Sustainability

We are proud to be one of the few publishers in the UK, and the only one in travel, to have achieved B Corp Certification. We gained the accreditation in 2023 after a rigorous assessment process in which we demonstrated our commitment to making a positive influence across the five key pillars of social impact: environment; customers; workers; community; and governance. We are now an active part of a global community of businesses that meet high standards of social and environmental impact. Find out more at BCorporation.net

We feel passionately that travel and tourism - done right - can be a powerful force for good. But we also acknowledge that the planet is in the midst of a climate and biodiversity crisis, and that we as a travel media brand must play our part in reducing carbon emissions. In April 2022, TTG Media joined hundreds of travel and tourism businesses across the world in signing the Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism, and have worked with our partners TerraVerde Sustainability to create our Climate Action Plan, aligning with four pillars set out in the declaration. As a signatory of the declaration, TTG Media commits to:

• Support the global commitment to halve emissions by 2030 and reach Net Zero as soon as possible before 2050;
• Deliver climate action plans within 12 months from becoming a signatory (or updating existing plans), and begin implementing them;
• Align plans with the five pathways of the Declaration (Measure, Decarbonise, Regenerate, Collaborate, Finance) to accelerate and co-ordinate climate action in tourism;
• Report publicly on an annual basis on progress against interim and long-term targets, as well as on actions being taken;
• Work in a collaborative spirit, sharing good practices and solutions, and disseminating information to encourage additional organisations to become signatories and supporting one another to reach targets as quickly as possible.
   

In April 2022, TTG Media joined hundreds of travel and tourism businesses across the world in signing the Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism, and worked with our partners TerraVerde Sustainability (terraverde-solutions.com) to create our Climate Action Plan, aligning with four pillars set out in the declaration. We’re now on a journey to halving our carbon emissions by 2030 as a minimum, and being Net Zero by 2050.

For reporting purposes, we separate our business into two units: firstly ‘Business Operations’ (including paper, printing and distribution, our staff travel, and our office premises) which is measured on TerraVerde’s platform and reported as carbon intensity, in tonnes of CO2 equivalent per £million of turnover (tCO2e/£m). And secondly ‘Events’ (including awards, conferences and training events) which is measured on the specialist events platform, Trace, and reported as carbon intensity, in kilograms of CO2 equivalent per delegate (kgCO2e/delegate).

For 2023, the absolute carbon footprint of our business operations actually increased, mostly due to us printing more supplements than in 2022. However, carbon intensity (per £m turnover) decreased by a further 14.5% compared to 2022, marking a 31% reduction on our baseline year of 2019, and signalling good progress towards our 2030 target.

For events, our absolute carbon footprint was slightly lower in 2023 than 2022, but carbon intensity (per delegate) actually increased by 26% compared to 2022, meaning significant action will need to be taken in order to meet our 2030 target.

Rather than investing in carbon offsetting - which we know can be a dangerous distraction from the reductions that are required - we were keen to support a carbon mitigation project that also addresses Earth’s wider environmental crisis. For 2023, we invested £5,000 in the Trocano Araretama project - a REDD+ carbon project in a region of Brazil’s Amazon rainforest at risk of deforestation, that brings a combination of social, biodiversity and carbon benefits. 

✅ In 2023, our serviced office, Boundary Row, switched to a 100% renewable tariff, making a significant reduction in the environmental impact of our office premises

✅ TTG Media joined the PPA (Periodical Publishing Association)’s Sustainability Working Group to share our own progress and hear the latest developments from the wider publishing sector

✅ We switched from paper wrapper back to biodegradable polywrap in the middle of the year for better quality control, and with slightly lower carbon emissions per unit

❌  We published more print supplements in 2023 than in 2022, meaning greater impact from paper, printing and distribution 

Goals

• Produce more digital selling guides and fewer printed ones
• Use TerraVerde’s new homeworking measurement tool for more precise figures
• Liaise with IT partner to get usage figures  for our IT footprint instead of spend figures
• Liaise with our website partner to try to improve accuracy of digital network figures
• Liaise with our magazine printer to get usage figures for printing instead of spend figures
• Survey print magazine audience to better ascertain levels of recycling 

Our targets:

✅ We served a ‘vegetarian-first’ menu at the Travel Industry Awards by TTG for the first time, with only 45% of guests selecting the meat alternative, and saving approximately 1 tonne of carbon

✅ 71% of guests agreed or strongly agreed that our bold menu choice raised their awareness of the environmental impact of food choices at large-scale events

❌ A small number of guests travelled internationally by air in order to attend our events, adding a significant carbon footprint beyond our control

Goals

• Host all or most of our events in venues using 100% renewable energy
• Serve meat-free menus at more of our events
• Liaise more closely with event delegates travelling to our events from overseas, to be sure their international flights are not being double-counted, and encourage them to count and mitigate themselves where appropriate 

Our targets: