About TICOS

Welcome to the TICOS (Tourism Industry Carbon Offset Service) website.  

TICOS is a tailor made service for all travel and tourism related companies seeking to understand and react to the causes and impacts of climate change. Although most of the focus to date has been on CO2 emissions, mainly from air travel, many companies from other sectors of the industry are seeking to develop programmes which both contribute to a lessening of emissions and at the same time achieve wider sustainable development objectives. Please read our operational procedure for full details of the TICOS service.

Many of the leaders in the travel and tourism industry recognise that they have a key role to play in the development of programmes to reduce and offset the effects of carbon produced as a part of the holidays or transport that they sell.   Those with vision understand that a degraded environment and complex changes in weather patterns will have a significant impact upon the whole future of the industry especially in those destinations most at risk.

TICOS works with many industry partners including industry associations, tour operators, service providers and those engaged in transport. We develop specific projects that both help to achieve greenhouse gas reductions and at the same time support local communities, the environment and education.

Many TICOS projects are managed by members of IUCN World Commission for Protected Areas and are located within World Heritage Sites where there is a strong tourism element. Both UNESCO and IUCN have expressed their support for TICOS in its attempts to develop projects which both reduce carbon emissions and help to protect and enhance the special places of the world. Both organisations see TICOS as extremely important in the precedents it sets to balance climate change with its impact upon World Heritage sites.

The frequently asked questions (FAQ page of our website) gives more information.

TICOS Staff

Please visit our staff page for staff profiles.

Projects

Our unique global outreach has been used to establish the scale and nature of potential projects in tourism destinations which will make a significant contribution to reducing and offsetting the amount of carbon in our atmosphere.   Details of projects are listed on our project pages.

These projects from around the world include ideas for new alternative technology, new forms of non fossil based fuels, the capture and use of natural power such as wind, wave and solar energy, and ambitious goals such as the eradication of fossil-based fuels from some tourism destinations.   At the same time all projects have additional values including environmental, social, economic, educational and pro-poor benefits.

We use a stringent operational procedure and validation standard. All claimed benefits are assessed by a team of expert independent service providers and we generally make very conservative claims based upon precautionary principles.

Only after a TICOS project has been carefully evaluated and passed by our science and research team is it offered for funding to our service users.  Once funding has been agreed each project is monitored through to completion and progress updated on this website. The current status of each of our projects is shown on the projects section.

Any company contributing to a project is able to monitor exactly how its money is being spent.

Testimonials

Since the decision was taken to develop an industry-wide programme we have been gratified to see the level of support for TICOS. Leading experts in the field of academia and science have commented in the following terms. "This could be a major contribution to the sustainability of the industry. Good work". "Your idea of setting a new industry standard is a good one". "What an outstanding concept". "I applaud what you are doing and I think there is a great potential for the tourism industry to show great leadership". These, and many more messages of support, have been received from all around the world and help to demonstrate the common bond we all share in trying to deal with the major environmental threat of climate change.

Changing Lives

We want TICOS to be different from most other programmes dealing with climate change resulting from the build up of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses. We will treat the science and the solutions very seriously but at the same time we want to show that our action to reduce and offset the impact of emissions can have many other benefits including some warm human stories. Tourism is by its very nature a fun industry and when practised responsibly gives enjoyment to millions of holidaymakers and benefits to host destinations around the world. So, when we can establish meaningful carbon offset and reduction programmes which have a human story to tell we will post this under the 'Changing Lives' heading.

Setting Standards

One of the main considerations in the development of TICOS is to ensure that it operates to the highest of standards and due diligence. We want to ensure that the whole process is transparent and that money raised is used wisely and efficiently and that the programme provides excellent value for money. All of those working for and providing services to TICOS will be required to conform to the TICOS Operational Procedure. TICOS is a voluntary scheme and we have developed our own Procedure both to provide a high level of due diligence and to reflect the nature of the services which we provide. The TICOS Procedure incorporates the following elements:

The TICOS Operational Procedure also incorporates a separation of functions to ensure that the collection of funds; the development and delivery of projects and verification are independent of each other. In this way we can ensure that the whole programme is free of any possibility of malpractice.