Episode 89- Elkie Nicholas, Trees4Travel
As the world's population and its carbon footprint grows so does the need for efficient transport networks. The way we travel is changing and as a result, we are opening ourselves up to new opportunities. Travelling while making a impact will help us cut down our carbon footprint.
Just like people have a carbon footprint, trees have one too. If a tree is cut down for lumber, it is the same as a person who burned the furniture in the living room from the house — releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. But trees can also absorb CO2.
Trees are one of the best ways to fight climate change, and they are among the first solutions against it. Considering that less than 50 % of the trees previously on our planet are left, we're facing a great loss. Not only because of all their benefits for our environment and society but also because of their meaning in human cultures.
So, how do you save the world? Plant more trees? Maybe through technology?
Christine’s guest today is here to talk about how trees and connected to travel, our carbon footprint, and climate change.
Elkie Nicholas is a tree-hugging, eco-warrior with a tenacious entrepreneurial spirit. A visual communicator and brand builder who has worked in a variety of sectors, ranging from fashion to packaging, education, travel, and technology. She has created numerous award-winning, feel-good products and brands, but is now channelling her extensive experience and knowledge into supporting the fight against climate change through the creation of Trees4Travel in a new era of mindful travel.
In our conversation, we chat about how I went from g being a blissfully ignorant business traveler to realizing the impact of her personal carbon footprint and how she knew she wanted to learn more, educate others and create a platform for easy action for travelers.
She talks about creating trees for travel, how it started, and what she hopes to see it become in the future.
I hope you'll visit their website after this conversation to take steps towards offsetting your own carbon footprint.
Join Christine for her soulful conversation with Dr. Elkie Nicholas.
In this episode, Christine and Elkie discuss:
Who is Elkie in the travel space today?
Why she considers herself a proud tree hugger
Climate change and the effects on travel
How Elkie went from business traveler to realizing the impact of her personal carbon footprint
How she knew she wanted to learn more, educate others and create a platform for easy action for travelers
Elkie opens up about creating Trees4Travel- how it started and what she hopes to see it become in the future.
How Elkie knew travel was an important part of her life
Resources & Links Mentioned in the Episode
For more information about Elkie and Trees4Travel, head to www.trees4travel.com
Follow Elkie on your favorite social platform Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn
Join me for my Women’s Wilderness and Yoga Retreat in Alaska in March 2023!
We’ll be traveling 63 miles north of the Arctic Circle to stay at Arctic Hive, owned by my friend Mollie Busby and her husband Sean. This boutique property nestled in the Brooks Range is way off the beaten path and also off grid. We’ll stay in beautiful cabins built by hand by our hosts, practice yoga in their yoga dome lovingly referred to as The Hive, with gorgeous views of the surrounding nature.
We’ll explore the wilderness by snowshoe and dog sled, connect with members of the local community to learn about living in this remote environment, enjoy daily yoga practice and vegan meals all while keeping our eye out for the beautiful northern lights that like to show off their magic this time of year.
I only have 6 spaces for this unique adventure and a few are already taken. Hop over to the Lotus Sojourns website to book yours today.
Please share this experience with anyone you know would love this restorative adventure.
Want to learn more, you can listen to my Soul of Travel conversation, episode 67 with Mollie Busby
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About the Soul Of Travel Podcast
Soul of Travel honors the passion and dedication of the people making a positive impact in tourism. In each episode, you’ll hear the story of women who are industry professionals and seasoned travelers and community leaders who know travel is more than a vacation. It is an opportunity for personal awareness and it is a vehicle for change. We are thought leaders, action takers, and heart-centered change makers.
The guests work in all sectors of the tourism industry. You'll hear from adventure-based community organizations, social impact businesses, travel photographers and videographers, tourism boards and destination marketing organizations, and transformational travel experts. They all honor the idea that travel is more than a vacation and focus on sustainable travel, eco-travel, community-based tourism, and intentional travel.
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If you want to learn about new destinations, types of travel, or how to be more intentional or live life on purpose, join Christine Winebrenner Irick for soulful conversations with her community of fellow travelers exploring the heart, the mind, and the globe. These conversations highlight what tourism really means for the world.
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Credits. Christine Winebrenner Irick (Host, creator, editor.)Elkie Nicholas (Guest). Original music by Clark Adams. Editing and production by Rayna Booth.
