Ensemble Fights Climate Change With New Partners
Travel advisors who are members of the Ensemble Travel Group should expect the nature of business to take on an environmentally greener aspect in the near future.
Ensemble has just signed partnership agreements with two environmental action organizations, giving member agents the tools to take up the fight against climate change. They will be able to use apply these mechanisms to holiday flights and travel itineraries for clients who want to play a part in solving the climate change crisis.
The partnerships were announced at the just-ended Ensemble annual international conference, held this year in Seattle. About 900 conference attendees, including Ensemble member travel advisors and product suppliers, came to the event and learned from the overall conference theme of “travel with purpose.”
Ensemble group retailers from Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United States gathered at the Hyatt Regency Seattle for the four-day event, during which member agents engaged in numerous training sessions. During that time, they learned that climate action non-profits Cool Effect and the Purdue Tourism Research Center had signed up as partners with Ensemble.
The partnership kicked off with the Ensemble decision to offset its entire conference carbon footprint using Cool Effect carbon offset tools. At the same time, the Cool Effect’s travel offset tools were being incorporated on the Ensemble dashboard platform for members to quickly and easily offset the carbon footprint of client air travel.
“Carbon emissions from travel are only increasing – with air travel alone projected to hit one billion tonnes in 2020 – so it’s crucial for the industry to take steps to reduce carbon pollution,” said Cool Effect director of marketing, Jodi Manning. “We are honoured to work with Ensemble in becoming a leader in the sustainable travel space.” Ensemble is regarded as the first consortia in the travel industry to make such a commitment.
“We’re thrilled to ensure our conference is carbon neutral, as well as offer Cool Effect’s travel offset tool on our platform moving forward,” said David Harris, CEO of Ensemble Travel Group. “This will allow our network of thousands of advisors to make offsetting travel a seamless and easy process for our travelers.” Cool Effect oversees 15 projects around the world that are dedicated to the reduction of carbon greenhouse gas emissions, while also benefitting local communities.
Joining Cool Effect is the Purdue Tourism Research Center, which will deploy its Travel Care Code as part of its work with Ensemble to reduce climate change, and also the social effects of climate change.
It will do so by advising Ensemble travel advisors on ways they can inform their clients on how to reduce travel activities that increase climate change, and also how vacationers can conduct socially responsible travel.
This is consistent with Ensemble’s “travel with purpose” message said Jonathan Day, an associate professor at Purdue University and director of the Travel Care Code. “As academics, we are not very good at knowing how to reach out to the travel industry. That’s why we are very happy with this partnership.”
In the photo:
David Harris, CEO of Ensemble Travel Group (centre) is joined by new Ensemble partner reps Jonathan Day, director of the Travel Care Code at Purdue University (l.); and Jodi Manning, the director of marketing at Cool Effect in California.
