Eco Travel Foundation
Tourism can help protect nature, support communities and fund conservation. The Eco Travel Foundation helps tourism businesses turn that potential into practical action, with transparent evidence of what they measure, improve and contribute.
Our first programme
Climate Performance
An Eco Travel Foundation programme.
Our point of view
It can make protecting a place economically more valuable than losing it.
Tourism can create livelihoods, finance conservation, support local enterprise and give wild places enduring economic value.
The opportunity is to reduce the negative impact tourism creates while increasing the positive impact it leaves behind.
Tourism is one of the few global industries where protecting nature, creating livelihoods and delivering an extraordinary experience can all be part of the same economic model. We should expect it to do all three.
You can't improve an impact you haven't acknowledged.
Transparency starts with an honest picture: measuring what we can, explaining estimates and gaps, and being open about both.
Carbon keeps us honest. It gives tourism businesses a measurable starting point for understanding their operations and deciding where action matters most.
Our approach recognises different operating circumstances. A high footprint is a reason to investigate, not an automatic verdict on a property. We value credible evidence, openness and practical progress.
Don't just make an impact claim. Show the work behind it.
What project, intervention or action?
How much was invested?
Where did it happen?
What difference did it make?
Solar panels and recycling bins are easy to see. Real sustainability is harder to measure. The stories we tell matter, but they're far more powerful when the evidence shows they're making a real difference.
Our first programme
Understand your footprint. Put it in context. Act on what matters.
Tourism operations use energy and fuel, move people and supplies, prepare food and generate waste. Our Climate Performance Programme helps properties measure the resulting carbon emissions, compare performance with relevant peers and identify practical priorities.
Participating properties receive a carbon assessment, contextual benchmarking and an action roadmap. Annual reassessment helps track changes in emissions, operating efficiency and data quality.
Technical assessment and benchmarking are delivered by ETC Africa.
Measuring and reducing operational emissions sits alongside the Foundation’s wider ambition to support nature and communities. Local contributions and conservation projects do not offset or cancel a property’s emissions.
Climate Performance in practice
Each assessed property builds an evidence-based picture of its carbon performance within a stated reporting boundary.
The assessment summary brings three questions into view: how reliable is the data, how does performance compare with relevant peers, and what has changed over time?
Eco Travel Foundation
Carbon assessment
2025 / 26
KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Safari Lodge
Measured. Benchmarked. Tracked.
High
94% of emissions evidenced
Strong
18% below peer median (African lodges)
Baseline established
2025/26 reference year
21.98
kg CO₂e
per guest night
Assessed by
ETC Africa
This is an assessment, not a certification. Results apply to FY2025–2026.
About the assessmentAssessments focus on each property’s operations within a defined boundary and reporting year. Carbon intensity is expressed per occupied bed-night, with the reporting boundary and exclusions explained.
We prioritise evidence for direct fuel use and purchased electricity, and include relevant indirect emissions within the stated assessment scope. Estimates and data gaps are documented rather than hidden.
Benchmarks use relevant comparison groups. A difference prompts investigation; it does not automatically establish inefficiency. Annual reviews track emissions and data quality so properties can identify and demonstrate progress.
People want their travels to mean something. Our responsibility is to make it easier for them to see where their stay genuinely makes a difference.
Where this is heading
Every assessment helps build a clearer picture of carbon performance across African tourism. Consistent measurement supports better benchmarks, shared learning and more informed decisions.
Assessment and improvement support can proceed now. Alongside this work, the Eco Travel Foundation is developing a formal certification pathway with published requirements, independent checks and clear rules for claims.
The proposed certification would recognise conformity with requirements for carbon measurement, disclosure, benchmarking and annual performance management within a stated boundary. It would not establish that a property is low-carbon, carbon-neutral or sustainable overall.
The pathway remains subject to reconciliation of the draft documents, independent review, testing and approval. Membership or an assessment does not currently constitute certification.
Partnership
The programme brings together technical expertise, tourism networks, conservation experience and the funding that helped establish the pilot.
Technical assessment & benchmarking partner
Carbon measurement, evidence review, benchmarking and practical carbon performance analysis supporting the Climate Performance Programme.
Explore ETC Africa(opens in a new tab)
Founding project partner
Founding tourism industry partner supporting pilot development, implementation and connections with participating properties.
Visit Eco Travel Boutique(opens in a new tab)
Founding funding partner
Catalytic funding supported the pilot programme and helped participating properties establish their carbon baselines.
Visit kimkim(opens in a new tab)
Conservation & impact partner
Connecting the initiative with conservation, wilderness leadership, environmental learning and tourism’s wider contribution to nature and communities.
Visit Wilderness Leadership School(opens in a new tab)The Climate Performance Programme is led by the Eco Travel Foundation, with technical assessment and benchmarking delivered by ETC Africa. Independent certification checks are part of the proposed future pathway.
Insights & news
Knowledge Series
Practical online learning to help tourism teams understand carbon reporting, improve records, identify operational opportunities and communicate climate work confidently.
30 June 2026 · Duncan Pritchard
Read article
Responsible Travel
Eight practical things travellers rarely think to do, drawn from work with South African tourism properties measuring and managing their operational emissions.
31 May 2026 · Duncan Pritchard
Read article
Project News
A kimkim-funded climate action pilot designed to support approximately 25 South African tourism properties with carbon baselines, contextual benchmarking and in-house capacity building.
14 April 2026 · Duncan Pritchard
Read articleGet involved
Tourism properties can take part in carbon assessment and practical improvement support. Funders, conservation organisations and tourism partners can help the Eco Travel Foundation extend this work and develop its next phase.