Intrepid Travel, Australia and Global

winner, 2011 Global Tourism Business Award

Founded in 1989, Intrepid Travel is one of the world's leading small group experiential tour operators taking 100,000 travellers each year to 130 countries on all seven continents. Intrepid follows a stringent Sustainable Development and Responsible Travel Policy which has been enhanced by the company becoming a formal signatory to the United Nations Global Compact in 2008. The policy is examined on an annual basis and in 2006, Intrepid added a carbon mitigation strategy with the goal of becoming carbon neutral by the end of 2010. This has been achieved.

Intrepid's responsible travel practices are embedded into their operations through comprehensive training of their ground staff and group leaders, and through procurement of the most sustainable accommodation, transport and activity options. Intrepid is committed to hiring local employees on their trips and promotes local procurement and competitive local remuneration. Intrepid also has a philanthropic initiative called The Intrepid Foundation. The Foundation facilitates support for organisations that work to improve health care, education, human rights, child welfare, sustainable development, environmental protection, animal welfare and wildlife protection in the areas Intrepid visits. The Foundation is a separate entity from Intrepid's business, although Intrepid pays for all administrative costs and matches all donations dollar for dollar, up to AU$400,000 per year.

On a business level, Intrepid has included sustainability as a company goal with measurable key performance indicators. Intrepid measures all corporate emissions, off-sets the majority of its trips and offers carbon offsets of flights to its customers. The company supports the preservation of natural and cultural heritage by educating its clients about the appropriateness of their actions and offers the opportunity to contribute directly to projects linked to nature and culture preservation.

Intrepid's approach goes beyond environmental projects through philanthropy by embedding sustainability into its core business practice.