Carbon Offsetting by Casas Cantabricas - Caminos touring holidays

Sustainable travel has always been important to us at Casas Cantabricas and we plan our trips with the maximum respect to the environment and to the local communities in which we’ve worked for over 35 years.

We are constantly looking for ways to reduce our carbon footprint in our offices, through our supply chain and on our own trips in Spain and Portugal.

We do however recognise that there is a significant carbon footprint associated with travel, most notably emissions from air travel and, to a lesser extent, from ferry crossings, and we have decided to take the responsibility of offsetting that impact through projects that truly help combat climate change.

No experts ourselves, we have sought help and, via our association AITO, have partnered with Fenix Carbon to create a high quality, impactful, carbon offset portfolio. Both the supplier and the individual portfolio projects we support have been selected, vetted and approved by the AITO Sustainable Tourism Council to ensure that the highest standards of quality, transparency and ethical standards are met.

Premium carbon offsets, direct from developers

Quality guaranteed – Rigorous quality controls to select superior projects. Accepting only recent vintage offsets from internationally recognised certifiers.
Transparency, start to finish – A fully auditable supply chain – from purchase through to retirement or delivery.
Fair & ethical – Empowering project owners to achieve the maximum impact for their planet-saving projects.

To find out more about Fenix Carbon or purchase your own voluntary offsets click here

What does it mean for you?

Our pledge is to make all our holidays carbon neutral as an integral element of our business model so there’s no box to tick or extra charge – we take care of everything (including items we don’t include such as flights) so that the impact of your holiday is fully mitigated. This includes your transport to destination, the kilometers you drive, the meals you eat and the accommodation you use whilst on holiday – in fact we deliberately overestimate so we can be confident that our impact is totally covered.

The projects

With your help we will contribute a special selection of premium carbon reduction projects, covering a range of geographies, types and UN sustainable development goals.

Kariba Project, Zimbabwe – reducing deforestation and poaching

Located in northwestern Zimbabwe, this project protects 747,000 hectares from deforestation and reduces poaching.

The project also invests in general community activities that guarantee the long term sustainability of the enterprise.

The entire community will be directly impacted, but especially the most poor through improvement of health and education, understanding of local agriculture and its customs, the use of beekeeping, implementing forest sustainability practices in fuelwood plantations, fire management and alternatives to sustainable building materials.

Sivirú, Colombia – addressing illegal logging

Directly addressing illegal logging, this project educates local communities on the generation of alternative income sources while protecting 66 endangered species within the project area.

Timber extraction has been an important source of income for local families, who periodically harvest wood when economic needs arise. Illegal logging – increasingly necessary due to no alternative income possibilities – has resulted in significant deforestation and forest areas being turned to agriculture or pasture to generate income.

Acokak, Turkey – run-of-river hydroelectric power plant

Located on the Karadere River in Trabzon province, Turkey, this project will supply clean energy from the implementation of a run-of-river type hydroelectric power plant.

Crucially, there is no impact on protected areas; national parks; reserve sites; historical or cultural sites or grassland, and the project provides local employment opportunities for a largely agricultural based work force, in an area with limited agricultural use permitted.

Xinjiang, China – Dabancheng wind farm

Located in a natural wind tunnel between mountain ranges, this project uses the topography of the land to generate income for a community that cannot use the land for agriculture due to the formidable weather.

Ultimately this project will reduce reliance on grid-connected fossil fuel-fired power plants in the Northwest China Power Grid, improving air quality and bringing economic growth and employment opportunities to the region.

This project is in stage 1, and carbon credits contribute to the installation of the first 33 wind turbines.