Tourism's Carbon Story Is Bigger Than Its Footprint

This Tourism Month, Verified Impact - the sustainability standard behind a Southern African pilot programme helping tourism properties get a clear picture of their carbon footprint - is using real tourism data to show why measuring carbon footprints in tourism matters, why comparison matters even more, and why keeping wild places wild belongs in the climate conversation.

When one thinks about the climate impact of tourism, the conversation usually begins with emissions: flights, vehicles, electricity, generators and fuel. That does matter. But it is only half the story.

GweGwe Beach Lodge

This, according to Duncan Pritchard, Director of ETC Africa, Verified Impact's carbon measurement and verification partner: "Across Southern Africa, tourism provides an economic reason for vast areas of natural habitat to remain intact. Those landscapes are not simply beautiful places to visit. Their soils and vegetation store carbon, support biodiversity, protect water systems and sustain ecological processes that disappear when natural land is transformed. Wild areas are climate infrastructure."

Tourism has two carbon stories to understand: the emissions created by operating tourism businesses, and the invaluable carbon sinks that tourism helps give economic value to protecting.

In Toto Retreat

Verified Impact which is the tourism specific, local carbon footprint standard being developed  through the kimkim Climate Action Pilot Programme, delivered in partnership with kimkim, the Wilderness Leadership School, ETC Africa and The Eco Travel Boutique. The project is putting verifiable data behind tourism sustainability claims, while helping the industry better articulate the economic value of responsible, thoughtful tourism operations.  Kimkim is a US-based travel company that joined the 1% for the Planet in 2025, pledging at least 1% of its annual revenue to environmental causes while continuing to fund climate related  projects. 

"A carbon footprint is a starting point, not an answer," explains Pritchard. “Is 12 kg CO₂e per bed night good? Could it be 9? Why is another lodge at 25? Is that because it is less efficient, or because it relies on a carbon-intensive electricity grid? Does its remote location mean greater generator use or longer supply chains? Are game drives, laundry, food or low occupancy pushing emissions higher? Without context and comparison, carbon accounting gives you numbers. Benchmarking turns those numbers into useful information."

POD Camps Bay

Verified Impact benchmarks properties against comparable African tourism operations rather than international averages that often bear little resemblance to operating realities on the continent. In doing so, it is building one of the most meaningful datasets yet on the carbon performance of African ecotourism, creating a clearer picture of what good performance actually looks like in an African context

According to Pritchard, the patterns are already emerging, for example, grid-connected properties in the current dataset are averaging around 3.6 times the carbon emissions per bed night of comparable off-grid properties, largely because of the carbon intensity of South Africa's electricity supply.

Rhino Sands Safari Lodge

In safari operations, one of the largest operational opportunities can be something far less obvious: how game drives are managed. Emissions from game viewing vehicles tend to be one of the highest emissions sources at a lodge -not laundry, not the kitchen, the game drive.

The data is also revealing what Verified Impact calls a "behavioural dividend": emissions reductions that require little or no capital investment. Better energy optimisation, vehicle utilisation and basic operational discipline can reduce emissions before a property spends a rand on new technology.

“This is precisely why comparison matters. Knowing that diesel represents 30% of a lodge’s footprint tells you something. Knowing that its diesel use per bed night is twice that of comparable lodges tells you where to start asking questions. That is when carbon data becomes management data.”

But in many landscapes, tourism provides something conservation cannot survive without: economic value attached to keeping land wild. A functioning lodge creates jobs, purchases local goods and services, pays conservation and concession costs, and generates revenue from landscapes whose value depends upon them remaining intact. That makes reducing tourism's own operational footprint important for a much bigger reason.

“The goal is not simply to make tourism lower-carbon. It is to maximise the conservation and economic value tourism creates while minimising the carbon footprint required to create it.” says Pritchard.

Tourism Month traditionally celebrates arrivals, jobs, visitor spend and economic contribution. Verified Impact believes another measure increasingly belongs alongside them: how efficiently tourism creates that value environmentally.

“A carbon footprint shouldn’t just be a number in a report. It should tell us where we can improve, where we’re performing well, and ultimately how tourism can become a stronger force for protecting the places it depends on.” Says Pritchard 

For more information about Verified Impact go to: https://etc-africa.co.za/verified-impact

International Climate Action Pilot Programme in South Africa Positions Tourism as a Force for Conservation

The Kimkim Climate Action Pilot Programme,  currently engaging 25 tourism properties across South Africa is challenging the dominant climate crisis narrative around travel, positioning tourism not as the problem, but as a vital part of the solution.

