OUR NEW PARTNERSHIP WITH ECOLOGI
We care deeply about the places we travel to, and we work hard to ensure your visit has a positive effect.
We are fully committed to reducing our carbon footprint in this world and ensuring we have a Climate Positive Workforce.
This means every employed team member of Newcastle Tour Company offsets their entire carbon footprint, including emissions from homes, personal travel, holidays, food, hobbies & more.
At Newcastle Tour Co. we plant hundreds of trees per year & offer to build more with every booking we receive.
CARRYING COALS TO NEWCASTLE
Over the centuries coal was king in Newcastle, giving rise to the famous idiom “carrying coals to Newcastle”, which roughly translates to the modern equivalent of “selling snow to eskimos”.
The coal industry dominated and shaped life in the North East and although now almost completely gone, its heritage is ever-present and our full day Coal to Keel cycling tour explores its various facets.
WHO ARE ECOLOGI?
Newcastle Tour Company (& Experience North) is proud to support Ecologi & The Eden Projects in their tree planting projects around the globe. We signed up to Ecologi in July 2020 funding Gold Standard climate projects to offset our entire carbon footprint.
But who are Ecologi, The Eden Projects and Gold Standard?
Ecologi is a company we adore – for the simple reason that the three founders (Alex, Elliot & Lucy had an awesome and awe-inspiring idea to create a better world and to make this happen by offsetting our carbon footprint & planting trees worldwide. Their projects are fantastic and we bought into this idea with no hesitation! Ecologi is constantly evolving and growing and supports several projects around the globe. All projects & tree planting initiatives are completely transparent and we can see where the omney goes to – and you can take a look at our Experience North Ecologi forest.
The Eden Projects, to date, have planted over 360 million trees, in 8 countries on over 150 projects! You can check out the Eden Projects’ YouTube channel. Their problem/solution analysis gives some insight:
THE PROBLEM FACING ALL OF US
Deforestation is a global phenomenon caused by a variety of factors. These factors range from large-scale slash and burn practices, to unsustainable agriculture, to daily community forest destruction.
Regions that are most impacted by deforestation are highly poverty-stricken and underdeveloped areas. With few options to support their families, often, members of impoverished communities are forced to destroy their local environment to survive, such as cutting down trees for construction, fuel, heat, and agricultural purposes.
While this solves a short-term problem, long-term consequences arise when forests are cut down and not restored. The impact of deforestation is dramatic because it causes severe flooding, erosion, and desertification.
The long-term effects of deforestation lead to even worse environmental devastation.
BEING PART OF THE SOLUTION
There are two key elements to successful reforestation. The first is that reforestation must present a benefit to the local population.
Due to the unsustainable relationship between the land and the people, communities suffering from deforestation are often the same as those living in extreme poverty. It is essential to be committed to and work alongside local villages and communities to achieve a successful and longstanding reforestation effort.
Eden Reforestation Projects utilizes an “Employ to Plant” methodology to benefit the members in the local communities in which we plant. Through steady employment, impoverished villagers can begin to afford daily necessities such as food, shelter, clothing, and medicine.
The second critical element rests in funding. Without donors, business partners, and grants, there is little hope for successful and impactful reforestation.
PORTRAIT OF ONE OF THE PROJECTS
We believe their work is fantastic and the impact is greater than most would imagine – replanting forests will help wildlife thrive, prevents soil erosion, restores rainfall patterns, increasing crop yields and, thus, decreases poverty in the most deprived places on earth.
One of the projects we have been involved in with our funding is Madagascar – a nation with over 200,000 species of plants and animals unique to this earth. However, more than 90% of it’s natural forests have been destroyed. The Madagascar project began in 2007.
Finally, Gold Standard sets the standard for climate & development interventions around the world to qualify and certify their impact. It is published and administered by the Gold Standard Foundation, a non-profit foundation headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.
MAKING THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE
We are extremely proud, not only to be doing something for our carbon footprint, but in particular to have found some super partners in Ecologi to work with. You can read more about our partnership on our Caring About Our Planet section of our website.
We can’t wait to see where this takes us all in the future. And you can join us on that journey – if you would like to add to our forest, visit our Ecologi page here.
