Rajasthan’s capital of Jaipur certainly lives up to its nickname of The Pink City. Upon arrival, you can see the distinctive salmon hue all across the city’s skyline. But beyond appearance, it’s also a place that is steeped in heritage. Traditional folk song and dance, textile markets, handmade designer shopping, and local cuisine are all just part of Jaipur’s rich culture.

Newer additions to the streets of Jaipur are the bright pink, custom-designed and eco-friendly rickshaws driven by local women. What better way to see the sights of the city? However, more than just a fun way to explore Jaipur, the Pink City Rickshaw offers a unique opportunity to help support more than 200 local women from low-income households.

Employing women from low-income neighborhoods, many of whom have no work opportunities prior to guiding Jaipur tours, Pink City Rickshaw equips its employees with professional training, and opportunities for economic empowerment among their communities.

Now does that sound like your kind of ride? Join a MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® Experience on our Essence of India with Ranthambore luxury guided tour, meet these women for yourself and learn all about the initiative. Hop in, share stories and see the magnificent sights of Jaipur.

“Our MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® Experiences are a beautiful exchange of values between our guests and the people that we meet,” explains Lucie Dalila, Sustainability Manager, Travel Experiences at Luxury Gold “This is a two-way experience – a sharing of stories, ideas and knowledge that shines a whole new light on your destination. We all leave feeling empowered, inspired and keen to contribute even more.”

Empowering local women

Puja Gour, Vice President of ACCESS Development Services, a nonprofit organization based in Jaipur, that partners with Pink City Rickshaw tells us: “Empowering women is our main initiative but creating an engaging and curated experience on our sightseeing tours is a top priority as well. Tourism meets philanthropy as you are guided through the medieval mystique of the walled city, seeing the local culture and sites through the eyes of the smart, enthusiastic and knowledgeable women who navigate Jaipur’s streets.”

A modern icon since the 1880s

“The presence of rickshaws in India has played an important role, from the electric cities to the smaller towns of rural regions,” explains Puja. “Growing up in Patna in Bihar, we didn’t have a public transportation system. Hopping on a rickshaw (usually hired by a family or friend) for weekly outings with other neighborhood children continues to hold a warm place in my heart.  While the city’s rickshaw industry has traditionally been dominated by men, the societal backdrop is adapting to the transition of new drivers — giving women the power to gain professional experience and income, while also giving you a fuller experience compared to the standard point A-to-B taxi service.”

Soaking up the sites

Sites like the 16th-century Amber Palace, known for its cobbled paths and views of Maota Lake, and UNESCO world heritage site Jantar Mantar observatory, are part of what draw in so many visitors to the magic of Jaipur. The magnificent City Palace is home to Mughal and Jajput architecture and is the present residence to the last ruling royal family, which lives in a private section of the palace.

You’ll also get lost in some more off-the-beaten path destinations, like the partially hidden lower level of Mansagar, a beautiful place of solitude often overlooked by the masses.  By taking a tour with the women of Jaipur, not only are you making a personal impact on the local community and contributing to a cleaner environment, you’re also experiencing the magic of one of India’s most dynamic cities.

Feeling inspired to rickshaw around Jaipur?

Jaipur is a featured destination on our Essence of India with Ranthambore and Spirit of North & South India luxury guided tours.

Travel with us on these tours and enjoy the opulent rooms of the 5-star Jai Mahal Palace, located in the heart of the Pink City.  This magnificent hotel is set in 18 acres of Mughal style gardens and showcases Rajasthan’s stunning heritage.

Sample the best of the city’s exquisite food as you dine at the sumptuous 1135 AD, with its royal interior, traditional music and breathtaking sunset views. And, celebrate the final night of your voyage at the Cinnamon Restaurant in Jai Mahal Palace. Here the chef expertly blends traditional and contemporary cuisine from the four princely states of India, leading to an unforgettable feast.

Visit our website for more information on all our luxury guided tours to India. Download our interactive brochure for 2022 & 2023 Worldwide tours. And learn more about our MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® Experiences.

At Luxury Gold Vacations, along with all our sister brands in The Travel Corporation, we passionately believe in making travel a force for good – for people, wildlife and the planet. Through the TreadRight Foundation we support projects across the globe, including the innovative regenerative ocean farming project, GreenWave.