Transcript
KEYWORDS
travel, trees, people, offsetting, create, travelers, pandemic, conversation, plant, climate change, feel, important, trips, community, company, forests, sustainability, india, thought, website
Christine Winebrenner Irick 00:08
Thank you for joining me for soulful conversations with my community of fellow travelers, exploring the heart, the mind and the globe. These conversations highlight what travel really means for the world. Soul of Travel honors the passion and dedication of the people making a positive impact in tourism. Each week, I'll be speaking to women who are tourism professionals, world travelers and leaders in their communities will explore how travel has changed them and how that has rippled out and inspired them to change the world. These conversations are as much about travel as they are about passion, and living life with purpose, chasing dreams, building businesses, and having the desire to make the world a better place. This is a community of people who no travel is more than a vacation. It is an opportunity for personal awareness, and it is a vehicle for change. We are thought leaders, action takers, and heart centered change makers I'm Christine Winebrenner Irick. And this is the Soul of Travel.
Elkie Nicholas is a tree hugging eco warrior with a tenacious entrepreneurial spirit, a visual communicator and brand builder who has worked in various sectors, ranging from fashion to packaging, education, travel and technology. She has created numerous award winning feel good productions and brands, but is now channeling her extensive experience and knowledge into supporting the fight against climate change through the creation of trees for travel, in a new era of mindful travel.
In our conversation, we chat about how Elkie went from being a blissfully ignorant business traveler, to realizing the impact of her personal carbon footprint, and how she knew she wanted to learn more, educate others and create a platform for easy action for travelers. She talks about creating trees for travel, how it started, and what she hopes to see it become in the future.
I hope you'll visit their website after this conversation to take steps towards offsetting your own carbon footprint. Join me now for my soulful conversation with Elkie Nicholas. Welcome to soul of travel, I am excited today to be sitting down with Elkie Nicholas who is one of the cofounders of fees for travel. And one of those another serendipitous connection via the virtual world where I just started seeing the work she was doing, popping up on LinkedIn and was really interested and reached out to have a conversation and we immediately had so much shared interests and visions for the industry. So we knew we had to share on the podcast. So I'm so excited that you're here. Welcome. Welcome to the conversation.
03:28
Thank you very much, Christine. I'm really excited to chat with you today. And thank you for this amazing opportunity.
Christine Winebrenner Irick 03:35
Thank you. Thank you for joining me. Well as we start, I would first love to just give you the opportunity to introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about who you are in the space of travel right now.
03:49
Yes, so as you said, Christine, my name is Elkie Nicholas and I am the Co-Founder of Trees4Travel. I am a tree hugger. I've always loved trees. I'm also yogini very much into my yoga. And I'm also a serial entrepreneur with my husband, Nico. We've been in the travel environment travel tech environment for about eight years, I would say and then just at the beginning of the pandemic is kind of when we decided to kind of look at travel in a completely different way. So that's kind of our that's kind of my introduction, kind of like,
Christine Winebrenner Irick 04:31
thank you. I love that you say that. You're a tree hugger. I saw that picture of you on Instagram. I don't know. It wasn't a couple of days ago where you were out in this beautiful forest, literally hugging trees. And I was like, Oh, that looks like it feels so good. It really does. It really does. Yeah, there's something to that exchange of energy and I have always had this. I don't know I like this connection or this story, and I should have looked it up before we chatted. But I wrote this poem one time about, like, the wisdom that's in the trees and how it's whispered to us on the wind when we pay attention. And just like that kind of grand stateliness, especially, you know, that trees have been witnessing humans for hundreds of years where they stand and I don't know, like, if you really start to dive into the magic, and what they stand for, I think it's pretty cool.
05:34
Yeah, no, absolutely. And, actually, I have always really treasured, just walking in forests, I find them such healing places. And I actually, you know, still today, every lunchtime, I am blessed to have a forest near me, I go for a walk, it's my place to just to kind of stop and to re Energize. And, and it's just, it's like a meditator walking meditation when you go through a forest. And I mean, it's been kind of proven now as well, that forest bathing is actually something that's recognized, that comes from Japan originally, where they use that term, forest bathing, and, and it just has so many healing powers. So you know, and I've been doing that since I was a child, actually. So you know, I'm originally my family came from Austria. So I was born in the Austrian Alps. So I always had forests around me. I mean, I left in very young age, but I think it's just in my DNA. So. So I think, you know, that's really where my love of trees has come from soon.
Christine Winebrenner Irick 06:42
Yeah, it's something when you are surrounded by that, when you grow up, you don't realize, like, what a special thing it is. And if you then go to a city or a desert, or places that just don't have that lush greenness around you, I grew up in the mountains of Montana, in northwestern us. And so very similar, like, just, there's something so comforting and like cozy and like safe and secure about being amongst the protection of, of trees. And like you said, it is very healing well to to learn a little bit more about you. How did you start to get involved in travel? Or really like, when did you know that travel was something important in your life that you wanted to kind of fold into your business? Or how did it start to show up in your life? Did you travel early? Or was it something that happened later,
07:41
I was actually very, very lucky. Because I was my first ever flight, I was three years old. And I actually remember that flight as if it was yesterday, because I remember the sensation of walking up the aisle. Okay, as the plane was actually taking off pretty much as it was still, you know, going up into the sky. I know, I should have had my seatbelt on. But I suppose they weren't that strict with rules then. But I actually remember the feeling of kind of climbing up the island feeling so happy. And I was singing, I just remember thinking I'm on an adventure. And that was I was three years old. I mean, you know, I didn't know. And I said, I kind of feel as if it was yesterday.
