Quantifying the carbon footprint of our travels
Measuring the carbon footprint of our walking and cycling trips is essential to help us improve our ways. This is a long process that we will implement in 2026.
We have favoured an official and demanding calculation methodology: that of the French Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME).
ADEME is the French Agency for Ecological Transition, which participates in the implementation of the French State's public policies in the fields of energy transition. Its method is particularly demanding in the assessment of the carbon footprint and more particularly in that of aviation emissions.
This measure must be based on 3 sources of emissions: on-site transport*, accommodation and food.
*As a receptive agency, we are not responsible for the purchase of airline tickets to the destination. However, we encourage our customers to adopt certain more virtuous practices. For example, we should encourage the purchase of direct flights where possible, avoiding the multiplication of take-offs and landings, and give priority to train journeys for European customers for our trips to France.
Reducing the carbon footprint of our travels
Continue to favour native guides of the destination
The guides who accompany our trips are native people living in the countries visited. We favour this approach above all else because it allows the development of local economic activity and promotes exchanges and the sharing of cultures. But it also avoids the CO2 emissions that could be generated by the air journey of a guide from another country.
Picnics and meals
For picnics and meals, we systematically favor short and local circuits for the supply of food. Depending on the destination, this can be either purchases of local products in local markets, grocery stores or supermarkets which are then prepared by the guides (e.g. mixed salads) or meals at the locals' homes (mainly trips to Cape Verde). However, we find that it is sometimes difficult for our guides to avoid packaging/containing purchased food. This point must be a priority in our areas of improvement.
Developing our range of walking and cycling trips in France and Portugal
Historically, the islands of Madeira, the Azores and Cape Verde have been part of the development of our agency. Hiking territories par excellence, these islands require an additional plane trip (from the mainland to the islands) and sometimes require inter-island travel on domestic routes (Cape Verde, Azores). After reflection, we decided not to add new archipelagos to our range (the Canary Islands, for example, could have been one of our areas of development since it is part of the Macaronesia group).
We have decided instead to develop other regions of France and mainland Portugal, where it is possible to promote travel by public transport (train and bus in particular. This is how in 2025, Brittany and Alsace were added to our travel offer .
In the long term, we could consider opening up other European countries.
Increase the use of trains and buses or other public transport in our travels
By nature, our hiking and cycling trips offer a great deal of mobility. However, it is clear that sometimes we have to use motorized transfers for luggage transport and/or people transport. A reflection on this subject must be carried out in order to promote public transport such as trains, buses, etc. … These modes of transport should be preferred over private taxis and/or rental cars.
See some of our most ecofriendly trips : Rail and hiking in Portugal, from North to South / Hiking the Breton coastline, from Paimpol to Perros Guirec
Helping to absorb some of the emissions from our travels
Despite all efforts made to date and the objectives set, these trips will still generate emissions. It would be illusory to claim that a trip can be completely carbon neutral. The journey to the starting point of the trip, the manufacturing elements necessary for the design of an electric bike, the rental of a car for the self-drive tour or a taxi transfer, the printing of travel documents, the use of a GPS... are all actions that create greenhouse gas emissions.
We have therefore chosen to support TREE NATION : it is a certified B Corp company whose mission is to offset the effects of carbon and to preserve, restore and create forests in France and around the world.
We have calculated the average CO² emissions emitted by the transport included in our hikes and the number of trees needed to absorb this volume of carbon.
For example, on a 6-day tour in France (with a rental car or with transfers included), the emissions are equivalent to 44 kg of CO² for your trip on arrival in France and for the duration of the trip.
Just 1 tree planted can absorb this amount of carbon: for this reason, we have chosen to include the possibility for participants to create an account on TREE NATION and choose the forestry project they wish to support in temperate or tropical zones and virtually plant their tree.
