TICOS AND REDUCE MY FOOTPRINT (RMF)
On 28th September the long awaited initiative by ABTA and AITO to offer a climate change and offset service at the industry level was launched. TICOS has been involved in this development since its inception and will provide to Reduce My Footprint (RMF) a business to business carbon offset and reduction service available for any tourism related company seeking to exercise a choice in how the offset funds they raise are spent.
Whilst TICOS is happy to provide this service to RMF we will also continue to act as an independent service supported directly by international agencies and with our own due diligence and transparency standards. We will also continue with our own independent verification and validation service and all funds raised by companies will still be kept in a secure client account. Any company wishing to use the TICOS service can access us directly through www.ticos.co.uk or through the RMF website. Those operators (30) already working with TICOS will continue to receive the same high level of service and any company joining us through the RMF link will also deal with us directly.
One of the main benefits of RMF is that it can offer a service to individual travellers, something that TICOS cannot yet do because of the economies of scale and the fact that all of what we do is predicated upon consumer choice in where their funds go. We have not yet found a way to aggregate large numbers of small donations to our satisfaction. RMF has created an 'RMF unit' for this purpose and will allocate aggregated funds from individuals and small businesses to a prescribed 'mix'. This mix is determined by the RMF management group and is detailed in the RMF website.
TICOS welcomes the launch of RMF and will continue to assist ABTA and AITO in its development. We believe that the service we provide to RMF is a key service of choice for operators and agents wishing to support climate change programmes in tourism destinations, especially where there are wider social, pro poor, environmental and educational benefits.
For further information about the relationship between TICOS and RMF or any other matter please contact Dick Sisman directly.
Dick Sisman
TICOS founder
E mail: dick@dicksisman.com
Tel: 01223 893907
28 September 2007