Abroad Trekkers is taking 5 Main Steps to Reduce and Off-Set Our Carbon Footprint. We invite you to join us.

STEP 1
Operating 1,000+ biking and hiking trips each year. Just offering these kinds of trips allows us to take thousands of guests through the world responsibly and with minimal impact annually.

STEP 2
Running our trips carbon-neutral. Since we are committed to providing the best support for you on our trips, we’ve calculated our fuel usage and are purchasing in-kind “off-sets” to neutralize that van support.

STEP 3
Increasing our energy efficiency at our headquarters. We have just retrofitted 100% of our lighting fixtures at our headquarters with compact fluorescent bulbs, which will reduce CO2 emissions by 14,000 pounds annually – year after year.

STEP 4
Inviting you to off-set your own travel to and from Abroad Trekkers trips. You can consider off-setting your own travel before and after your Abroad Trekkers trips.

STEP 5
Distributing sustainable products. You’ll find that all Abroad Trekkers guest and leader t-shirts are made with 100% organic cotton, all of our water bottles are recyclable, we use certified recycled paper in the majority of our printed marketing materials, and we implement many other small product choices that make a difference.

In our home offices and warehouses, we encourage biking to work, give credits for carpooling and using public transportation, and offer 3 “flex days” annually to office employees to donate their (paid) time to doing community service. All leaders are trained annually in core environmental and cultural practices as part of our Responsible Travel efforts.

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Peru: We financially support the Machu Picchu Historical Sanctuary, as well as other museums and sites we visit including: Cathedral, Church of San Blas, Qoricancha, Temple of the Sun/Convento de Santo Domingo and Museum of pre-Columbian Art, as well as the archaeological sites of Tambo Machay, Q'enko, Sacsayhuaman, Pisac and Ollantaytambo.

In Ollantaytambo, we visit a local school, Divino Maestro, and join in sing-alongs and visit classrooms. We facilitate collections from our guests that are put toward school supplies and games.

In the Sacred Valley, we visit the small indigenous community of Huilloc, where we support local weavers and take part in a cultural dance with the children. In the same community we bring fruit and bread for the locals as well as school supplies (each week it is something different: crayons, pencils, books, paper) for the children.

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Strategic Principles

Abroad Trekkers believes that by educating our staff, guests and community partners we can naturally further the cause of responsible travel. To this end we try to:
 

• Minimize waste on our trips by using recycled materials and non-paper products as much as possible.
• Practice the “Leave No Trace” ethic on all our trips, and highlight this in our materials.
• Prepare travelers to minimize their impact while visiting sensitive environments and cultures.
• Organize annual training seminars for our leaders that emphasize deep cultural and natural-world knowledge of the area.
• Purchase, consume and highlight local foods as part of our experience.
• Design our trips and activities to connect our guests to local cultures.
• Support local artisans by bringing our guests to their workshops.
• Use locally owned suppliers whenever feasible.

Whenever we can, we buy locally grown products and foods and donate leftover foods and goods to charities. We recycle in allocations where recycling exists and practice the principles of Leave No Trace (pack it in, pack it out). And we contract with local business services at every opportunity.