How One Alaska Tour Operator Is Motivating Guests to Take Real Action Against Climate Change
A case study of how Kayak Adventures Worldwide partners with Offset Alliance to help guests lower the environmental impact of their Alaska travel experiences.
By Henkel Smith
Alaska is a place of breathtaking natural beauty that attracts millions of visitors per year. The COVID-19 pandemic has driven even more visitors to this biodiversity-rich destination, as travel restrictions have suppressed international tourism for many U.S. travelers looking for safe, outdoor-oriented adventures.
Tourism fuels a significant portion of Alaska’s economy, so this rebound is a much-needed catalyst for local jobs in places like Seward, Alaska. While this surge in tourism is good for business, it unfortunately comes with an increased environmental impact, contributing more to global CO2 emissions—the very thing that’s accelerating the pace of glacier melt and further endangering the survival of species like the Alaskan salmon, Kodiak brown bear, river otter, and bald eagle.
Local Seward tour operator Kayak Adventures Worldwide saw this dilemma clearly and wanted to address it in a meaningful way. Here’s how the company found an answer.
Offsetting the Impact, Educating for a Better Future
Carbon offsetting is the reduction or removal of CO2 and other greenhouse gases from the atmosphere (collectively called CO2e), through projects that are developed, monitored, and verified under robust global standards. Put more simply, when CO2e emissions are generated through activities with little or no current alternative — like flying on a plane to Alaska —companies and individuals can balance (or offset) these emissions by financially supporting the reduction or removal of the same amount of CO2e emissions happening through one of these verified projects. The purchase of one carbon offset represents a verified reduction or removal of one metric ton of CO2e from the atmosphere. For reference, it takes about 46 mature trees an entire year to absorb one metric ton CO2.
Haley Terpenny, a guide and tour coordinator with Kayak Adventures Worldwide in Seward, knew that carbon offsetting was a deeply impactful way to help make up for some of the environmental impact of tourism. Kayak Adventures Worldwide already had set up a program that allowed guests to offset the water taxi trip to their headquarters in Seward. But Terpenny realized that the company needed to do more in order to truly balance the CO2 emissions of their guests, most of whom fly to Alaska and have tour packages that typically include travel by truck, van, or boat.
After some online research, Terpenny discovered Offset Alliance, a Certified B Corporation that helps travel companies and their guests to conveniently participate in lowering the carbon intensity of their experience through verified carbon offset projects.
“Responsible tourism is incredibly important in a place like Alaska, where we enjoy so much outdoor recreation in wild and Native spaces with such unique biodiversity,” Terpenny says. “We found it imperative, with the increase in tourism that Alaska has seen in recent years, to set an example for other tour operators in our region. Offset Alliance helped us understand exactly how their model of carbon offsetting works, even making technical things like the lifecycle of a carbon-offset digestible. The dedication that Offset Alliance showed in the process of creating a custom carbon offset program for us has inspired my co-guides and I to share this knowledge with our guests.”
How It Works
Offset Alliance collaborated with Terpenny using its MORE framework (Measure, Offset, Reduce, Engage) to develop a custom-tailored, simple, and educational carbon offset program for Kayak Adventures Worldwide guests. The program is hosted by Offset Alliance and requires minimal effort from the Kayak Adventures Worldwide team.
- Measure. Offset Alliance worked with Terpenny to first understand where her guests typically are visiting from, and then measured the emissions per passenger for the most common flight routes from those areas into ANC International Airport in Anchorage, Alaska.
- Offset. With calculated flight emissions data, Offset Alliance developed a custom tailored landing page where Terpenny’s guests can conveniently offset their flight emissions. While most travel offset programs like this help support Offset Alliance’s portfolio of verified carbon reduction projects, Kayak Adventures Worldwide was able to align its program with a project available right in its backyard that protects a biodiverse, coastal temperate rainforest on Afognak Island, southwest of Seward. Says Terpenny: “It’s important to connect guests with the spaces we recreate in. How incredible that we have the ability to point out, on a map, the nearby island that’s being protected and regenerated thanks to their carbon-offsetting dollars.” For transparency at the end of each season, carbon offsets are retired in the Verra registry on behalf of Kayak Adventures Worldwide, providing a public record of the verified CO2 reductions that were made on behalf of guests.
- Reduce. The measurement step brings into focus the climate impact of a certain activity, like flying on a plane to Alaska, and highlights where a company can start working toward making emissions reductions—either directly or indirectly. In the case of Kayak Adventures Worldwide, after gaining better visibility into how much air travel contributes to one’s travel emissions, Terpenny and her team are now prioritizing flights on airlines and through airports committed to using and advancing sustainable aviation fuels.
- Engage. Travel companies are in a unique position to help guests participate in lowering the environmental impact of their experiences. Terpenny and her team viewed the Kayak Adventures Worldwide carbon offset program as an opportunity to both educate and engage guests, and more importantly to create a lasting awareness of how guests can help lower the environmental impact of their travel.
“Offset Alliance makes it so easy for me and the rest of the guides to speak to our guests about the program and motivate them to participate in it, either while booking their trips or during the trips themselves,” Terpenny says. “This has sparked a lot of curiosity from our guests about offsetting future trips they take, whether to Alaska or another destination.”
To motivate guests to take real action against climate change, Kayak Adventures Worldwide extends a 10% incentive discount for guests who offset their flight through their carbon offset program.
The Results
More than 150 guests have already chosen to offset their flights to Alaska through the Kayak Adventures Worldwide carbon offset program, representing a verified reduction of 237.5 metric tonnes of CO2e and a positive environmental impact that’s equivalent to taking 54 gas-powered cars off the road for an entire year.
Kayak Adventures Worldwide guests aren’t shy about expressing their admiration for the program, as one guest recently shared:
“I really appreciate that this is how you run your business! Your commitment to environmental sustainability and LNT principles is what made me choose you all as a tour operator over other purveyors. Also, I never knew that offsetting my flight cost was so easy and affordable. Thank you for pointing the way!” — C. Orland, March 2022
Travel will always be an important part of the economy both in the U.S. and worldwide. By educating guests about the hidden environmental impact of travel and by providing a convenient way to offset this impact, companies like can Kayak Adventures Worldwide and Offset Alliance can collectively help preserve the unique communities, cultures, and natural habitats that make for the best travel experiences.
Offset Alliance is a B Corp that makes measurable and meaningful climate action simple for travel companies and their guests. B The Change gathers and shares the voices from within the movement of people using business as a force for good and the community of Certified B Corporations. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the nonprofit B Lab.