And the reason I was on a flight at that age is because my father and my mother, basically, were asked to go to London to work for a company that they will working for. So there'll be though my father became an Export Manager for a company. And so we headed off to London. And then I spent Yeah, I spent then most of my childhood, living in a city in a big city. But then every summer, I used to fly back her of flight back to Austria because all my cousins were there and my family. And I used to fly my own quite often. So even as like a very, you know, personally, I used to have one of those little, those little passport bags, kind of put over my head, and my parents would send me off and I used to love it because he's grown up, you know, and then I was, you know, I was flying when a lot of my friends had never been anywhere near an aeroplane. So I knew that I was lucky. You know, very, very fortunate. And then obviously when I went back to Australia to stay there for like the, you know, whenever it was a school holiday, so I'd be there for a good month.
And so I really kind of experienced still that kind of being in the mountains and the forests being close to nature and I just for me, that was always my safe place. The place that I just felt free and just loved it and then kind of later on in life. While also as a kid I ship with my parents we used to always then travel with driving the car down to the south of France. So that was my life. The love of because I you know, I live kind of in London and in France, we kind of do a bit of both. And our children are brought up in France. So I'm real Frank afar have always loved the country, the food, the wine, the the scenery, the mountains and see, you know, there's so many beautiful places here.
So we used to drive down every summer to South France. And then also later on, when I then decided to, when I got my first job, my very first day of work was I was going on a flight from London to Hong Kong. And I took that job because it involves travel because I was just, I was so excited again to go and discover somewhere new and but I was actually in the fashion business. Okay, so that's kind of where my origins are, I studied fashion. And so I yeah, that was my very first day of work, I was on a flight, flying to Hong Kong. And that was my first kind of really long haul flight, which was amazing. And in fact, after that, I used to fly to Hong Kong almost every other month. So, you know, when you're talking about carbon footprint, my carbon footprint is enormous. When I just think how long I was in the fashion business for good, about 13 years. And I spent a lot of that time traveling, because there were other fashion was made in the Far East. But of course, at that time, I just, you know, I didn't I wasn't any the wiser, you know, and unfortunately, I think that is that was the problem. And I think we all kind of very ignorant about what was going on.
You know, there were a few, I don't know, there were a few I think probably the first time I really, really thought about climate change was when Al Gore did have he did that video called An Inconvenient Truth. I remember watching that, and thinking, oh, you know, I so for me, that was the first time I probably thought about it. And that's I don't know, what is that now 10, maybe even 1013 years ago, or something, even maybe a bit longer. But again, it was just the I think it's it just wasn't out there. And it wasn't part of my you know, I didn't think about it. And like I said, like most people, that's how it was. So anyway, so I continued to fly and work in the fashion business. And then I think it was once
12:26
once I had the boys, so Nico and I, we have two boys who have now left home. But obviously, when you have children, you spend a lot of time trying to teach them how to be good human beings to do the right thing to you know, a new every day. And I suppose that's really when I started to or we as a family, you know, really started to think about the future for our kids, you know, the way we live, what we do, how, and then I suppose over these, since the boys have been growing up, you know, sustainability has been coming up more and more and coming out into the open and it really, you know, I think Greta has done an absolute absolutely phenomenal job.
You know, she bless her, you know, a young girl who's just gone out there speaking her mind, and, and just bringing it out into the open, I think, you know, and the fact that she is a child, that's what's great. So, you know, that's definitely when my ears started to pick up a bit more, you know, and, ya know, so that, you know, and then of course, there's, you know, my other favorite person in the whole kind of sustainability arena is Leonardo DiCaprio. You know, he he has done some amazing work. And David Attenborough. I just love all of his films. I mean, he's done some amazing movies, the in actually, during the pandemic, I don't know if you've seen any of them pristine, but like breaking boundaries just blew me away. I mean, it just explains it in very simple terms. That, you know, the science is there now. There is so much research has been done on climate change. And the writing's on the wall. We have to now all of us do our bit and we can all do our bit.