The programme aims to empower small to medium accommodation providers to embed practical, measurable sustainability practices into their operations, turning travel into a meaningful force for conservation, community support, and environmental awareness.

Funded by Kimkim, a US-based travel company that helps travelers plan authentic, personalized trips around the world, the programme is implemented by the globally renowned Wilderness Leadership School, with technical expertise from ETC Africa, a leader in tourism related carbon footprint management and market access via Johannesburg-based The Eco Travel Boutique.

“At a time when climate related conversations often centre on guilt and reduction, this programme offers a different perspective,” says Duncan Pritchard, Director of ETC Africa. “The greatest environmental challenge is not travel, it is disconnection. Travel connects, and reconnects, people to the natural world, and when guests have the opportunity to see wildlife, engage meaningfully with local communities, or simply stand in a forest, that’s when we see a shift. That emotional connection is one of the most underestimated drivers of conservation action today.”

“The loudest voices in the climate arena often make travellers feel guilty about what they are not doing, rather than feel empowered about what they can do. This is a risk to the tourism economy,  a vital driver of sustainable livelihoods and conservation spaces worldwide,” he adds. “People protect what they love and they only love what they’ve experienced.”

The science underscores the stakes. Intact African ecosystems store substantial carbon, typically around 30 to 50 tonnes per hectare in savannah and bushveld, and well over 150 tonnes per hectare in tropical forests, with even greater amounts held in soils. These landscapes are not scenic backdrops; they are functioning climate infrastructure..

"Our goal, with every traveler, is to help them connect to the community and culture of the destination," says Kaelyn Harris-Vincent, Brand Marketing at Kimkim and lead of the Kimkim Climate Initiative. "When tourism is done with intention and thoughtfulness, it really can be a force for good. The question isn't whether we should travel, but whether our travel makes the places we visit stronger and more resilient. Ecotourism allows travelers to see these places and have an impact at the same time. This programme ensures every stay contributes to something bigger than the trip itself."

Funded through Kimkim's Climate Initiative, the programme is offered at no cost to participating properties. The programme helps properties establish their baseline carbon footprint, benchmark against peers, and build capacity through workshops and project design. This becomes the launchpad for identifying and implementing projects that reduce emissions, protect natural carbon sinks and create lasting value for conservation and communities alike. By the end of the year, participating properties receive Verified Impact branding and guest-facing marketing assets, enabling them to communicate their carbon footprint journey clearly and confidently.

Carbon footprinting has become the global standard for measuring environmental impact,  not because carbon tells the whole story, but because it provides a consistent, quantifiable baseline against which any operation can assess its efficiency and track genuine progress. For tourism businesses, it transforms vague sustainability intentions into credible, comparable data.

“What matters is that a carbon footprint is used as a management and learning tool. This programme gives travellers something more valuable than an offset: the confidence that the places they choose are managing their impact and turning every visit into a real contribution to wild places and communities,” says Esther Ruempol from The Eco Travel Boutique. “Rather than asking travellers to offset guilt, this programme reframes the conversation as an invitation to be part of something bigger.”

Participants gain a comprehensive support package that makes sustainability achievable and meaningful, helping properties turn their carbon footprint into a force for good, tell their story with confidence, benchmark against best practice, display verified credentials, and join a growing movement redefining what responsible tourism looks like.

About the Programme

The Kimkim Climate Action Pilot Programme invites accommodation providers across South Africa to step into a new narrative, one where tourism actively contributes to conservation, community growth, and environmental resilience. The programme is offered at no cost to qualifying properties. 

For more information on participating in the programme visit: www.verifiedtourismimpact.org or email verifiedimpact@etc-africa.com

Disconnecting to reconnect. A techno-savvy American communications expert learns to unplug and connect with nature in the South African Wilderness. (Copy)

Disconnecting to reconnect. A techno-savvy American communications expert learns to unplug and connect with nature in the South African Wilderness.

Interview with Bo Wood By Sharlene Versfeld 

“For as long as I can remember, I had never been truly disconnected from technology until going on a Wilderness trail in the Imfolozi Game Reserve, in South Africa last year,” muses Bo Wood, a Communications Director from South Carolina, USA. “To be honest, it took some getting used to. I thought the fruit I was carrying in my pocket was my mobile phone a number of times – that cannot be good, right?”  

