collaborate.
Reduce
The most meaningful action we can take is to avoid emissions in the first place.
On trips, we prioritize transportation options with a lower footprint whenever the itinerary allows, including public transit, shared group transport, and walking. We actively reduce waste on the ground by encouraging Trip Leaders to adopt “no printing” policies, requiring reusable water bottles, and incorporating vegetarian and locally sourced meals into our itineraries to lower the food carbon footprint.
When selecting local partners, we actively seek out accommodation providers and organizations that share a commitment to responsible practices. Each year, we track the number of accommodation partners holding sustainability certifications and the hours of community service and local engagement completed by students.
In our offices, we make lower-impact choices wherever possible, using renewable energy providers, choosing second-hand or refurbished materials, and reducing unnecessary consumption.
Regenerate
Where emissions cannot yet be avoided, we prioritize contributing to projects that restore ecosystems and remove carbon from the atmosphere for the long term.
CAS Trips partners with Tomorrow’s Air to include a $20 contribution toward the removal and permanent storage of carbon through every itinerary sold. This supports a portfolio of carbon removal projects that permanently remove 85 kg of CO2 per traveler.
We embed regeneration directly into our student itineraries. Every year, our students contribute thousands of hours to hands-on environmental service projects, ranging from organic urban farming in Prague to beach clean-ups in Portugal and reforestation in Peru.
For all internal emissions, including our headquarters, home offices, and staff travel, we apply a 20% buffer on top of measured totals to account for any data gaps, then offset in full each year. When selecting offset and removal projects, we focus on countries where our trips take place. We favor initiatives that go beyond short-term mitigation and support lasting ecological and community benefits.
Collaborate
Travel is a complex ecosystem. No single organization can drive meaningful change alone.
Collaboration includes our student travelers. Our Tour Leaders conduct on-trip workshops about ethical shopping, the importance of eating local produce, and the “why” behind our itinerary choices, turning students into active participants in our climate goals rather than passive tourists.
We work closely with accommodation providers, transport companies, local organizations, and sustainability specialists to improve practices at every level of our programs. This includes recording the sustainable accommodation partners we partner with.
CAS Trips actively participates in industry networks and working groups focused on climate action and responsible travel. We hold memberships and build alliances with global organisations and sustainability leaders, such as Travelife and Sustainable Travel International. This allows us to share what we learn and to learn from others.
Measuring Emissions
CAS Trips calculates emissions from both our internal operations and the trips we run for students. Our methodology follows established frameworks used in the travel industry.
Our reporting includes three main areas:
Scope 1 & 2 Emissions
These are direct emissions from sources controlled by CAS Trips – which is mainly our office emissions.
Internal Operational Emissions
These include emissions generated by staff travel and other operational activities.
On-Trip Emissions
These are emissions generated during student travel experiences. They include factors such as: transportation, accommodation and meals
Methodology
Our emissions calculations follow recognised industry standards and are reviewed by eCollective.
For those interested in the details, we provide a full explanation of how emissions are calculated for our trips and operations.
Trip Emission Measurement
As all trips can be different, we have broken down the source of carbon emissions into different areas so we can calculate the emissions of each trip based on the itinerary, suppliers used, and any additional inclusions.
Transport
- Emissions will be calculated on distances travelled. For land-based journeys, these will be based on the ‘fastest route’ available as provided on googlemaps.com unless stated otherwise.
- If the transportation type is unknown, the most commonly used transport in that destination will be measured if the walking time is longer than 20 minutes.
- Emissions from land and water journeys will be calculated using the distance travelled.
- It’s assumed that car transport will either include self-driving or cars used as taxis. Thus, the DEFRA taxi carbon factor was used per km measured, unless otherwise specified.
- If there is a large number of participants, we will assume that the vehicle should be changed to a coach or minibus.
- For train travel, we have calculated emissions per seat based on the kilometres travelled for that route. All train journeys have been assigned the same emissions factor provided by DEFRA.
- For flights, we have assumed all flights are taken in economy unless otherwise stated. They are divided into long-haul and short-haul, based on whether the trip was to another continent. Emission factors provided by DEFRA.
- All flights have been assumed to be direct or the most-direct route if those details are not specified.
- Meals or other items provided by airlines during a flight are not included in the emissions.
Accommodation
- We currently apply a national average emission factor for accommodations until enough of our partners complete our survey.
- The total calculation is based on the number of rooms (or beds if in a hostel) used and the number of nights stayed at the property.
- Hostels are calculated at 25% of the national hotel footprint average as per suggestion by Bureau Veritas and Hostelworld.
Food
- We have categorised meals into three categories (carnivore, vegetarian and vegan), with a carbon footprint attached to each meal ordered.
- Where data on the meal or food provided is unknown, we apply the highest-emissions factor (high-meat meal).
- We assume every meal included in the itinerary is consumed by the customer, and we also include food for trip leaders unless stated otherwise.
What Else?
- Once transportation, food and accommodation have been measured, a 15% buffer is added to avoid underestimating emissions and to cover potential gaps or uncertainties in the data.
- On-trip CAS Trips staff (Trip Leaders) are accounted for in transportation and meals (lunch and dinner), unless they are not local and require accommodation.
- Currently, internal operations emissions are not included in itinerary labelling and are measured and offset separately.
Offsetting and Removal
Reducing emissions is our primary priority. However, some emissions cannot or have not yet been eliminated.
To take responsibility for those emissions, CAS Trips supports carbon offsetting and removal initiatives to address all internal emissions. 20% is added to the total measured as a buffer to account for potential conflation or missed data.
Annually, our team selects which projects we’d like to support. All projects selected are verified by the Gold Standard offsetting standard. These projects are selected from countries in which our trips take place. Where possible, we prioritize projects that focus on long-term carbon removal and ecosystem restoration.
CAS Trips proudly partners with Tomorrow’s Air to include a $20 contribution towards the removal and permanent storage of carbon through each itinerary sold. This contribution supports a portfolio of carbon removal projects that permanently remove 85 kg CO2 per traveller.
Climate Action Plan
This work is ongoing. As measurement tools improve and better data becomes available, we continue to refine our approach.
Some of the next steps we are working on include:
