LESS CARBON,
DOUBLE THE FUN.
Every company can make a big change.

This toolkit provides you easy-to-use tools, templates, and frameworks designed to help tourism and travel businesses succeed on their low-carbon journey. Jump in at any stage and start producing less carbon while creating double the fun!

01. CHANGE:Map your emissions, crunch your numbers, and build a profitable business case.

02. DESIGN: Concept experiences that are low-carbon by default.

03. SELL: Reach the right audience and market without greenwashing.

To fast-track your progress, take advantage of the world’s first AI Assistant dedicated entirely to climate-smart tourism. Pre-loaded with our master prompts and complete toolkit frameworks, it is ready to act as your personal, on-demand Less Carbon, Double the Fun companion.

You can also access our comprehensive, structured Prompt Library containing 60 ready-made prompts to run with ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Co-Pilot or any AI tool of your choice.

CHANGE

Start here. Even small companies can make a massive impact. By mapping where your emissions come from and selecting the right calculator for your size and sector, you can turn raw data into a concrete action plan per year.

START YOUR JOURNEY

Step 1 · Map your emissions

Before you can calculate, understand where your emissions come from. Write down what causes emissions:

Energy (heating, cooling, lighting)
Transport (own vehicles, staff travel, guest transfers, excursions)
Food & drinks (especially meat- and dairy-based items)
Waste & water
Purchased goods & services (cleaning, laundry, maintenance, equipment)

Sort by scope:

Scope 1: what you own or control (vehicles, equipment, generators).
Scope 2: electricity and district heating/cooling you buy.
Scope 3: everything else (purchased food & services, guest travel, waste).

Step 2 · Decide what to measure

Answer a few simple questions, then pick one clear approach.

Operational control: measure everything you directly run: your own buildings, vehicles, kitchens, offices.
Activity-based: measure per unit of service: per guest night, per meal, per tour.

If most emissions come from assets you operate, use an operational-control boundary; if different products or packages matter most, also track per guest night / per tour / per meal.

Step 3 · Collect your data

Once you've decided what to measure, gather the activity data you need to calculate.

Energy use → utility bills, meter readings, invoices
Transport → fuel receipts, mileage logs, booking systems.
Food & drinks → supplier invoices, menus.
Waste → contractor reports.
Water → bills, meter readings.
Other purchases → procurement records.

Step 4 · Calculate your carbon footprint with the help of a carbon calculator

Focus on these:

Technical quality (transparency of emission factors and full scope coverage)
Ease of use & access (setup speed and integration with your booking or accounting systems)
Extra features & support (training, user guides, or customer help desks)

Step 5 · Identify hot spots and prioritize

Focus on the top 2–3 emission sources where you can achieve the absolute highest reduction impact. Avoid only choosing what feels easy.
Rank them by effort vs. CO₂ impact to highlight your quick wins and high-value strategic targets.

Step 6 · Implement reduction actions

Score each idea on:

One-time cost
Ongoing cost change
Revenue impact, payback and CO₂ saved

TOOLS TO USE:

FAST-TRACK WITH AI!

f you don't know where to start, use these top-three three starter prompts with the AI ASSISTANT or any AI tool of your choice. For full list, visit the AI Prompt Library.

1. I want to map, measure and reduce my climate emissions for my travel business. Where and how should I start? Walk me through the first three concrete things to do this week.

2. Where should a beginner start with emissions reduction in my business? Give me three quick wins and three medium term wins I should think about?

3. Summarize the benefits of climate action for my type of business. Lead with the financial benefits, then the marketing benefits, and then the regulatory pressure.

DESIGN

Concept low-carbon experiences that people actually want. Use this step to design low-carbon features into standard, high-value defaults that elevate the customer experience.

CONCEPT LOW-CARBON EXPERIENCES

Step 1 · Know who your service is for

Before mapping logistics, create a specific portrait of your target customer. Identify what they value, what they prioritize when choosing travel experiences, and what tradeoffs they are willing to make. Design details that signal to them immediately: "this experience was built for me."

Step 2 · Build low-carbon by default

Identify the 1–3 operational changes that will deliver your biggest emissions cuts, such as prioritizing local sourcing, reducing meat and dairy, or optimizing transport routes. Never make the low-carbon version a friction-filled "opt-in" for the guest—integrate it seamlessly into your baseline offering.

Step 3 · Elevate the guest experience

Ensure the low-carbon dimension adds tangible value to the trip. Lead with personal, premium benefits—like superior local taste, enhanced comfort, or unique narrative depth—rather than just moral principles. Craft a central idea that guests will feel, remember, and proudly tell others about.

Step 4 · De-risk your commercial viability

Evaluate what must be true financially for this concept to succeed, including your baseline pricing structure, minimum occupancy, and partner participation. Address your top commercial risks—whether the idea is too niche, operationally complex, or expensive—and build specific strategies to de-risk them.

