Our Climate Action Plan
TTG Media’s purpose is to champion a Smarter, Better, Fairer travel industry, and 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. We’re now on a journey to halving our carbon emissions by 2030, and being Net Zero by 2050.
1 MEASURE
You can’t reduce what you don’t measure. Since April 2021 we have been measuring the carbon footprint of our business, using 2019 as a baseline year.
We separated our business into two units: firstly ‘Business Operations’ (including paper, printing and distribution, our staff travel, and our office premises) to be measured on TerraVerde’s platform (which conforms to GHG Protocol Corporate) and reported in tonnes of CO2 equivalent per £million of turnover (tCO2e/£m). Business operations make up around four-fifths of our total footprint. For 2019, this figure was 197 tCO2e per £m turnover.
And secondly ‘Events’ (including awards, conferences and training events) to be measured on the specialist events platform, Trace, and reported in kilograms of CO2 equivalent per delegate (kgCO2e/delegate). Gathering historic data for certain 2019 events, including some venues no longer in operation, proved very challenging. We have therefore made a best estimate for 2019, based on running slightly more in-person events in 2019 than in 2022. The figure for 2019 was 48kgCO2e/delegate.
2 REDUCE
BUSINESS OPERATIONS
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.
- 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
Our goal for 2030 is 36 tCO2e/£m, which will represent an 82% reduction vs 2019. Goals for 2024 include:
- 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:
| 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2030 |
| 197tCO2e/£m | 159tCO2e/£m | 136tCO2e/£m | 36tCO2e/£m |
| -19.5% (vs 2019) |
-31% (vs 2019) |
-81% (vs 2019) |
EVENTS
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.
- 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
Our goal for 2030 is 34kgCO2e/delegate, which will represent a 29.1% reduction vs 2019. Goals for 2024 include:
- 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:
| 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2030 |
| 48kg | 42kg | 53kg |
34kg |
| -11% (vs 2019) |
+10% (vs 2019) |
-29% (vs 2019) |
3 MITIGATE
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.
4 COLLABORATE & CAMPAIGN
As a media organisation, and not a supplier of travel, TTG Media’s contribution to the travel and tourism sector’s carbon footprint is small.
But our ability to influence and unify our travel industry community into taking action on climate change is considerable.
We are committed to sharing our own progress on carbon reduction to inspire others on why and how they should join us on the journey, and to driving change through initiatives such as TTG Fairer Travel Week and TTG’s Sustainable Travel Heroes.
You can read more on the positive impact we have made as a business in our 2023 Impact Report here.
Place of registration: England and Wales.
Company number 08723341.
Registered address: 6th Floor, 2 London Wall Place, London EC2Y 5AU
