Uniworld Boutique River Cruises (subsidiary of The Travel Corporation) became the first river cruise line to introduce verified net zero targets validated by the SBTi-Science Based Target initiative.
The targets align with the scale of reductions required "to keep global temperatures below an increase of 1.5 degrees." Uniworld reset its Climate Action Plan to achieve net zero by 2050, thus replacing the original goal to be carbon neutral by 2030 as well as representing a more ambitious effort to address climate change.
The critical commitment of the Climate Action Plan of Uniworld is to evolve with available technology, business practices, and climate science. In the time since the organization revealed plans to become carbon neutral, its focus has been on decarbonization, appreciating that "emitting less carbon into the atmosphere is the most effective means to address climate change." Uniworld's net zero targets are supported with pathways as outlined in the Climate Action Plan of the company.
Ellen Bettridge (Uniworld's President and CEO) said that protecting our planet was a responsibility that they did not take lightly at Uniworld, and they were proud to be making great strides to achieve that through measurable, science-backed steps.
“Hand in hand with our parent company, we’re making our goals even more ambitious, with plans to achieve net zero by 2050. Our targets are backed by an internal Carbon Fund which ensures that we are able to make the necessary investments required to decarbonize our business.“
In addition to the Carbon Fund, the industry-leading approach to reducing the business's carbon footprint, Uniworld’s TreadRight Foundation is due to prioritize support for nature-based solutions in order to address climate change via allowing the world’s natural carbon cycle to restore itself.
Further action on climate change features Uniworld’s approach to reducing food waste, a major contributor to climate change. The company is on track to reduce food waste by 50% by 2025, through Leanpath solutions to improve kitchen efficiency/prevent food waste on a large scale. Since first implementing Leanpath back in August 2021, Uniworld prevented 13,156 kg of food waste from occurring, avoiding ~100 tonnes of carbon from being emitted across the 6 ships currently operating the system. Next year, Leanpath is to be implemented across the entire fleet.
Uniworld also offers ‘Make Travel Matter’ experiences across its itineraries, with plans to include them on at least 50% of all itineraries by 2025. These are immersive impact experiences, carefully chosen for the way in which they advance the UN’s Global Goals, allowing Uniworld passengers "to positively support the planet, its people and wildlife."