2024
Voyage to Neutral Carbon Offset Program
© Dennis Minty
We’re proud of what we do at Adventure Canada, of the values that we try to bring to expedition travel. That’s why we’ve committed to being carbon neutral by 2030. This year, as we look to accelerate our efforts, we are inviting our guests to voluntarily offset the climate impacts of their expedition with us (something many of you have been requesting for the last several years).
If you wish to participate, please contact the Client Services Team or your travel advisor, and we’ll add this to your final payment. On board we’ll acknowledge and celebrate your commitment in a special way!
Carbon Offset Price Per Person
Newfoundland Circumnavigation
June 16–27, 2024
Price: $110 USD per person
Sable Island, Cape Breton, Newfoundland, And The Magdalen Islands: Atlantic Island Odyssey
June 27–July 8, 2024
Price: $117 per person
Newfoundland and Wild Labrador: A Torngat Mountains Adventure
July 8–22, 2024
Price: $158 per person
Heart of the Arctic
July 22–August 3, 2024
Price: $146 per person
Greenland and Arctic Canada: High Arctic Explorer
August 3–15, 2024 & August 15–27, 2024
Price: $129 per person
Into the Northwest Passage
August 27–September 12, 2024
Price: $218 per person
Out of the Northwest Passage
September 12–28, 2024
Price: $259 per person
Greenland & Wild Labrador: A Torngat Mountains Adventure
September 28–October 12, 2024
Price: $188 per person
FAQs
What is climate change?
Since humans first began exploiting fossil fuels, we’ve been gradually warming the atmosphere. Greenhouse gases (GHG) are the cause, of which carbon is the most abundant. Atmospheric warming is a serious threat to the world as we know and love it.
Reducing, offsetting, and mitigating those GHG emissions is one of the global projects that unites humans today (one of the Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the United Nations).
We will do, at least, our part.
What are “offsets” and “offsetting”?
Just as carbon can be emitted into the atmosphere, it can be absorbed from the atmosphere. If we absorb an equal amount of carbon as we emit, we say we have offset our emissions. So offsetting is a way of compensating for emissions by supporting projects that reduce or mitigate atmospheric carbon.
Our goal at Adventure Canada is ultimately to reduce and eliminate all of our emissions. In the short term, and only as a transitional strategy, we will offset our emissions. That begins this year, with the opportunity for guests to offset their respective carbon burden.
What offsets are we buying?
Adventure Canada is buying offsets from the Great Bear Forest Carbon Project. This is an exciting and indigenous-led project in British Columbia, managed by the Great Bear Carbon Credit Limited Partnership on behalf of the Coastal First Nations and the Nanwakolas Carbon Offset Limited Partnership on behalf of the Nanwakolas First Nations.
Old-growth coastal forests play an important role in capturing and storing vast amounts of carbon dioxide in the trees and soil. In fact, the trees and soil of the Great Bear Rainforest store more carbon per hectare than any of the world’s tropical rainforests, including the Amazon.
Thanks to a landmark “Atmospheric Benefit Sharing Agreement” with the Province of British Columbia, the Coastal First Nations and Nanwakolas First Nations own and have the right to sell carbon offsets in their territories. These carbon credit sales help the Coastal and Nanwakolas First Nations:
- End destructive industrial logging practices in the rainforest
- Protect important ecological and environmental values
- Generate their own source of revenue for economic self-sufficiency
- Support community initiatives, such as youth programs, a youth centre, the Guardian Watchmen Program, a renovated Elder (senior) centre, and the construction of the Heiltsuk Big House
We work with Ostrom Climate, a leading provider of carbon management solutions in Canada, to support the Great Bear Forest Carbon Project.
You can learn more about the project here.
How much does it cost and why?
For the last two sailing seasons, we have carefully studied and quantified the climate impacts of our expeditions. This now allows us to estimate, in advance, the carbon/climate impacts of each voyage as we have done for 2024. Because our climate impacts are mostly (not entirely, but almost) a consequence of the fuel burned by the ship, the carbon burden of each voyage reflects its duration and distance. Each voyage has a different carbon burden, and so each has a different offsetting cost which ranges between $110/guest and $259/guest (USD).
Although our carbon burden is mostly about the fuel burned by the ship, our quantification includes all of the carbon-generating activities from the moment you meet us for your voyage—flights, food, accommodations, buses, and so on.
Does this include my flights and other travel to get to you?
No. Since our guests come from all over the world, it isn’t possible for us to reliably estimate the GHG impacts of their travel to us. So, our carbon burden calculations begin on the day and place where we first meet for your expedition.
However, if you choose, we wholeheartedly encourage you to offset the carbon burden of your travel to join us. This is usually very easily done through your airline or travel provider. There are also lots of resources online to help you with your own carbon offsetting.
Ostrom Climate (our provider of carbon offsets) has a flight calculator here that you may use to calculate your personal travel to us. Alternatively, if you’d like to support the Great Bear Forest Carbon Project specifically, you can email [email protected] to do so. (The First Nations want to ensure buyers are not in conflict with their values, so the credits are not available directly through Ostrom Climate’s site).