A few years ago, carbon dominated every sustainability conversation.
While it may no longer be the trend du jour, we remain committed to reducing our footprint – an essential step in safeguarding ecosystems and the communities, wildlife and landscapes that depend on them.
At Steppes, we don’t follow trends; we commit to what genuinely matters, long-term.
Our Carbon Commitment
At the end of 2024, with the help of ecollective,we measured the carbon footprint of our whole business. Up until this point we had been measuring the carbon generated by our operations in the UK, including the footprint of our office (energy, waste etc.), our teams’ commute to work and the business travel we undertook. In addition, we had been measuring the carbon generated by our clients’ flights regardless of whether they are booked with Steppes, but we had not undertaken the task of analysing what our clients were doing on the ground.
So, in 2024 we finally established a carbon baseline for our business, which included our HQ (e.g. offices, business travels, staff commuting and homeworking, etc.) and the holidays we operate (customer flights, accommodation, transport, excursions and meals). Based on an average carbon footprint per customer night, this worked out as 285kg for the financial year of 2023/24.
In line with the UK government’s suggested Net Zero reduction targets, we set out a five year goal of achieving a 7% year on year reduction in carbon emissions. At the end of 2025, again with ecollective’s assistance, we calculated the total average carbon footprint per customer night as being 217kg – a reduction of 22.5% on our baseline figure.
What Does 217kg of Carbon Really Mean?
217kg is the equivalent of travelling 722 miles in a medium-sized petrol car – so roughly, from John o’Groats to Plymouth.
Whilst we have slightly reduced the average distance flown by each of our clients and have put together fewer ocean-going cruise itineraries, the main reason for the reduction in emissions is due to the implementation of a more accurate means of measuring our flight data for 2024/25.
Our climate action partner, ecollective, now use the Travel Impact Model (TIM), which is an open-source methodology developed by Google and the Travelyst coalition to provide a transparent, consistent and continuously improving method for estimating the CO2 equivalent emissions of individual flights.
What’s Next for Us?
Each year, as a business, we will measure our carbon footprint and use the results to pinpoint strategies to help us reduce our footprint further. As new methodologies, targets and regulations come online, we will learn and adapt our plan.
In 2026 we will:
- Provide carbon training to our team, to better understand where our carbon emissions come from and brainstorm ways we can design itineraries with a lower carbon footprint (using train travel rather than domestic flights for example).
- Make it easier for our team to find the most fuel efficient flights for our customers, when train is not a viable option.
- Whilst we will try to reduce the carbon emissions of the flights we book for our clients, whatever reduction we achieve is unlikely to be a material amount. We will, therefore, continue to offset the carbon emissions of our flights through the World Land Trust.
- We will continue to prioritise travel that supports conservation, community development and cultural preservation, maximising the positive outcomes of the itineraries we create for our clients.
We don’t have all the answers. Far from it. If you have any ideas as to how we can square the circle of high carbon intensity of flights with making travel fully sustainable, we’d love to hear from you.