Adventure Travel Trade Association launches sustainability policy and fund

In its 20th year of representing and leading international adventure tourism, the Adventure Travel Trade Association (ATTA) has defined a Sustainability Policy with clear objectives and goals to support its recently launched Sustainability Resources Centre.

With ATTA’s thoughts, planning, actions and collaborations are guided by the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), ATTA is defining how it works to fight poverty, provide education opportunities, promote gender equality, create economic opportunities, develop sustainable communities and tourism models, protect biodiversity and support climate action.

Referencing the Brundtland Report*’s definition of sustainability as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

ATTA’s goals are organised into three main objectives, with clear actions for each:

Measure and Reduce
Measure, reduce, and mitigate the greenhouse gas emissions of ATTA by focusing on the impact of event footprints and the travel of team and hosted delegates, with a goal of reducing 5% to 10% each year for the next five years.

Lead and Partner

• Encourage members to review their business commitments to sustainability and climate action policies and make meaningful positive changes, with a goal to have 100% of our membership formally committed to sustainability by 2026.

• Encourage travellers to consider their impact on the climate and choose to travel with sustainable providers that are committed to positive change in how we travel.

• Encourage host destination partners to be conscious of their sustainability actions in event operations by increasing positive and decreasing negative impacts according to each region's capacities.

• Embed sustainability and climate principles into all ATTA products and services by showing how adventures can be done with a smaller footprint each year.

• Discover and leverage expertise within our community to help us reach our goals.

• Fund and support conservation and climate solutions to enact real and measurable change at the destination level.

Inspire and Enable

• Use ATTA’s resources, events and network to communicate and share best practices and key concepts relevant to sustainability and climate action in travel.

• Provide ATTA’s community with easy access to tools and resources that support their individual sustainability and climate journey.

• Report transparently on our emissions, the actions we take, and the results. It will not be an easy challenge but we aim to share the wins and failures with our community.

Sustainability Fund
In order to support the ATTA Sustainability Policy and its goals, as of 2024 ATTA is also establishing a Sustainability Fund, which will support the Association’s ongoing commitment to climate education and innovation through Tomorrow’s Air and nature-based conservation projects through the Adventure Travel Conservation Fund (ATCF).

The main objectives of the Sustainability Fund are to enable a year-over-year reduction in ATTA per-event delegate emissions and finance nature conservation projects across the globe. The Sustainability Fund will support the implementation of reduction actions including:

• Carbon measurement and education on ATTA activities

• Education and training through Tomorrow’s Air

• Carbon dioxide emissions reduction through sustainable aviation fuel and carbon dioxide removal through Tomorrow's Air

• Nature-based conservation projects through the Adventure Travel Conservation Fund (ATCF)

The financing for the Sustainability Fund will come from ATTA events and projects worldwide. Each year, we will report activities and provide updates in our policy and guidelines. The funding allocation based on the main reduction actions stated above will be defined on an annual basis and publicly shared.

Click here for more information.

*The Brundtland Commission, formerly the World Commission on Environment and Development, was a sub-organisation of the United Nations (UN) that aimed to unite countries in pursuit of sustainable development. It was founded in 1983 when Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, the then UN Secretary-General, appointed Gro Harlem Brundtland, former Prime Minister of Norway, as Chairperson of the commission. Brundtland was chosen due to her strong background in the sciences and public health.

The Brundtland Commission officially dissolved in 1987 after releasing Our Common Future, also known as the Brundtland Report.

Image: The Jebel Jais zip line, Ras Al Khaimah, UAE.