TUI Retail and Tour Operators - Climate Protection
NaturEnergie hydroelectric power station in Whylen – Green electricity for numerous TUI offices
The customers of the TUI UK tour operator Crystal who chose the CO2 offsetting option are given a special luggage tag made of recycled material
Green electricity
NaturEnergie AG (
www.naturenergie.de
) was chosen as the utility to provide the electricity to selected TUI Reisecenter travel agency outlets in Germany starting from December 2003. To date, 700 travel agencies belonging to TUI and its franchise partners have contracted to be supplied with “clean” electricity. More than 10 million kilowatt-hours per year are currently contractually supplied, corresponding to the annual average power consumption of 3000 homes. According to NaturEnergie, this volume of electricity produced by hydroelectric power avoids the emissions of almost 6000 tonnes of carbon dioxide. Alongside the German TUI travel agencies, the headquarters of TUI Deutschland and TUI AG are also supplied with green electricity from NaturEnergie AG.
The travel agencies in the UK run by TUI UK/Thomson have also been supplied with “green” electricity since March 2006. Scottish Southern Energy ( www.scottish-southern.co.uk ) supplies electricity from renewable sources (hydroelectric power, wind power and solar power) to over 750 travel agencies.
Avoiding emissions: let the train take the strain to the airport – a contribution to climate protection
Co-operation between Deutsche Bahn AG (German Rail) and the Verband Deutscher Verkehrsunternehmen (Association of German Transport Operators - VDV) enables TUI Deutschland to provide its customers with a range of services covering the part of the journey between home and the airport:
- Every TUI air package holiday includes a second class rail ticket within the German Rail system for travel to and from airports in Germany.
- This also includes the use of all public transport in twelve major German public transport associations.
In this way, customers can travel to the airports – often more comfortably than by car – and avoid the impact on the environment of travelling to the airport by road.
Emission compensation - voluntary and individual Carbon Offsetting
The TUI UK tour operator Crystal already has experience with carbon offsetting measures to protect the climate. Environmentally-aware Crystal customers can pay a voluntary surcharge on top of the price of their holiday to offset the CO2 emissions.
The size of the charge reflects the distance to the holiday destination and is marked separately in the bill. The money goes to emission-reduction projects organised by the CarbonNeutral Company ( www.carbonneutral.com ) such as solar energy, wind power and wind parks.
TUI Nederland also informs its customers about the carbon offsetting option to compensate for their CO2 emissions, e.g. via GreenSeat ( www.greenseat.nl ).
TUI Nordic in Scandinavia informs about carbon offsetting in cooperation with Atmosfair (www.atmosfair.de) andClimate Care (www.climatecare.org).
Climate-protection and environmentally compatible buildings and building services
TUI España used a particularly climate compatible and environmentally-friendly construction to build its new office at “ParcBit” on Majorca. This was conducted in co-operation with the government of the Balearic Islands. The construction materials and the architecture of the building are designed to reduce emissions and make a positive contribution to climate protection.