Sandra, you’ve been working with myclimate for over twelve years. What exactly are you doing differently now compared to when the partnership first began?
Our collaboration and dialogue have become closer over time. The biggest step was probably the decision to introduce an integrated contribution to climate protection, for which myclimate developed a bespoke climate protection calculator for the Twerenbold Reisen Group. Following our TourCert certification in 2024, sustainability has taken on even greater importance, and many details and processes have been scrutinised more closely and optimised accordingly.
Climate protection is now part of every trip you organise. What does that mean in practical terms in day-to-day operations? How is this reflected in your products or processes?
For customers, there is a separate section on our website dedicated to our commitment to sustainability, where they can find out more. For every single group trip, we provide an online information box entitled ‘Travel, Responsibility, Climate Protection’, which details the trip’s carbon footprint and explains what is achieved with the included contribution to climate protection. On the invoice and also in the itinerary, we include a link to the sustainability section once again. When designing our products, we consider right from the planning stage whether a coach needs to be used or whether public transport is a viable alternative.
You’ve decided to integrate the contribution to climate protection permanently into your offers. What was the biggest challenge in doing so, and what have you learnt from the experience?
The most time-consuming part was the consultations with myclimate to determine what details were needed for the climate protection calculator, followed by training our team. Using the calculator is quite straightforward, and we can calculate the climate protection measures for a new trip fairly quickly. Before the calculator was developed, we thought we’d have to enter all services individually into the calculator for each day of hiking – for example, every single cable car journey, every single bus transfer, and so on. That would have been very time-consuming. Fortunately, however, it turned out that daily activities are calculated as a flat rate. The majority of emissions come from the outward and return journeys and the accommodation.
As well as international projects, IMBACH Reisen is also involved in the Bannwald raised bog in Lucerne. Why is this local connection important to you?
Even though we consider the international project in Uganda to be very valuable and important, it feels ‘so far away’ and is therefore less tangible. That’s why we enquired with myclimate to see if there was a project closer to home that we might be able to visit in person. Every year we do a volunteer placement with Swiss Hiking Trails, and we’ve learnt from that experience that such processes (in this case, the renovation of a hiking trail) become much more meaningful when you’ve been able to experience them first-hand. That’s what we were hoping for from a project in Switzerland that we could then visit. We also believe that a great deal can be achieved in Switzerland when it comes to sustainability.
You were recently out and about in the Bannwald. What impact did this visit have on you as a team?
It was very enriching to see for ourselves and have it explained to us how the financial support is being used on the ground. And just how important peatlands are. We were very impressed by the work that had been put into this relatively small area to carry out the rewettings of the peatlands. I think everyone who stood on that damp peatland in the forest on that mist-shrouded, mystical afternoon will never forget it and will view forests and peatlands in general with a different, deeper awareness in future.
Has this project visit changed your perspective on your own services or your communication with customers? If so, in what specific ways?
Our customers actually rarely ask us directly about our contribution to climate protection or raise questions on the subject – which, in my opinion, is probably because they simply trust us to do the right thing. But should the topic ever come up, we can now respond with greater confidence. It’s a bit like a study trip: once you’ve been on the trip yourself, you can share information about it in a much more vivid and informed way. We’ll certainly be reporting on this project visit, for example via social media, our newsletter and on our website.
Travel generates emissions, yet your business model depends on it. How do you deal with this tension internally?
Tourism is a very important sector of the economy worldwide, and so many people make a living from it. We therefore consider simply stopping travelling altogether because of emissions to be the wrong approach. We operate on the principle of promoting fair, sustainable and nature-based tourism. This generates significant local economic value, from which a great many stakeholders benefit. Furthermore, our core activity – hiking – is one of the most climate-friendly modes of transport there is. We bring people closer to nature, which in turn promotes awareness of the need to protect it.
How do you intend to further expand your commitment to climate protection in the future? What are the next steps?
We’ll definitely keep at it and are convinced that, in this sense, sustainability isn’t a finish line where you simply stop. Next up is the TourCert recertification this summer (2026). We also want to organise our sustainability days for the team (such as the myclimate project visit or the volunteer work with Swiss Hiking Trails). We’ve also made it our mission to talk more about the good things we’re doing, in the hope of inspiring and encouraging others.
We’d like to go into even greater detail, for example by enquiring about the sustainability commitments of the accommodation providers we work with, so that we can then publish this information on our website. Every year, we assess whether we can replace air travel with overland journeys. We also check with our local tour guides to see if they know of any local projects we can support, which our hiking groups might then visit at a later date, so that our customers, too, develop an even greater awareness of climate protection.