You know, it's very, very easy to start at home. And I love that. I feel very positive about the future. I don't think it's easy. There is a lot to do. There's a lot of change, but I think the more we talk about it, the more people who know what they can do. I think people I think I think you know 99% of people want to do good and want to do the right thing. But it's just that we don't always know where to start. And that is, you know, that's the thing. And that's kind of where I hope Trees4Travel will, you know, we've really focused on an industry where we feel we can make a difference. And we also wanted to make it really simple and and I hope that's what we have delivered. So I talk a lot and it wants to get me going, I can't stop.
Christine Winebrenner Irick 15:26
Okay, that's one of the great things about these conversations is that I do get to talk to people who are so passionate about what they do. And I think that that's, I think that's amazing. I think that's that is how we are able to create the most impact is when people are really passionate about the work they're doing. And like you mentioned with Greta and like, the the voice that that comes through her and the way she's able to share and the way people listen to her because it's just such a part of who she is how, however that came to be in her like you can tell and what I love about her and her being so young, as she begins to share this message is that like my oldest daughter is 12 now, but I think she was probably nine or 10. And when Greta was in the US, and she was spoken Denver, and my oldest daughter heard on the radio, we were driving her to school, and she's like, she's here right now. Can we go? I said, Absolutely. I'll throw your sister's off at school. And we'll head into to Denver to hear her and she's like, I can't believe she's a child.
And look how many people are here to listen to her. And this this outdoor, you know, stadium that we were in, or garden was just packed. And she she couldn't believe that adults would listen to kids, which was a huge thing, I think just for her to witness witness, like the value of what she may have to share. Because she was able to see this other person share what they believed in and, and then she just, she just was so caught up in the community aspect of it and everybody being there together. And then the hope and, you know, also disheartened by like this problem, but also, just something about that. youthfulness that allows you like breathe into life, the possibility, like I guess you haven't been shut down enough times yet to know or to feel like it's not possible. But it was it was really powerful.
I'm really grateful that we were able to have that experience, because I think it really shifted how she sees the world and how she understands what people can do. And the people are actually trying to do something together. I think a lot of times, it does feel really daunting, because we feel like it's just us against this huge problem. That seems insurmountable. But when you see a community together like that, and are a part of a movement, then it helps it feel like there might be something possible.
18:04
Absolutely, absolutely. Yeah, no, really, it's really, I think it's just such an exciting time. You know, I don't think we've ever had such a powerful movement that's happening. You know, there's so I mean, so many people now get it and want to be involved. And I think that's brilliant. So, you know, we got to keep going.
Christine Winebrenner Irick 18:30
You mentioned that you are a serial entrepreneur. And so at the beginning of 2020, before the pandemic, or as it kind of, I guess, landed arrived became known to us, you had actually we're starting another business. So can you talk to us a little bit about how that came about, and then your transition into Trees4Travel and what created that shift for you.
18:59
So, I'm gonna go back to kind of the beginning of 2019 actually, because I first of all, I went on a very lifelong dream trip. I went to India for the first time, and somebody who's really into yoga, that's a very important place to go to. So and when I went to India, I was actually, I was actually so sad to see how much rubbish there was everywhere. And that was a few like, that was for me a kind of a first real kind of wake up call with regards to sustainability. You know, and I don't know it just it's just really shocked me and I just thought you know, I was thinking how can it how can we change this you know, that's where you start questioning or when you see you know, what's really going on? And during that year, so I saw I went to India and then you know so for me and already as I said Greta had already you know I was already following what she was doing.
I just I came back and Nick and I were discussing about this idea that we had about this business that would allow travelers to choose a vacation based on weather. So, you know, you know that you've got a vacation from this state to this state. And you wanted to kind of make sure that when you went away that you would have good weather, you know, because we've all been on a holiday and then arrived, it's our two weeks, once a year and arrived, and the weather's been really crap. And it's so disappointing or, you know, if you're expected to like the beach, or whatever. And so this new website was going to be called Sun searcher. And of course, because it was weather related, we were doing a lot of research on weather and weather data and all this kind of stuff. And of course, it was very, it was very apparent, this is all this, this all related to climate change. So it was like, there is no way we can there's no way we wanted to launch this type of travel service, without including sustainability, you know, in a big way. And because I, you know, I was really delving into this subject, I suddenly noticed as well that there was so much talk about trees in other products, you know, you if I wanted to buy sweatshirts at somebody, or somewhere and they would say, oh, have you by sweatshop, or plant your tree? And I just kind of thought, Okay, what's all this tree? You know? What is it all this tree business?
And so I then spent pretty much pretty much six months a year just diving into papers, you know, and science behind it. And it was very clear that trees are actually our best carbon technology. There isn't anything out there yet. That is as powerful as trees. And so I said to Nikhil, I said, right, do you know what we need to, we need to basically plant trees with every booking that somebody makes on our on our on our website.
