Indagare partnered with Sustainable Travel International in its pursuit of carbon neutrality, offsetting all trip and office-related emissions. By integrating high-quality, expertly sourced carbon offsets into its operations, Indagare ensures its carbon neutrality efforts align with the exceptional experiences it offers its members and the purpose-driven values embedded in every journey.
The Challenge
Elevating Luxury Travel through Purposeful, Carbon Neutral Journeys
Indagare is a boutique travel agency specializing in designing unforgettable trips tailored to the unique desires of its members. Its team scouts 70 countries annually, bringing back insider intel to craft extraordinary journeys and create inspiring content and destination guides. The company embraces luxury travel as a vehicle for good, recognizing that sustainability elevates the travel experience. This ethos is at the heart of Indagare’s mission to inspire and empower people to change their lives – and the world – through travel and positively impact the places they visit.
People care about their travels being purposeful as much as they care about getting to eat at the latest and greatest hotspot in the country they’re visiting.
In recent years, Indagare evolved its approach, moving beyond offering a few dedicated “Impact Journeys” to embed sustainability into every trip. Their personalized service makes this possible, curating itineraries that feature exclusive immersive experiences and contribute positively to local ecosystems, communities, cultural heritage, and the environment. The company gives back a percent of its revenue to philanthropic causes, and impact discussions are now a standard part of their itinerary planning process. For instance, Indagare vets hotels and presents properties that meet its sustainability criteria, helping members make more informed choices. This service will only grow in value as demand shifts toward more meaningful and responsible travel.
Building on these efforts, Indagare set out to become carbon neutral to further enhance its sustainability offering and mitigate the environmental footprint of its trips. The first step involved Indagare measuring its carbon footprint, encompassing all emissions from travel arrangements, the team’s home offices, and server use for online offerings. Every trip aspect is accounted for, including meals, activities, flights, transfers, and hotels. Recognizing the majority of its emissions come from international flights, where zero-carbon alternatives are currently unavailable, the company opted to offset these unavoidable emissions to become carbon neutral as it works towards decarbonization.
Given the increasing scrutiny of carbon offset projects, Indagare needed to ensure its offsets were reputable and aligned with the high standards its members expect. However, finding credible carbon offsets is daunting, and Indagare realized it needed a partner with extensive knowledge in the space. “We don’t want to be a company who asks our members to just trust us when we say we’re carbon neutral. We want to show them why they can trust us and feel comfortable traveling with us,” said Melissa Biggs Bradley, CEO of Indagare.
Solution
Partnering for Thoughtfully Vetted Carbon Offsets to Ensure Integrity and Impact
Selecting the right carbon offset partner was imperative to the success of Indagare’s carbon neutrality initiative. In Sustainable Travel International, Indagare found a partner with shared values and the necessary expertise to ensure it buys only high-integrity carbon offsets.
Sustainable Travel International are the experts. They demystify climate action and provide the industry with clear, reliable guidance.
Like Indagare’s thoughtfully designed trips, Sustainable Travel International’s carbon offset projects are meticulously handpicked to ensure the utmost quality and maximize members’ positive impact. Projects are continuously vetted to meet rigorous third-party standards and effectively abate carbon emissions. Additionally, Sustainable Travel International assesses the projects against its proprietary Impact + Criteria, which considers their benefits for nature and people, reputation, and storytelling capabilities. This ongoing quality assurance process gives Indagare confidence that its carbon offsets are backing genuinely impactful projects.
Indagare stays carbon neutral by offsetting its emissions monthly through Sustainable Travel International’s Climate Impact Portfolio. This allows Indagare to support a wide variety of projects throughout the year, encompassing solutions like mangrove restoration, rainforest conservation, technological carbon removal, and renewable energy.
Sustainable Travel International continuously monitors the projects in its portfolio, interpreting technical information, identifying connections to tourism, and gathering updates directly from the developers. This ongoing diligence gives Indagare a detailed understanding of each project it supports, informing the company of the latest impact metrics and developments. Sustainable Travel International has facilitated interviews between Indagare’s team members and project stakeholders, allowing the travel company to learn firsthand its impact from those involved in the initiatives. This comprehensive impact reporting allows Indagare to educate its members by spotlighting projects and creating sustainability communications that are as in-depth and engaging as their existing member content.
Impact
In 2023, Indagare officially achieved carbon neutrality, earning widespread positive feedback from its members. By building expertly vetted carbon offsets into its operations, Indagare enhances the value of its membership offering. The company’s decision to offset all travelers’ emissions ensures that even consumers who may not consider sustainability when planning a vacation will still contribute to vital environmental initiatives. Indagare’s annual offsets reduce as much carbon as conserving 22,000 acres of forest for a year. This inclusive approach allows Indagare to achieve its climate goals without relying on direct consumer participation.
Carbon offsets are the best method to engage those clients in sustainability who may otherwise not do so.
Looking ahead, one of Indagare’s top climate priorities is decarbonizing its value chain. To achieve this, Indagare will further refine its itinerary planning process and actively promote partners who share its commitment to sustainability.
10,000+
Travelers’ climate impacts mitigated yearly through carbon offsets.
18,958
Metric tons of emissions avoided or removed from the atmosphere annually.
15
Climate projects supported by carbon offset revenue.
Company
Indagare
Company Type
Travel Agency
Partnership Dates
2022 - Present
Solutions Used
Carbon Neutral Tours
