Since 2014, Lucerne-based Imbach Reisen has compensated for all flights taken by its employees and tour guides. Until now, however, customers have not been actively included. “Even though it was already fairly simple, compensating for CO₂ emissions required a level of extra effort. Additional steps or clicks were necessary, and above all it was detached from the booking process,” says the new Managing Director, Martin Fehrlin. In order to enable guests to fly in a climate-neutral manner as easily as possible, the process was simplified in cooperation with myclimate and the calculated compensation amount was directly integrated into the booking process.
“We hope that the proportion of customers who make the decision to take responsibility for their environment will be much greater than before. Now it only takes a click to arrange compensation, and you can simply pay for it along with the total amount for the trip. As a tour operator with a lot of air travel, we want to take our own responsibilities seriously and make it as easy as possible for customers to do the same,” says Martin Fehrlin.
Imbach Guests Support the Treatment of Clean Drinking Water in Uganda
The sum paid voluntarily by Imbach guests when booking a trip flows directly into a specific climate protection project. Imbach Reisen has chosen the project “Clean drinking water for schools and households through filter systems in Uganda”. The main objective of this climate protection project is to provide poorer households and institutions such as schools in Uganda with new technologies to purify drinking water. The resulting decrease in the use of firewood and charcoal reduces CO₂ emissions and positively influences the living conditions and health of thousands of people.
Martin Fehrlin is convinced that Imbach customers will readily take up the offer: “We hope that the majority of our customers will opt for the ‘climate-neutral flying’ option. For online bookings, the proportion will certainly be smaller than for bookings we take personally on the phone, where we can explain it in more depth to customers and respond to their questions. So it’s important that employees are well trained and, above all, that they actively ask questions. We do not expect any negative reactions, firstly because our responsibilities towards the climate are currently more prominent in public consciousness and secondly because myclimate is a well-known and trustworthy partner.”
About Imbach Reisen
For almost fifty years, Imbach Reisen has been guiding guests along coastal paths and pastoral trails through barely known hiking regions on selected routes off the beaten tourist track – at eye level with nature and the local population. The tour guides are connoisseurs and fans of their destinations, and they always speak the national language. Imbach Reisen belongs to the Twerenbold Reisen Group. The company has been managed by Martin Fehrlin since 2018. He succeeded Hans Wiesner, long-standing Managing Director and former member of the Zurich Cantonal Council. He was also a member of myclimate’s Foundation Board from 2004 to 2011.