We are joining Tourism Declares in acknowledging that there is a climate emergency and it is time to act.
Taking a socially responsible approach to business
How can Touch Stay be a force for good? Touch Stay co-founders Andy McNulty and Joe Jones have considered this question, along with our team and Advisory Board, in some depth. With our roots in the travel industry, we naturally lean towards contributing to the climate change emergency over other socially responsible actions.
Yet we also recognise, in having a large and globally diverse customer base, that our choice of direction may not be fit for all. Instead we are more broadly putting social responsibility at the heart of our company values in recognition of the variety of social challenges and the personal preferences of our individual customers.
Cumulatively, however, our aim is to be a force for good; to improve lives and environments around the world, and to encourage others in our spheres of influence to contribute too.
Preserving the planet together
We recognise our responsibility to commit to social responsibility. However, we also recognise the opportunity we have to encourage and support others within our community to contribute positively to the social responsibility actions that matter most to them.
We have a direct opportunity to facilitate this activity through our guidebook software, enabling our customers to communicate their own individual efforts, thereby encouraging action on the part of their guests too. Collectively we can make a substantial change.
How to make your digital guidebook a force for good
As a Touch Stay customer you can join us by activating the social responsibility section of your own guidebook/s. Choose to adopt our climate change position by including the pre-built template option, or use the section to communicate your own unique position. In taking this action you are highlighting and promoting your chosen social challenge, inspiring and informing your customers. It’s important to us that this strategy reaches far and wide, is accessible for all, and impactful where each individual believes it matters most.
Where our social responsibility lies
Because we began our business in the travel sector and have travel industry customers worldwide, we feel we must place our feet firmly in helping to address the climate emergency by offsetting carbon emissions.
We join our industry peers in contributing to reducing the impact of travel on the environment, without limiting the joy of travel, through our commitment to Tourism Declares. We will actively promote our position on climate change and take offsetting actions that we understand will most effectively counter carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, for example by planting more trees.
We’ve joined Tourism Declares
We’ve signed up to Tourism Declares, an initiative that supports the growing number of individuals, lodging properties, travel companies, and nations in declaring a climate emergency. Collectively, we are taking purposeful action to reduce our carbon emissions, playing our part in halving global carbon emissions by 2030*
* advice from The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) stating that global greenhouse gas emissions in 2030 need to be approximately “55 percent lower than in 2017 to put the world on a least-cost pathway to limiting global warming to 1.5C”.
We are starting by taking affirmative climate action on our very own doorstep, across 9 time zones, as our team spans one third of the globe.
Like all signatories, we have committed to the following five actions:
1. Develop a ‘Climate Emergency Plan’ within the next 12 months, which sets out our intentions to reduce carbon emissions over the next decade.
2. Share an initial public declaration of our ‘Climate Emergency Plan’, and update on progress each year.
3. Accept current IPCC advice stating the need to cut global carbon emissions to 55% below 2017 levels by 2030 in order to keep the planet within 1.5 degrees of warming. We’ll ensure our ‘Climate Emergency Plan’ represents actions designed to achieve this as a minimum, through delivering transparent, measurable and increasing reductions in the total carbon emissions per employee arising from our operations and the software sold by us.
4. Encourage our suppliers and partners to make the same declaration; sharing best practice amongst peers; and actively participate in the Tourism Declares community
5. Advocate for change. We recognise the need for system change across the industry to accelerate a just transition towards carbon-free tourism.
Our sustainability strategy
We’ve drawn up a plan to measure and reflect on annual. Our goals are:
- to become carbon neutral as an organisation during 2021
- to offset our carbon emissions by working with a reforestation organisation
- to consider ways to become a carbon negative organisation within 24 months
- to enable our customers, via their use of our guidebook software, to participate with us, or to promote their own unique social responsibility priorities to their customers.
Sustainability is a key component in Touch Stay’s mission to build a business for good. We recognise that it is relatively easy for Touch Stay to neutralise its carbon footprint and to offset future excess carbon usage, but whatever contribution we can make matters. Similarly, we will do what we can to encourage others to play their part as part of their relationship with us.
How do you approach sustainability?
We are very keen to hear from Touch Stay customers prioritising social responsibility and sustainability in their businesses – please email us to tell us what you’re doing to make a change.
If you would also like to join forces with a travel industry community focused on tackling the climate emergency, please also consider declaring at tourismdeclares.com.