Climate Smart Commitment: 2023 Portfolio Annual Report

$1 Million Invested in 13 Organizations to Help Fight Climate Change

In late 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: creatively mitigate our carbon footprint by smartly investing a self-imposed carbon tax of $30 per tour member (with roughly 30,000 travelers annually, that’s a total of $1 million a year). We invest these funds (totaling about $4 million so far) in organizations that fight climate change in two ways: by helping farmers in the developing world employ climate-smart agriculture technology, and by advocating in the halls of government to take the threat of climate change more seriously.

After four years of running our program, we remain committed to generating lasting change through a combination of both hands-on work and advocacy. Climate change hits the poorest people in the poorest countries the hardest. Roughly half of the world’s population is made up of smallholder farmers and their families. In their desperation to grow enough food and earn enough income, their farming practices contribute substantially to climate change — and their resources are scarce. That’s the hands-on work. The advocacy is in lobbying for climate-smart policies in Washington, DC. Without the US taking a global leadership role, the combined actions of all the world’s nonprofit organizations won’t be enough. That’s why we believe the US must implement smart policies that acknowledge the link between climate change and hunger (both at home and abroad) while supporting the transition to a climate-smart economy.

We’re presenting this report to show our travelers (and those who might travel with us in the future) what we accomplished in the past year. For us, 2023 was a great year. The global effects of Covid receded, and travel adapted to a “new normal.” The result: We had roughly 32,000 people travel to Europe with us on our bus tours, and our funding returned to a pre-COVID $1 million. (The Covid pandemic forced us to cancel all our tours in 2020 and 2021 shrinking the proceeds of our self-imposed carbon tax to zero. But we couldn’t bear to abandon the great work our partner organizations were doing — so even with no tour revenue — we committed $500,000 to fund our program in each of 2021 and 2022).

While climate change and smart development can seem unrelated, the organizations in this report are perfect examples of how positive and life-changing action for both struggling farmers and their impact on climate change is being realized in faraway places. We are proud to offer those who take our tours the peace of mind that our “self-imposed carbon tax” effectively mitigates the carbon they add to our environment to join us in Europe. Together, we’re making a difference. We’ve taken three villages — and many other farmers — out of extreme poverty, reforested multiple football fields of degraded land, prevented tons of carbon from being emitted, saved thousands of trees from becoming firewood, brought back biodiversity, improved living conditions, and helped enact major climate legislation. It feels good. It’s ethical as a business practice. And it’s simply good global citizenship.

This annual report shares what nine of our partner organizations accomplished in 2023. These organizations delivered on their missions and fulfilled their pledge to be transparent with us. We hope to continue supporting them in coming years. They inspire all of us at Rick Steves’ Europe and, we like to think, our travelers as well. Enjoy reading about their climate-smart work!

Happy climate-smart travels,

Rick Steves and Craig Davidson

Learn more about our Climate Smart Commitment.

Agros International

Donation: $250,000
Our donations allowed Agros to continue to expand their agribusiness center in Nicaragua and help more than 500 farming families learn how to use hydroponics, vermicomposting, and reforestation techniques to improve soil conditions, increase their yields, produce healthier food, help with the reforestation effort, protect water recharge zones, and generate more income. Read more

Food 4 Farmers

Donation: $75,000
Our donations allowed Food 4 Farmers (F4F) to partner with six cooperatives representing over 6,200 coffee-farming families in Latin America and increase their food security. F4F’s goals: teach climate-smart practices, strengthen local food systems, improve incomes, reduce deforestation, restore local ecosystems, and create a healthier planet. Read more

Zeitz Foundation

Donation: $100,000
Our donations allowed the Zeitz Foundation (ZF) to continue implementing its Tree of Life Reforestation Initiative in Laikipia, Kenya, combining women’s education and vocational training with reforestation, conservation, and biodiversity. Read more

Climate Smart grant recipient Rainforest Alliance

Rainforest Alliance

Donation: $50,000
Our donations allowed the Rainforest Alliance (RA) to expand their climate-smart agriculture work in Ghana — benefitting 3,600 local farmers across 76 communities by providing the climate-smart tools and training necessary to produce cocoa sustainably and conserve Ghana’s forest landscape. Read more

Rainforest Action Network

Donation: $100,000
Our donations allow the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) to challenge the multinational corporations that use unethically sourced resources and protect the Leuser Ecosystem of Sumatra, Indonesia, from deforestation caused by the illegal expansion of pulpwood and palm oil plantations. Read more

Citizens' Climate Education

Donation: $50,000
Our donations helped Citizens’ Climate Education (CCE) strengthen their nationwide coalition of climate advocates, create a powerful counterweight to paid lobbyists advocating for the fossil fuel industry, and educate policymakers and the public about smart solutions to climate change. Read more

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Beads for Education

Donation: $51,000

Our donations allowed BEADS for Education (BEADS) to teach another 125 students about climate-smart farming practices, expand their school farm, and provide climate education workshops for more than 7,000 people in Kajiado, the Amboseli National Park region, and the Maasai Mara. Read more

Bread for the World

Donation: $112,000

Our donation allowed Bread for the World (Bread) to scale up their advocacy efforts and raise awareness in our government of how climate change makes more people hungry which, in turn, makes our world less stable. Read more

Andando

Donation: $30,000

Our donation helped Andando dramatically increase the food security of rural Senegalese farmers by adding 675 families to their women’s cooperative gardening program, germinating over 15,000 beneficial tree seedlings, and constructing a Tree Nursery and Agroforestry Center in Podor. Read more