European campervan hire company, Indie Campers, recently announced a long-term collaboration with Forstfreunde, a sustainability startup, which enables customers to offset their campervan trip’s emissions in a simple and effective way.
1. Increased awareness for sustainable travel
With increasing awareness around the issue of climate change, among both businesses and consumers, people are are taking into consideration the environmental impact of their travels more and more. In addition to this change, the ongoing effects of the Covid-19 pandemic are also causing many people to rethink the way they travel. Indie Campers has seen increasing demands from customers wanting to rent campervans for their holidays as an alternative to flying, and so the business has recently launched several products to accommodate this interest in slow travel.
What a year it has been! For us it was all about our beloved community of adventurers who learned to adapt & overcome new challenges. Now we enter 2021 with renewed expectations and you’re at the heart of it all. Thank you for being part of this whirlwind of a journey #GoIndie pic.twitter.com/sEBdoZTZLJ
— Indie Campers (@indiecampers) December 31, 2020
2. Indie Campers and Forstfreunde partnership
On of these new products was created through partnership with Forstfreunde, in an effort to offer sustainable travel alternatives to their customers. Indie Campers is now offering travellers the option to carbon offset their road trip, for as little as €0.70 per 100km. Forests are an extremely effective way to bind CO2 and simultaneously create habitats for animals, and so the scheme focuses on tree planting. The process is operated with full transparency, with customers being able to monitor their contributions through time.
Offset the kilometers/miles you did on your road trip by planting trees online with https://t.co/DQG4b8Ro66 🌳
— Indie Campers (@indiecampers) October 20, 2020
Read more here 👉 https://t.co/JRDpQVRzAD#GoIndie pic.twitter.com/qQtBgIxpcE
3. How it works
Through Indie Campers’ collaboration with Forstfreunde, customers are able to make a contribution to offsetting carbon dioxide emissions as soon as they have rented their campervan. They simply estimate the miles of the trip and the data is converted into the number of trees necessary to offset the CO2 emissions produced. There are three different compensation projects from which customers can choose, all produced by Forstfreunde’s team of experts, in cooperation with Indie Campers. By choosing their favourite project, each customer can make their own contribution to the protection and preservation of our environment. The projects available to support are:
- A project in the Eifel, a low mountain range in western Germany and eastern Belgium, in which areas are leased for reforestation
- A local project in Iran in which increasing desertification is countered
- A community project in Malawi, Africa, in cooperation with schools, parishes and churches.
Once the customer has made their contribution, they will receive a certificate for the trees that have been planted.
Marketing representative for Indie Campers, Pernille Hembre, stated, ‘In this time when we are in the middle of a climate crisis, it is crucial to create high-value business-partnerships like this that can have a real impact on the world we live in. We are proud to finally being able to offer carbon compensation to our customers through such a future-oriented company as Forstfreunde’.
