In its 10th anniversary year, Cookson has launched a number of charitable initiatives that focus on conservation, including a charity auction of wildlife photos to benefit the World Wide Fund for Nature, and a commitment to plastic-free yacht expeditions. To build on this in a new decade of sustainable travel, the company has committed to going carbon neutral this year.
As part of Cookson’s ethos of hyper-personalising every trip, the most appropriate projects will be selected for every trip to match the most appropriate offset or removal scheme with the client’s interests and to ensure the project is as localised to the trip location as possible.
Among the projects identified are tree planting in deforested regions, provision of clean drinking water to lower fuel consumption for wastewater treatment and stimulating the growth of clean energy development through renewable sources. The additional benefits of these projects will include improved biodiversity, education, jobs, food security and heath & well-being in some of the most remote parts of the world.
“I started Cookson Adventures ten years ago because of my love for all that is rare and beautiful on this planet. Since then, we’ve made it our mission to visit some of the world’s most remote and precious destinations but, most importantly, leave them better than we found them, through various conservation and sustainability efforts.
“Fortunately, with a new generation of conscious travellers, we can be more aware of damage we are doing to the environment. Over the next ten years, not only do we want to offset our emissions and neutralise the impact we have but, also, ultimately reverse it and go carbon zero’.”
Cookson Adventures’ founder Henry Cookson
As part of the project, Adam Sebba, CEO of Cookson Adventures, has approached other luxury travel companies to share Cookson’s learnings from the project. The aim is to collaborate and help the entire industry reform more quickly. With the UK government’s recent commitment to be a zero-carbon economy by 2050, future regulation is certain, yet the form the regulation will take remains undecided.
“I have just returned from one of our trips to the Arctic Circle where we saw the impact of non-sustainable practices on the environment. We believe this is the right step to take now - though we know carbon offsetting is just that - a transitional step until more technologies exist to travel with zero emissions.
“Many of our customers have shifted from demanding low impact travel - now to zero impact travel and we want to meet – but also drive this important trend”
Adam Sebba, CEO of Cookson Adventures
Cookson Adventures’ director of project delivery, Tom Hutton said: “Companies need to examine their offset projects very carefully and do their due diligence. There are many that are unreliable, so we are pleased we’ve found reliable offset schemes that are easy to implement”
Later this year, Cookson Adventures will be taking trips to Kenya, Norway, British Colombia, Raja Ampat and the Solomon Islands. All carbon neutral.
For more information on expeditions, contact Cookson Adventures via its website cooksonadventures.com or email [email protected].
