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Make Travel Matter

Food for thought – World Food Day 2021

October 15, 2021 by Luxury Gold No Comments

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.

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Reading time: 4 min
Make Travel Matter

Announcing Our New Sustainability Officer

September 23, 2021 by Luxury Gold No Comments

As the CEO of Insight Vacations and Luxury Gold I am so pleased to announce that we have created the position of Sustainability Officer. This is a big step for us and goes to solidify our commitment to our HWTR strategy implementation over the coming years. I am so proud of the work that has already been done. Travel can and should be a force for good and as such we are formalising the role of Sustainability Officer to spearhead our efforts.

Valerie Furphy – Sustainability Officer Insight Vacations and Luxury Gold 

I started out my career as a nurse because fundamentally I am a carer. Through my work post-Masters in Public Policy with development agencies, it became clear that to raise populations out of poverty and develop in-country capacity sustainably, one had to think more broadly than focusing solely on humans.

This questioning sparked a passion for sustainability in me and it is one that I try and live by daily. I am delighted to be the Sustainability Officer for Insight Vacations and Luxury Gold because I am 100% supported in implementing our How We Tread Right Strategy (HWTR) by our CEO Ulla Hefel Böhler. I remember some years ago, I suggested that we swap the materials we use for our on-trip collateral to recycled materials, and where that wasn’t yet possible we offset the carbon used in production. Not only did Ulla say yes, but she didn’t need much convincing!

At Insight Vacations and Luxury Gold we understand that the Travel and Tourism sector is a powerhouse of global economy and a crucial part of community development and success. We are deeply committed to advancing the United Nations SDGs through our MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® Experiences because we believe travel can – and must – be a force for good. We have been in business over 100 years and it is our mission to continue that legacy. The only way we can continue to take guests on vacations that delight and inspire is to protect the people, places, and wildlife we visit.

Two years ago, we were the first brands at The Travel Corporation (TTC) to launch a ‘Global Volunteering Day’, a day when as many of our global team as possible come together to give back to the communities where we live and travel. On our inaugural Global Volunteering Day, we logged over 1,000 volunteer hours, supported grassroots organisations and connected with each other and our communities. It was a resounding success that we were ready to surpass in 2020, but unfortunately the Covid 19 pandemic had other plans for us. That said, I think the ongoing constraints of the pandemic highlight that our journey is a marathon and not a sprint. This year we’ve adapted our efforts and have logged many hours of volunteering under challenging circumstances in support of our HWTR Goal #10, to complete 30,000 volunteer hours by 2025 across all TTC brands.

Our commitment to our HWTR strategy is profound and its implementation will take dedication, perseverance, and innovation. Our culture of continuous improvement is the ideal environment in which to grow. I’m excited for what is ahead!

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Make Travel Matter

How Our Oceans Can Help Heal Our Planet

June 10, 2021 by Luxury Gold No Comments

By Céline Cousteau

World Ocean’s Day is celebrated on 8 June 2021. Our oceans are integral to life on earth, and this is a time to acknowledge that and advocate for our waters. As the ‘Planet’ Ambassador for the TreadRight Foundation, the non-profit organization founded by the Travel Corporation (TTC), the ocean is not just a critical resource to me, but a crucial source of hope for our future.

The ocean is home to some of the world’s most incredible species, which provides endless fascination to me as an environmentalist and as a mother, whose little boy is in awe of it. As an explorer, I find inspiration and adventure in its depths. Now, we’re discovering that it could be key in taking action against climate change.

Protect our Waters for the Future

It’s true that our oceans are under threat. However, rather than scaring readers with doom and gloom scenarios, I prefer to instil hope. Our oceans have the potential to undo some of the dreadful damage that we have inflicted on the environment over the past 100 years or more.

Humanity’s wellbeing fully relies on the welfare of our planet. Although the challenges we collectively face can seem endless, the potential solutions are also mounting. The answers may lie in our waters, if we protect them.

Prevention is paramount for protection of our oceans. We need to prevent eight million pieces of plastic ending up in our waters every single day. Ocean restoration can provide a natural means to decrease our huge carbon footprint and empower climate action.

According to the “Let Nature Help” report by the Wildlife Trust, climate solution could provide more than a third of the CO2 mitigation required until 2030. Our oceans can absorb 20-35% of human-made CO2 emissions every year, which is a huge help in terms of combating climate change. Recently, this has been recognized by the USA and Canada, who have committed to nature-based solutions to fight climate change. The UK have introduced measures to restore nature on the path to carbon removal.

Helping Nature Lead the Way

Each of us can be significant in bringing about a solution. We have big, bold ideas of how nature can heal supported by scientific research. Over the past decade with the TreadRight Foundation, my role has been to highlight the sustainable travel initiatives worldwide that happen with the Travel Corporation’s support.

Luxury Gold recognizes that climate change needs urgent attention. This is why the company is implementing the Travel Corporation’s Climate Action Plan. This five-point plan includes measurable goals as part of a commitment to reach net-zero emissions by 2030.

As part of fulfilling these commitments, TreadRight has partnered with two marine based carbon removal solutions. The first is GreenWave, a regenerative ocean farming organization and the other is Project Vesta, who are exploring the natural capacity of the ocean as a carbon sink.

Natural Solutions

GreenWave are TreadRight’s first carbon removal partner, and members of its organization study how kelp can be added to soil, increasing its carbon storage potential while decreasing harmful nitrous oxide emissions on regenerative land farms. Research has discovered that kelp minimizes the need for fertilizer and also reduces nitrous oxide emissions from the soil. Nitrous oxide emissions are 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide emissions so if GreenWave’s pilot project proves that kelp is effective, this will have a tremendous effect on the fight for climate change. It will also provide the opportunity for regenerative ocean and land farms to work together for the good of our planet.

Bren cranking up the kelp line.

Project Vesta’s plan is to utilize the natural power of the ocean and remove a trillion tonnes of excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. On pilot beaches in the Caribbean, they have taken a naturally occurring rock, olivine, crushed it and redistributed it to coastal areas where it can be naturally weathered by the waves. As it breaks down, carbon dioxide is removed from the air, eventually ending up as limestone on the ocean floor. This both reduces the carbon in the air and the level of acidity in the ocean. Recent research proves that the chemistry works and as olivine can be found in abundance, it suggests that we have highly affordable, scalable solution for our seas.

Olivine Weathering Reaction

Olivine has the potential to capture one gigaton (GT) of carbon dioxide per year if placed on just 0.25% of global shelf seas, which is roughly equal to the amount of carbon that 16 billion trees growing for ten years could remove from the air. Project Vesta currently has pilot beaches in the Caribbean and is studying a natural olivine sand beach in Hawaii. Project Vesta aims to establish the validity of the process, while ensuring that it is ecologically sound before it can be replicated worldwide.

MAKE TRAVEL MATTER®

These projects are harnessing the remarkable power of the ocean to benefit humanity and the future of our planet. It’s incredible that nature is providing us the solutions to a problem we have created.

I would ask that the next time you see the ocean, consider the great hope it represents to our climate and future. I invite you to join me and Luxury Gold in taking the pledge to MAKE TRAVEL MATTER®. Wherever you go, travel with purpose.

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