So anyway, as this discussion was going, literally a week later, as we were kind of thinking how we were going to integrate the trees into the booking system and so forth, the pandemic arrived, and we went into lockdown. And so we thought, okay, well, this isn't a good time to launch a travel product, seeing as all the planes are grounded. And so we decided that maybe this was a good time to kind of reach out to all of our contacts in the travel industry. And just kind of talk to them introduce this idea that we had, and see what they think, and see what they thought. And actually, everybody that we spoke to said, they absolutely love this idea of, you know, connecting trees to travel. And so, as the pandemic continued, you know, like, all of us, I think, all over the world, we thought, Oh, this is probably only going to be a few few weeks, you know, or maybe a couple of months, and then it'd be over
23:28
it became very clear that this was going to, you know, continue so we thought Do you know what we're going to spend this time to actually develop our product that is that allows trees to be integrated to other people's travel websites isn't says or whatever. So we can, you know, not just keep it for us, do it for everybody do it for the whole industry. And, and that was Nico, who said, you know, we've got to do this for everybody. We've got, you know, this is our chance now. There's kind of this pause in in travel.
This is the moment we need to do this. So we spent then the next six months to a year developing this doing all the tech behind it. And and then we started to reach out to lots and lots and lots of travel companies all over the world, presenting our research, presenting the facts, the figures, and, and everybody seems to love it. You know, and it's since then I just can't look back. I just I just love this project. There is so much good that we can do. And I think the thing that was most important actually, to me, having done all the research, is that's keeping it simple. I think That was the key elements in all of this. And that is really what kind of attracted me to it initially.
You know, like I said to you, the first time I really heard about a tree being associated product is, like, there was a company that had a sweatshirt and they said, with every sweatshirt or class tree, and I thought we need to do that kind of thing in travel. And that's when we then came up with this concept of translating trips into trees, and really simplifying that whole process. Because, of course, you know, I mean, you know, there have been kind of, if you like, carbon offsetting options that have been presented on some airlines previous to the pandemic already. But the problem is, we just can't relate to co2 in kilos or pounds, or, you know, it just, we just because it's not tangible. It just doesn't mean anything to White doesn't mean anything to me.
And it doesn't, I think it doesn't mean anything to most people. And that's, I think that's one of the reasons why so many of our partners, and you know, the people who we're still presenting to now, they love what we're doing, because we've just taken the complex complexity out of it. But saying that the same time, this is still a very complex subject, you know, I mean, when we translate those trips to trees, there's a lot that goes on in the, in the background, okay, so, I mean, we use to do the calculations, we use differ and GHG protocols, which are that kind of international recognized standards for calculating co2. And, and then we also use the basis, we kind of got an average of an oak tree, okay, so we use that calculation of the first 10 years of an oak tree where we say, the tree absorbs 164 kilos, so that's kind of how we do our calculations. Okay.
Then the other thing as well, every single tree that we plant, okay, which is actually a sapling to begin with, is actually backed up by United Nations certified emissions reduction certificate. So it is actually that carbon that we say we offset is actually offset as quickly as possible from those carbon credits, okay. Because actually, you can't really, you can't really often you can't offset travel, just by planting a little sapling, because that tree needs to grow. It's only once a tree is about 1020 years old, that they actually can start measuring the carbon properly from a tree. But of course, you know, so, initially, the trees kind of a symbol when we say trips to trees, but we are offsetting through the United Nations carbon credits that we back up with every single tree.
So in fact, really doing a double whammy, you know, which is also something that is really, really important. You know, because we do need to keep planting trees. And like I said earlier, you know, the science is there, it's been proven, and that's why tree planting, tree growing,
28:28
has kind of boomed you know, and, and we need to keep planting, and especially with, you know, with climate change, we're already feeling it, you know, all over the world, in the US, you know, in Europe, you know, Australia, all over the world, there have been some awful, awful forest fires, and we are all feeling it. And we need to keep planting. And we also also still need to reduce emissions as much as we can. And that's where mindful travel, you know, comes into play. And, you know, that's something that we do also really talk about a lot, you know, about being responsible with travel, we love travel. And that's why, you know, that's why we're doing this because, you know, I think also the other realization is that people are not going to stop traveling. We've always traveled you know, since day one man has always traveled and we will continue to travel and while the technology is improving, you know, we have got to take those first steps we've got to keep, we've got to do everybody has to do a little bit and that's why you know, we we are treated for travel, because we know this is what everybody can do as they travel.
Christine Winebrenner Irick 29:58
I was just reminded as you were talking About the sweatshirt purchase that when I bought, I bought a car and like, my daughter was just born 2012 or something. And they said that they planted 10 trees for every, you know, vehicle that was purchased through this, this company and and I just remember thinking, Oh, that's pretty cool. Like, that's cool that they're thinking about that. And but again, I lived in the Pacific Northwest. And so I was like, in my mind, there's just endless trees, right? This is just what I'm surrounded by. But it did make me question like, Well, why are they doing that?
