At the Adventure Travel Trade Association we are proud to work within a community where a philosophy of sustainability is core to the business of our members. 

Our members are committed to celebrating and protecting our world’s precious resources through responsible adventure tourism focusing on cultural heritage, natural assets, biodiversity, and wildlife. We have been at the forefront of promoting this ethos in travel and tourism for more than twenty years. We take the climate crisis no less seriously than the conservation challenges we have met head-on in the past. 

Our thoughts, planning, actions, and collaborations are guided by the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aiming to eradicate poverty, protect the planet and ensure all people enjoy peace and prosperity.  We reference 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.”

While striving for a whole-systems approach to sustainability, we also recognize that what is critical in one part of the world is not necessarily in another; demands and needs in Europe are different from demands and needs in Asia, for example. The same holds true in local communities and the dynamics of their own history, culture, environment, and unique place in the world. 

Sustainability and Policy Objectives and Goals

As a global organization with a responsibility to lead our community in facing global challenges and the climate crisis together, we have defined the following Sustainability and Policy Objectives and Goals to help enable change and create impact locally:

MEASURE and REDUCE

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

LEAD and PARTNER

1. Encourage our business members to review their commitments to sustainability and climate action policies and make meaningful positive changes, with a goal to have 100% of our business membership formally committed to sustainability by 2026. 
2. Encourage travelers to consider their impact on the climate and choose to travel with sustainable providers that are committed to positive change in how we travel.
3. Encourage our 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.
4. Embed sustainability and climate principles into all ATTA products and services by showing how adventures can be done with a smaller footprint each year.
5. Discover and leverage expertise within our community to help us reach our goals.
6. Fund and support conservation and climate solutions to enact real and measurable change at the destination level.

INSPIRE and ENABLE

1. Use our resources, events, and network to communicate and share best practices and key concepts relevant to sustainability and climate action in travel.
2. Provide our community with easy access to tools and resources that support their individual sustainability and climate journey.
3. 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. 

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals serve as a source of inspiration and guide our endeavors. Our actions not only exemplify the goals but also empower our members worldwide to actively contribute and create a positive impact on a global scale.

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