The Nordic wing group will be the first among the major tour operators to offset emissions from all air travel. As of April 29, the company will offset emissions for all 1.5 million guests' air travel, both with its own airline Thomas Cook Airlines Scandinavia and with other airlines. In parallel, work continues to reduce the climate impact throughout the company.
Thomas Cook Northern Europe, also known as the Vinggruppen, is constantly striving to minimize the company's climate impact both at home, at holiday destinations and on the air and is now taking another important step in its sustainability work. In parallel with continuing to reduce the company's climate emissions, where its own airline, for example, has reduced its emissions by 20 % over the past 15 years, all 1.5 million guests' air travel and employee business travel will now be climate compensated.
– We want to make it easy for our guests to travel more sustainably on their long-awaited vacation and have therefore chosen to compensate for all guests' air travel. Tourism creates jobs and encounters between cultures but also contributes to greenhouse gas emissions. Our main focus is of course to continue reducing our emissions. In addition to that, we are now taking another important step towards becoming a climate-neutral company and are therefore compensating for the emissions that cannot yet be prevented, says Magnus Wikner, CEO of Vinggruppen in the Nordics.
Effect on climate, people and societies
The wing group now climate compensates for all air travel by investing in projects that reduce the same amount of greenhouse gas emissions and that also contribute to a positive impact on people and local communities. In addition to reducing emissions, the projects focus on water infrastructure projects in East Africa and Gambia, hydroelectric power plants in Sri Lanka, wind power in Turkey and India, and also a tree planting project in Spain. The projects create access to clean water, jobs, infrastructure and health-promoting initiatives. Together, the projects will have a positive impact on more than 125,000 people.
The wing group collaborates with Natural Capital Partners, NCP, a global leader in emissions reductions. All projects follow the global standard The Carbon Neutral Protocol, which covers not only carbon dioxide emissions but all greenhouse gas emissions. The projects are certified and meet the criteria for the UN's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) or Gold Standard, a quality standard developed by, among others, WWF and supported by more than 80 environmental organizations.
Package travel – a more sustainable way to travel
Compensating for emissions that cannot yet be prevented is a complement to Ving's other sustainability work. Thomas Cook Airlines (Ving Group's own airline) is one of the most climate-efficient airlines per passenger in the world and the work continues to reduce emissions further. In addition to air travel, Ving Group works with the global sustainability standard Travelife at its own hotels, including Sunwing Family Resorts and Sunprime Hotels. Ving Group is responsible for and controls the entire travel chain and has had close collaboration with local partners for over 60 years. By optimizing flights, hotels and transfer buses with as few empty seats and rooms as possible, package tours to holiday destinations, such as the Canary Islands and Mallorca, are efficient from a climate perspective. The company also plans to develop its rail travel offering.
For further information, please contact:
Fredrik Henriksson, Head of Communications Ving/Thomas Cook Northern Europe, tel. +46 709 513124, fredrik.henriksson@thomascook.se
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