Start the new year with a clear-eyed plan for transformational travel. In the final episode of our Sustainability Series, we sit down with Dr. Susanne Etti, Intrepid’s Global Environmental Impact Manager, to explore how one of the world’s leading adventure brands is moving sustainability from promises to proof-phasing out offsets, investing directly in decarbonization, and expanding carbon measurement to include the full customer lifecycle, even flights they don’t sell.

Dr. Etti breaks down Intrepid’s three-pillar approach. First: rigorous measurement and transparent reporting that capture everything from on-trip transport and lodging to meals, waste, and now customer air travel. Second: deep decarbonization, including EV adoption for ground transfers, renewable energy across global offices, and itinerary redesigns that remove flights where safe and feasible. Third: climate literacy and advocacy, empowering teams worldwide to understand the data, communicate tradeoffs honestly, and guide travelers with carbon labels and clear storytelling.

Imagine a travel company where the business itself fuels impact, not just through donations but through ownership. That is the UnTours story. In this episode, CEO Jonathan Coleman shares how the world’s first certified B Corp tour operator became part of a foundation that invests every dollar into small businesses creating meaningful change in destinations.

Jonathan walks us through Hal and Norma Taussig’s remarkable origin story, beginning with apartment-based, slow travel in the 1970s and evolving into a vow of poverty that redirected profits into a foundation, eventually transferring company ownership. We then explore the Reset Tourism Fund, which transforms corporate philanthropy from partners such as Expedia Group, TUI Care Foundation, Skyscanner, Tourism Cares, Agoda and XO into flexible, low-interest loans for small tourism enterprises.

The rules of “green travel” have changed. We’re moving beyond feel-good labels to a world where travelers, advisors, and investors expect real proof, data, targets, and measurable benefits for the places we visit. To open our Sustainability Series, Shannon Guihan, Chief Sustainability Officer at The Travel Corporation, joins us to unpack what credible impact looks like in 2026 and how operators of any size can demonstrate it.

We trace an origin story from Newfoundland’s cod collapse to the surge of unplanned tourism that followed, illuminating why sustainability is really destination quality control. Shannon cuts through the sustainable vs. regenerative debate by grounding it in evidence: climate action plans, supplier standards, transparent reporting, and guest experiences that keep money in local communities.