In honor of World Food Day 2021, we spoke with GreenWave about the systems of sustainable food production the project creates, who they benefit, and how we can all support sustainable farming on a day-to-day basis.

An introduction to GreenWave

In 2021, TreadRight invested in GreenWave as part of point 3 of The Travel Corporation’s Climate Action Plan: to invest in new technologies and nature-based solutions to remove excess carbon from our atmosphere.

While there have been many attempts to increase soil’s ability to store carbon, (known as soil organic carbon), one unintended effect is the release of nitrous oxide, (N2O), a greenhouse gas that is 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide. The largest contributor of the steadily increasing N2O into our atmosphere is agriculture. Nitrous oxide is a by-product from the use of nitrogen, largely used in farming as a fertilizer.

Bren harvesting kelp

The use of kelp as a soil additive is emerging as a tool to reduce nitrous oxide emissions and create a net climate benefit. GreenWave is a regenerative ocean farming organization studying how kelp can be added to soil to increase its carbon storage potential while decreasing harmful nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from regenerative land farms.

By its very nature, GreenWave is tackling more than just carbon removal and demonstrating the many benefits to nature-based carbon solutions.

What does sustainable food production mean to GreenWave?

We have to think beyond relying on mother nature and focus on how farmers can grow crops that actively breathe life back into our ecosystems, so we can all make a living on a living planet. We must protect ecosystems because there are no jobs and no food on a dead planet. For GreenWave, sustainable food production means growing what is regenerative – not simply what consumers demand, collaborating and building circular economies and business models, and investing in the regenerative economy so small- and medium-sized farms and businesses can succeed.

How does your organization contribute to or enhance sustainable food production?

Kelp line

GreenWave’s polyculture farming system (the simultaneous farming of multiple kinds of crops) grows a mix of seaweeds and shellfish that require zero inputs — no fresh water, fertilizer, feed, or land — while sequestering carbon and rebuilding marine ecosystems. These crops grow with no input, simply by soaking up nutrients in the ocean, making it the most sustainable form of food production on the planet. Since our farms sit vertically below the surface, they produce high yields within a small footprint.

As a nonprofit, GreenWave’s 10-year goal is to provide training, tools, and support to a baseline of 10,000 regenerative ocean farmers to catalyze the planting of 1 million acres and yield meaningful economic and climate impacts.

How can everyday citizens do their part to support sustainable food production?

• Eat and cook more seaweed and bivalves such as clams, mussels, scallops and oysters. Get creative, invent new dishes that center these climate-positive crops. Every meal you cook increases demand for these ingredients and supports regenerative ocean farmers.
• Use seaweed and shellfish-based products to fertilize your garden. Try using seaweed fertilizers to lessen the impact of your garden. Your plants will love it.
• Support GreenWave and other organizations working towards sustainable food systems and resilient coastal communities.

What are your thoughts on sustainable food production and its role in fighting the climate crisis?

There is tremendous potential to mitigate climate change and feed the planet by moving towards replicable and scalable climate-positive food production models.

The regenerative ocean farming model works to mimic the diversity of ocean reefs by growing a mix of species that act in concert to revive ecosystems. Each crop plays a vital role. For example, it takes just 0.6 kilograms of carbon to grow one kilogram of mussels — that’s an even smaller carbon footprint than lentils! Farming seaweed in less than 0.1% of the world’s oceans could sequester the carbon equivalent of 20 million cars and produce the protein equivalent of 3 trillion cheeseburgers. Leveraging the environmental benefits of seaweed and shellfish, we can turn these farms into a climate solution powerhouse and stack benefits by growing seaweed and shellfish together while growing food for local communities.

How does sustainable food production also support healthy communities?

Bren cranking up the kelp line

Because the regenerative ocean farming industry is in its infancy, we have the chance to do this right — to create a future where climate resilience and equity drive decision-making in the new blue-green economy at sea. We can build a food system from the bottom up, ensuring that we focus on polyculture rather than monoculture, that we don’t privatize our seeds, and that under-resourced families can begin farms. As the emerging regenerative ocean farming industry matures, GreenWave’s goal is to ensure that fishermen and Indigenous communities directly affected by climate change benefit from the industry’s growth and have pathways to become leaders in the field.

If there’s one takeaway you want to leave your reader with, what would that be?