Bo who was sent to experience the African Wilderness through the Wilderness Leadership School in Durban, works for Black Knight International, the international company representing the legendary conservationist Dr Ian Player and celebrated SA golfer Gary Player brands. Dr Player was instrumental in ensuring the Imfolozi Wilderness in KZN (amongst many others wilderness initiatives) was set aside as a place for nature to exist without human interference, and he established the globally renowned Wilderness Leadership School that offers trails into the wilderness so that people can be reminded of its value to the human spirit. “When I first started working for Black Knight International, I quickly learned the organization was not just all about Gary Player. Several different entities fill the company’s umbrella, including all the intellectual property of Dr Ian Player. The Wilderness Leadership School is very much a part of Dr Player’s legacy. I went on trail to get a first-hand experience of what he left behind and to understand how we can help going forward,” explains Bo.   The Foundation has started formally archiving Dr Player’s legacy, to ensure there is a consolidated bank for future generations to access. Bo elaborates, “We are thinking big. We want to build on the legacy of one of the world’s most influential environmentalists so his legacy will extend through time and impact our global society years from now. Ambitious, we know.”  

“Going into the Wilderness in Imfolozi is quite daunting,” says Bo. “For five days, you are right there walking in a “Big Five” reserve with elephants, leopards, lions, rhino and buffalo. You sleep under the stars and keep watch alone at night. You carry in all your equipment and food, collect wood, make the fire, clean pots and plates and cutlery with sand, dig a hole to go to bathroom, and wash off in a river. No soap allowed. The idea is for us as humans to connect with nature, as we would have thousands of years ago. To become tuned in to the sounds and sights. To truly have time to think about what we have done to the planet.”   “No doubt I was out of my comfort zone, being from America. But it was more a feeling of excitement. Invigorating. On the other side of the “boundary” – as our guide called it –  escaping and disconnecting from the normal hustle and bustle of everyday life gave me a certain tranquility I had never experienced,” he says.  

Bo says that the trail helped him to recharge. “Even though I was exhausted from the physical burdens of being on trail, my mind came back excited,” he enthuses. “I have come to realize how connected the world is even without our modern technology we rely so heavily on for unnecessary convenience.”   While walking, Bo and fellow trailists came across the carcass of a poached rhino. “Our guides on trail explained how the entire ecosystem is affected if a rhino becomes a victim of poaching. Seeing that carcass lying there really hit that message home for me.”   

Night watch on one’s own for one to two hours, is always a little intimidating for first-timers, but Bo loved it. “I thrived under the responsibility of watching over our group. Some people had done the trail before, but I did not know what to expect. So, for me, developing the right routine was crucial - checking that no dangerous animals were in the proximity of the camp and tending to the fire. But I felt it also was important to take many moments during the watch to give gratitude to mother nature.”   And mother nature delivered for Bo. “There are no tents on trail. You sleep on a flat platform of rock and it was surprisingly easy and comfortable in a way,” he laughs. “Although it does make you more thankful for a mattress and clean sheets.

We named the one camp “Pride Rock” (like in the Lion King) overlooking a river. One afternoon, all of us huddled in the water under the rock’s shade to escape the blistering sun. Mindful that we were in shallow enough water not to be eaten by a crocodile. An elephant appeared out of the bush for a quick afternoon drink. This majestic creature put on a show. He strutted along the bank as we watched in reverence. A moment in time I will never, ever forget.”

The quiet yet driven 31-year-old, says that he was truly humbled and grateful for the experience. “At the end of the trail, as we exited the wilderness, I realized exactly why the Foundation wanted me to do this. It truly is a life-changing experience for the human spirit. By having this experience, I believe that I can now truly play an important part in keeping Dr Player’s legacy alive.”

ends

Note:

As director of communications travels to South Africa to lead the communication efforts for the Nedbank Golf Challenge hosted by Gary Player for Black Knight International. His most recent visit was for the November 2019 event as well as the Gary Player Invitational charity golf tournament at Sun City which raised money for the Gary Player Foundation. He went on the Wilderness trail in November 2018.

The Wilderness Leadership School offers 4 night, 5 day trails with experienced guides for individuals and groups (as well as corporates) in various areas aimed at reconnecting humans to nature. For more information contact 031-462 8642 or email info@wildernessleadershipschool.co.za. For more information about Wilderness Trails go to https://www.wildernesstrails.org.za/

(Sharlene Versfeld is a Durban-based nature guide and communications consultant)