Step 5 · Draft your core service promise

Summarize your experience in a single, compelling description that a customer understands instantly.
You are not allowed to use the words "sustainable," "eco-friendly," "green," or "climate-neutral." Lead entirely with the sensory, personal, or status benefits of the offer.

Step 6 · Test before you scale

Before spending heavily on infrastructure or big marketing campaigns, find cheap ways to validate your concept.
Test Marketing: Test your framing and messaging before the product even exists.
Prototyping: Run the experience manually a single time for a small group.
Piloting: Launch a strictly limited trial season to gather real-world operational evidence.

TOOLS TO USE:

Concepting a Low-Carbon Experience

FAST-TRACK WITH AI!

If you don't know where to start, use these top-three three starter prompts with the AI ASSISTANT or any AI tool of your choice. For full list, visit the AI Prompt Library.

1. Help me to define a core service promise for my business. Draft three versions of a one-sentence description a customer would immediately understand. None of them are allowed to use the words 'sustainable', 'eco-friendly', 'green', or 'climate-neutral'. Lead with the personal benefit, not the environmental one.

2. Whay kind of partners I'll need to deliver low carbon experiences? What agreements or arrangements are needed? Where are the weak links — partners I'll need but don't yet have?

3. Suggest three low-cost, low-risk ways to test my concept. Define what success looks like and what would tell me to stop.

SELL

Target the right consumers and market without greenwashing.To win modern consumers and stay compliant, ditch words like "eco-friendly" or "green". Replace them with great storytelling backed by proof.

SELL WITH PROOF

Step 1 · Map your customer archetypes

Low-carbon is not driven by a single motivation, meaning one message cannot appeal to everyone. Audit your customer base against our six attitudinal segments:

A1: Hopeful Worriers – Already convinced, already act.

A2: Outward-pointing Worriers – Care, but want institutions to lead.

A3: Disempowered Environmentalists – Care but feel powerless.

A4: Accountable Optimists – Do the work; want proof + reward.

A5: Action Avoiders – Cost-driven; sustainability is not their buying lever.

A6: Climate Change Agnostics – Disengaged; environmental messaging actively repels them.

Step 2 · Nudge the right behaviors

Once you know your dominant segments, deploy targeted behavioral nudges at key operational touchpoints:

Social Norms: Make the sustainable option look like the normal, collective choice.
Gamification: Turn low-carbon actions into an engaging game worth playing.
Emotional Framing: Reframe the copy to change what the choice feels like.
Reward Systems: Help guests win on price, value, or pure experience—not principle.
Timing & Reminders: Deliver the right message at the exact moment of decision.
Storytelling: Focus heavily on the narrative without explicitly mentioning sustainability vocabulary.

Step 3 · Drop vague vocabulary

The modern consumer has moved before the regulator has. Completely banish toothless phrases that no longer work:

🚫 "eco-friendly"

🚫 "sustainable"

🚫 "green"

🚫 "climate-neutral"

🚫 "in harmony with nature"

Step 4 · Deploy interesting, compliant communication

Substance earns you the right to make a claim; story makes that claim worth buying. Every single public statement must strictly follow our structural "Prove" rule of thumb:

Claim + Number + Scope + Source
Compliant Example: "42% lower CO₂e per guest-night vs 2019, independently verified by [scheme]".
Compliant Example: "80% of food sourced within 100 km, audited 2025".

Step 5 · Rotate your creative marketing angles

Bring your raw operational data to life by building customer stories through five distinct angles:

Sensory Upgrade: Show why the low-carbon option tastes better or feels more premium.

Proof Story: Tell your verified data and evidence as an authentic narrative.

Quiet Achievement: Keep it completely understated with zero sustainability vocabulary.

Better Default: Pre-select the lowest-carbon experience as your standard offering.

Honest Limit: Openly name your remaining operational carbon gaps to earn radical trust.

TOOLS TO USE:

FAST-TRACK WITH AI!

If you don't know where to start, use these top-three three starter prompts with the AI ASSISTANT or any AI tool of your choice. For full list, visit the AI Prompt Library.

1. Audit my website copy for vague sustainability claims:. List every claim that fails the claim + number + scope + source test. For each, rewrite it in two versions: one that's specific and confident, one that's a bit understated and quiet.

2. Write a campaign message for my service. Hard rule: it never mentions sustainability, climate, carbon, green, eco, or environment. It only mentions comfort, value, convenience, or quality. The low-carbon dimension is invisible but real.

3. I have to communicate this fact: [paste claim, e.g., 'We achieved a 28% reduction in CO₂e per guest-night from 2019 to 2024, verified by Green Key 2024']. Make it interesting without losing accuracy. Give me five versions in different angles: sensory, proof story, quiet, default, honest limit.