There is an alternative route, both for our oceans and for our economy as a whole. We can farm to restore, not deplete, while creating soul-filling jobs for millions of people, breathing life back into our oceans, and exploring the uncharted world of underwater tastes.

If you are interested to read more about the exciting work of TreadRight and GreenWave, click through and take a look at their websites.

The 2021 UN Climate Change Conference, taking place this November in Glasgow (COP26), aims to be a ‘pivotal moment in the fight against climate change,’ poised to usher in a decade of united and urgent action to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

For nearly 30 years, the UN has been bringing together almost every country at its annual climate summit called COP (‘Conference of the Parties’). It was here that the Paris Agreement was launched in 2015 and now, with the window quickly closing to meet the Agreement’s goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels, the plans first presented in the Paris Agreement must be taken further.

Further to declaring a climate emergency and joining Tourism Declares, a community of more than 300 organizations in travel and tourism dedicated to the urgent call to cut emissions in half by 2030, TTC and its family of brands including Luxury Gold, are pleased to announce the signing of the Glasgow Declaration.

This Declaration, formed collaboratively between the UNWTO, UNEP, VisitScotland, Tourism Declares and Travel Foundation, unites our sector in a shared commitment to accelerating climate action towards 1.5 degrees.

In order for communities to benefit from travel & tourism and vice versa, we must assure their health and protection, a critical fact that puts destination protection as the shared responsibility of our industry. While the climate emergency is very real, we know that it’s not too late to take action and change our course, though as the recent IPCC report highlighted, that window is closing. The Glasgow Declaration then, is a call for action from the tourism sector, one which seeks to unite the industry through supporting organizations to build an effective path forward – because declaring a commitment to climate action is meaningless unless followed with swift action.

As outlined in the One Planet Vision for a Responsible Recovery of Tourism from COVID-19, committing to and planning for a green recovery offers us a unique opportunity to transform the sector in line with the objectives of the Paris Agreement. If we can move rapidly away from carbon- and material-intensive ways of delivering visitor experiences, instead prioritising community and ecosystem wellbeing, then tourism can be a leader in transforming to a low-carbon future.

How We Tread Right

In 2020, TTC launched its new five-year sustainability strategy, How We Tread Right (HWTR) which committed the global group of travel brands to becoming a carbon neutral business by 2030 or sooner. While all 11 sustainability goals outlined by HWTR contribute to addressing TTC’s carbon footprint and prioritize restoring the balance of nature, our specific action on greenhouse gas emissions is clear and prescriptive and outlined in TTC’s five-point Climate Action Plan.

Our plan outlines a clear approach to achieving our goal of carbon neutrality that reflects the Glasgow Declaration’s five pathways to Measure, Decarbonise, Regenerate, Collaborate and Finance.

Measure:

To understand and manage, you must measure. So first and foremost, we’ve committed to measuring the emissions from our business and trips. We measure our business emissions from offices, owned facilities and accommodations, hotels, ships, fleet, and employee business air travel. The carbon footprint of all trips across TTC brands, including all transportation, accommodations and meals, are measured through a custom trip calculator we developed with external experts.

Reduce:

We’re committed to building on carbon reduction efforts to date and setting ambitious targets by mid-2022. To support the world’s progress towards limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees, we must ensure we explore every opportunity to drawdown our emissions and set ourselves on a path to net zero. This includes securing and generating renewable energy and assessing alternative fuels.

Remove:

Through TreadRight, we’re investing in new, nature-based technologies to remove excess carbon from the atmosphere. These innovative solutions have massive potential to mitigate climate change and need our support to accelerate and scale as quickly as possible. In 2021, TreadRight invested in GreenWave, a regenerative ocean farming organization, and Project Vesta, using naturally occurring olivine rock to permanently store carbon on the ocean floor.

Offset:

As an interim solution to address TTC’s unavoidable emissions, we will purchase carbon credits, including rolling out carbon neutral trips between 2022 – 2030. In partnership with South Pole, a leading offset provider, TTC will purchase verified carbon credits to offset emissions from our offices and employee business air travel.

The last point of our Climate Action Plan is to Evolve, because we know we can’t do this alone. That’s why signing onto Tourism Declares and the Glasgow Declaration is important. These commitments unite us in the mission of taking urgent climate action, and provide us a vision for a better future.