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3 September, 2024

OPINION: Chimu founder Chad Carey talks carbon, the real elephant in the travel room

Edited by Travel Weekly

When Chad Carey started a travel business with original co-founder Greg Carter, it was to South America. Now, in the 20th year of Chimu, he is on the hunt for a new, more sustainable way to explore the planet.

One of the unexpected benefits for having limited things to do during the pandemic pause, was getting some clear thinking time. What did I spend my time thinking about? Carbon! I know, it’s a not the sexy kind of subject that brings most people to a vacant horizonal gaze, but that was me.

As a business we are a significant emitter of carbon dioxide and the other greenhouse gases. Travel is a carbon intensive industry, there is no avoiding it.

We have been calculating our passenger emissions and offsetting them for several years and when we first started that process, I felt comfortable that we were doing our bit. We also did many of those low hanging fruit measures that most businesses have also done. Reducing supply chain waste where we can, remove single use plastics etc.

To give some this some context, our average Antarctica passenger still emits approximately 6 tonnes of C0² equivalent per Antarctic journey. This is the real elephant in the room when it comes to travel and the cruise industry. We can talk about removing single use plastics all day, but if you’re finding ways to reduce fossil fuel emissions, the reduction of plastics won’t help.

Carbon offsets have also become questionable as valid way to deal with emissions. The industry does have credible players, but studies* have shown that many carbon offsets are essentially worthless in terms of the carbon capture.

Given all of the above, how can an individual or a single business create meaningful change on these items? My answer was that we simply need to focus on actual carbon emissions. By this I mean that we all need to start looking at technology, making purchasing decisions and setting processes to make material reductions in emissions. The real game is in doing what we can to drive down emissions.

The inherent issue is that we need time to make these changes. For example, by the time I came to this conclusion, we weren’t even halfway through a three-year charter agreement on our Antarctic vessel and there were limited ways to reduce the emissions on that vessel. But what I could control is the next vessel that we took and the vessel after that. So, I set my sights on what we could do with our next ship to reduce our emissions significantly. We could also start looking into clean fuel ship designs.

Travellers are still going to want to travel and if the travel industry is going to change, we need people within the industry who are passionate about making the transition to a low carbon industry. I decided that I’d prefer to be one of those people.

When you see the upcoming announcement on the next ship we will operate, you will know that emissions reduction has driven the decision-making process.

I’d challenge all travel businesses to take a similar approach to their emissions. Consumers are only going to demand this more in the coming years, so it’s imperative to all travel businesses to start planning their pathway to reduce their actual emissions now.

Let’s stop talking about single use plastics and offsets and drive change through innovation.

– Chad Carey

Carey’s other roles have included MD for Intrepid Polar, chair of the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators Climate Change Committee and vice-chair of the Australian Travel Association to Latin America.

*https://bit.ly/3XdHirc

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