Climate Smart Commitment: 2024 Portfolio Annual Report
$1.1 Million Invested in 13 Organizations to Help Fight Climate Change
In 2019, Rick Steves’ Europe launched our Climate Smart Commitment — a program designed to pay back the environmental debt created by our travelers flying to Europe to join our bus tours. Our goal: to creatively mitigate our carbon footprint by smartly investing a self-imposed carbon tax of $30 per tour member in climate-smart projects around the world (with roughly 30,000 travelers annually, that’s a total of about $1 million a year). Our twofold mission: 1) help farmers in the developing world do their work more productively while contributing less to climate change and 2) help organizations advocate for government policies that take the threat of climate change more seriously and hold companies accountable for their climate damage.
Climate change and hunger are inexorably linked. The poorest people in the poorest countries are hit the hardest. Roughly half of the world’s population (4 billion out of 8 billion people) is made up of smallholder farmers and their families, and in their desperation to grow enough food to survive — and have some left over for the market — their farming practices contribute substantially to climate change. But with climate-smart technology and training, these hardworking farmers can grow more food to escape extreme poverty while substantially reducing their contribution to climate damage. Plus, because these programs provide farmers with the tools to be more productive, they help create financially independent small businesses. To us, that’s a win-win-win.
The purpose of this report: to show our travelers what we’ve accomplished in the past year. The organizations we support are good examples of developmental work done right. They have restored biodiversity, reforested degraded land, saved entire forests from becoming firewood, prevented tons of carbon from being emitted, enabled farmers to escape extreme poverty, improved living conditions, and helped enact major climate legislation. They inspire us. (And we’re proud as a tour business to share how we grapple honestly with this important challenge. It’s ethical as a business practice for any tour operator — and it’s simply good global citizenship.)
Unfortunately, all the combined actions of all the world’s nonprofit organizations won’t be enough if the US doesn’t lead. As we head into 2025, the changing political landscape and the new administration have placed the future of any climate-related and foreign development work at risk. But after five years of running our program, we are committed to generating lasting change through our unique mix of hands-on work and advocacy. That’s why we're proud to offer those who take our tours the peace of mind that our “self-imposed carbon tax” effectively mitigates the carbon that they create when they join us in Europe. And beyond paying for the carbon costs of travelers who join us on a Rick Steves tour, we’re honored to be the charity of choice for the thousands of like-minded independent travelers who have donated to the Rick Steves’ Europe Climate Smart Fund at the National Philanthropic Trust or through our annual Seasons Givings promotion. Together, we're making a difference.
Happy climate-smart travels,
Rick Steves and Craig Davidson
Learn more about our Climate Smart Commitment.