Why is that important? Why is that a big enough of an initiative that they are putting that into their business model. And so that was probably kind of my first look around and trying to understand. And I did work, I started working in sustainable travel right around 2000, and was working for companies that were really trying to take their corporate social responsibility initiatives and turn them into sustainability platforms for their company. But at that time, it still felt like there was just so few people that were doing it that it felt like it was just a almost like a fad or a trend or something like it was it didn't seem practical that if only this small amount of companies were doing it that we could create a large amount of change. And obviously, and it's crazy to think that it's been 20 years of being in that space of conversation, there's been so much growth.
But to think about what we need to do still, it's it's a lot that we have ahead of us. But I do I do love that you are talking about how, as travelers, or as consumers, we do get caught up if we're trying to figure out like, calculate our own carbon offsetting and our our own carbon usage. And so it's very helpful to have this model that is simple. And you just say, Okay, this equates this, I can know that I'm doing something. And it also feels tangible, because a tree feels tangible. Like, it feels like you know that you're doing something.
And I really appreciate you explaining the fact that while you're planting trees today, that's for future offsetting, and that we do really need to look at what we're protecting and conserving today that offsets our current usage. Can you talk a little bit more about that? Because I think that is also something that people get lost in when they're trying to understand. And even in the past, there's been a lot of conversation about people saying that they're they're doing this offsetting, but it's not actually something that's been regulated. And so it turns out that like the offsetting may or maybe did not occur, but what when you started doing this deep dive, what did you learn about so
33:08
one of the main, one of the main things that I learned about the kind of tree planting, if you like, right in the beginning, is that we have to plant the right tree in the right place in the right way. Okay. And it's really also about the communities where we plant these trees, it is so important that we look after the people who are stewards of those forests. And this is actually also why we just love this whole kind of tree growing aspect is that through the projects that we select, we actually are able to support up to about 13 of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Sustainable Development Goals.
Because actually, we've, we've decided that it's actually much it's very important to be able to help these countries who really are affected who are who are mostly affected by climate change. And those are usually countries in development in the developing countries, you know, they are the ones on the frontline of climate change. And I really, really, we feel so strongly about actually helping those people and that's why we're very, very diligent about the projects and the charities that we work with. And I Yeah, and I'm just I feel so so proud of that, you know, that work that we're doing and and the investment We can make into those places. And that's so important. So yeah, no, that's, that's, did I answer your question, Christina cutting thing? Did I kind of get off?
Christine Winebrenner Irick 35:13
That's okay, no, but I do, I love that you brought that up as well, because I think I'm really looking at the impact that we have, as travelers on community, this is another way that we can ensure that we can create a positive impact. And it's really even distance from the traveler itself, that we may not be traveling to that place. But our travel can create a positive impact, even without going and connecting with a community. And I think that's just showing us another way that we can build positive change and impact into the tourism industry. And so I think it's amazing to think about, it's easier to look at our direct action.
So like, if we're traveling to India, then we want to, if more thinking about positive impact, then we're thinking about the impact we can have in India, but we're not thinking about the indirect impact we could have by supporting trees that are being planted in Africa. Yeah, we're traveling to India. So it's like we can really lair? Yeah, what we're doing. So I think that's valuable to think about, because for me, I feel like our travel intersects our global community in so many ways that we don't think about, but when we do start to unpack that is where we can see where all the opportunity lies within the industry to create change.
36:36
And then the other thing as well, Christine, that, I want to say is that, you know, once once you've kind of signed up with Trees4Travel, you and you start logging your trips, which is very easy on the calculator, you basically just, you know, say where your start airport is and where you're going to and so forth. And then you then have access to a very simple dashboard, that kind of shows you the progress of your, of your trees, so you have a direct link to the site. So there is a you can zoom in, see right up, you know, right into where the field is, where those trees are being planted.
There are then links where you can find out about the project, how it started. And we then give kind of quarterly updates with images, where you can actually really see and feel the impact that you are making, and it just following the story of what's happening. And that's actually another thing that I find, you know, with, with some other, you know, companies or when you go to kind of a carbon offset company, there are so many projects. And I think you kind of get lost in you know how many different projects there are.
And so we decided that we wanted to focus on maybe just one or two projects at a time, so that we could really kind of follow what was going on and really tell that story properly. And so that's also something you know, that is really important to us is it's just being really careful about the project we select, and then really telling that story. So that our, you know, our travelers can really feel that connection with that project. And I think that's what's so important. Yeah.
Christine Winebrenner Irick 38:43
Yeah, I think that is amazing as well, because you mentioned early in the conversation, your trip to India and like when you travel, that's when you you you see things firsthand and begin to question and you you are developing a connection. And it's that that sense of global citizenship and, and seeing, seeing things firsthand that that spark that that need to create change. But I think similarly to that, like you're saying this deeper vested connection to the projects allows you to feel this sense of being able to do something because it's not arbitrary, you actually can see what you're doing. And then it gives you some sense of being able to see what you're doing makes you feel as if you are actually doing something versus having something kind of being living out in the ether that like well, I know I paid for this carbon calculation, and I know that they said they're doing this thing. And so I assume but if you can look at your tree, you have some ownership to it.
If you look at this project, and you learn about the people, not only do you have like the satisfaction of having done that, but you're also learning about another culture and another area And the impact and the challenges they may be facing and how this is supporting them. And so I just think that, again, is it's just kind of bridging those gaps and creating more understanding and awareness and deepening ties to one another, which is, I think, really, at the core of all of these issues is that we need to have that deeper sense of connection to one another, across cultures and across the globe.
So that we feel like we are. And I guess, again, even coming back to that sense of camaraderie of a movement, like we need to know that we are a part of something together, because it feels like a gives us more power to actually to try to manage Yes, absolutely.
40:49
I mean, my, you know, my, my biggest wish is that, you know, everybody who gets who travels, you know, at least plants one tree. And already, that would make an amazing, you know, difference. There is actually a really cool video is actually on our website, which the BBC did. That was it's very sweet, but it kind of explains that they've just said, What if everybody just planted one tree, and that's, you know, what would be the effects. So, I do kind of recommend every watch is that it's just fun. And it explains, you know, how just that simple action can have an effect already.
But, uh, ya know, I think, I think exciting times ahead, and we, you know, we just can't wait to also to visit some of these forests that we're already creating with some of our partners. So you know, and telling that story, and it's all about the education, actually, it's really, really, it's so important. And, you know, we, we just love telling the story, you know, and doing webinars, and when we go to these conferences, telling the story, sharing our knowledge, and, you know, we're still learning we're not, you know, Nikolai, we're not, we're not scientists, or, you know, we're just, we're travelers, and, but we love nature, we have kids, we want to, we want to make a difference, and we want to make sure that, you know, that the future is good for our children, our grandchildren, for our planet, you know, we've got to put this right.
And, and we recognize that, you know, we, you know, we kind of went through life, in our younger years, just being ignorant. And, and we want to put that right now, so and I think we can, so, you know, we're very positive people. And, anyway, we're gonna keep banging our drum. And the lovely thing is, so many, so many people already all over the world are taking, you know, taking action and having discussions like we're having Christine, you know, you're also doing an amazing job bringing this out into the open discussions. It's so important.
Christine Winebrenner Irick 43:49
Thank you, thank you. And I want to acknowledge that you are saying you know, that you aren't experts. And I think that's so important to share, you know, that you have amassed knowledge as as this kind of was sparked passion for you, and you started learning about it, and collecting and then sharing what you know, and I think it's really important for people to hear that because I think a lot of times, we feel like we can't jump into a place like this without first, you know, getting some sort of formal education around it, and then talking about it. And I think that that is really shifting during this time as well.
And I know many people who have turned to Google search and books and doing their own research to understand how they can make a difference in their company and self educating and then sharing and I think that's really, really powerful to talk about, because I think people need to know that they can create change without being like we need to take small steps with what we understand and then we can get curious and learn more and take bigger steps but I I'm starting there.
But I did before we end our conversation, I really want to talk about how travelers can participate in this program, what that really looks like for them so that they can know like, if they just visit your website to participate, and I know, I know that you also mentioned you work with operators to help them offset what they're doing. So can you walk us a little bit through like the real practical part of how
45:25
Yeah, the so. So the, the first thing is very simple, you can just go to our website, anybody can go to our website, so just a traveler, or a travel company or a Travel Advisor, go to our website. So www.Trees4Travel.com. And you can just sign up, and you just say, you know, if, and then then once you've done that you've signed up, you can then as just a traveler, you can already put your say your last trip that you did, you can put it in the calculator, and then you can sign up and you can already buy a tree just like that. And then and then the traveler will have access to their dashboard.
And then if you are a travel company, again, you can sign up with us, and then we will contact you. And then we will look at the different ways that you might want to work with us. So we actually have an API. So we can basically bring trees into a booking system. So you know, where we have the calculator calculations can be done. And it can all be integrated into the system, we can give any partners of ours simple URL link, which they could put into an email, for example, you know, they could introduce planting trees or translating trips to trees to their, to their customers.
So we are, you know, we're very flexible, we kind of listen to our partners, or, you know, potential partners, we listen to what they need. And then we work out a way the best way for them to basically incorporate the trees into their travel office. But you know, so it's a very, very simple process. And also, I mean, we were during the pandemic, we primarily hooked up with a lot of travel management companies. And so we've also got a corporate dashboard. So that's also been a big, big thing for us. So although our website comes over very much as a consumer website, we work with a lot of corporates and travel management companies as well. So we're really set up for that, we have some amazing tools, which really help travel management companies as well. You know, like we have that we have this really cool tool, that is what if it kind of shows you if you change your mode of transport, how much less co2 You will emit.
So, you know, there's some really, really cool tech that we provide in the background. So again, as I said, you know, from the surface, no website looks, it looks very much consumer based. But actually, we're primarily a b2b. So, you know, we want to help as many travel companies, from OTAs, to TMCs, to be able to offer tree growing to their clients, to their customers. So there you go. Yeah,
Christine Winebrenner Irick 48:46
thank you. I really love that. And I think it's just, you know, it's such a shift that we're seeing, and that and we were talking before we got on about events that we may or may not be attending within the industry and talking, you know, really intentionally about, well, actually, I don't want to fly to that area, but this event looks really good. And maybe I can take a train to it.
And I have noticed, just in the last six months having that conversation with other professionals and other travelers saying, you know, I wanted to go here and now I'm gonna go for two weeks and instead of going from France to Spain, I'm just going to stay in France or you know, when I was planning one of my trips for my company, I made sure it ended right when I knew there was a big industry event that I wanted to to go to as well that I knew I could travel and just cut my emissions like I really wanted to be intentional about you know, linking things together.
And I think it'll just be interesting to see like that what if that you were saying like, okay, maybe if I did this and this and this then that really helps this way and it might even open travelers eyes to pass abilities they didn't know existed. And I think there's just so many ways that we can start to look at this and not be a burden or something that's limiting, but actually, as something that's creating different and unique opportunities that maybe we just wouldn't have thought of, in the past. And I think that's another amazing thing, when we, when we look,
50:21
I think there is a, we also have, like a dedicated dashboard that we've just created, that is for travel advisors. So they to have the tools to actually do calculations immediately, so they can to immediately see, and they can advise their travelers, you know, for maybe doing a more a trip that is kind of better for planet and people. And, and then also this kind of dedicated dashboard that we have, they can also easily gift trees if they want to, or, you know, so they're, or they can even sell trees, or maybe even just shared information. So we've really thought about, you know, the travel industry and the different ways that travel is sold, and how we can help those trees to be integrated into those products. So yeah, no, I think, you know, I, as I said, I'm very excited for the future. And I think, you know, we need to, we need to make this work, we need to make this work for our planet.
Christine Winebrenner Irick 51:38
Yeah, yeah, we don't, we don't really have any other choice. And I think that it's what's also spurring so much creativity. So I appreciate and I love hearing your story and hearing the evolution of you know, of that process and how it came about for you. And I think that's so valuable, too, for other people to hear. Like, we often think if we start out on one track, we need to stay there. And it's amazing when like, it actually opens the door to the next thing that is maybe actually meant to be your business or your your purpose is kind of hidden in there. And then it just lands in our lap sometime. And I think that's really magical to see that happen. Well, before we end, Elkie, I have my rapid fire questions. So we'll do those. But those are just to give people a little bit more of a sense of who you are as a traveler and also maybe create another little spark of inspiration for the listeners. The first one is what is your favorite book or movie that offers you a travel escape or inspires you to adventure?
52:52
I keep going back to Austria my favorite movie ever is the sound of music of course. I you know, I just yeah, that is my favorite movie My most. I think my most inspiring movie one movie documentary. The most recent one is don't look up by Leonardo DiCaprio, I don't know if you've seen that. Yeah. It's it's a very, very good movie. And of course, it is all about climate change. So I do recommend people watch that. Sorry, I've got too many now too many. And then David Attenborough breaking boundaries was just fantastic. was a real eye opener. And it's so visual, you know, I'm a very, I'm a visual communicator. And for me, it just, you know, just explains everything in very simple terms. And fantastic. So yeah, so sorry, I kind of went on there.
Christine Winebrenner Irick 53:58
That's okay, that that I didn't set the stage with these are actually my rapid fire ish questions I keep trying to read, but it's close enough. What? What is always in your suitcase or backpack when you travel? Possible? What has been your most memorable or impactful travel destination? India? Yeah, I want to go as well. I have a real strong tie to yoga as well. So when you mentioned that that's when one of those places that I've really longed to go for for quite some time. Okay, I loved learning more about Trees4Travel, and I can't wait for listeners to visit your website and explore how they can create an impact really easily through their travel experiences. Thank you so much.
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