Inghams Acts on Sustainability

3rd March 2022

Last modified on March 7th, 2022

The Climate Action Plan is an initiative of the Hotelplan UK travel group, the parent organisation of the Inghams, Esprit and Santa’s Lapland brands.

The company’s CEO has admitted they have not done well enough on sustainability to date.

“We’re not green yet, but we’re doing what we can to stop the slopes getting greener,”  a statement from Hotelplan UK said.

This week the ski tour operators announced they had taken what they called “significant steps for sustainable travel” with a series of actions.

• Becoming one of the first UK-based winter specialist travel groups to offset its flights and ground operations with verifiable Gold Standard carbon credits
• Inghams partnering with Protect Our Winters UK (POW UK) and taking the POW pledge as part of Hotelplan’s commitment to a more sustainable future
• Teaming up with Eco Ski to encourage skiers, snowboarders, staff and winter holidaymakers to rethink their ‘ownership’ of winter clothing and discourage them from always buying new
• Announcing their plans to support rewilding projects to restore ecosystems

On the snow with Inghams – photo © Piotr Golemo

“In 2021 we announced our commitment to sustainability, a significant first for the ski and Lapland specialists,” said Prue Stone, Hotelplan UK Head of Sustainability.

“This year we are putting our words into action and I am thrilled with the progress and engagement so far.

“We are building really meaningful relationships with community led experts, learning from them and really transitioning our product and mind set based on this.

“Now, we are launching our new comprehensive carbon action plan, including carbon offsetting and rewilding, as well as taking our first steps into the circular economy by transforming how we think about uniform and clothing, away from the norm of fast fashion and waste.

“We are also taking a team, by train, to our core destinations to meet local communities and hear about projects that are leading in this space and see how we can support them and scale the changes that are needed.

“We have a long way to go to create the perfect product, the perfect business, but these coming months and years will be fast paced and exciting.”

According to the Hotelplan UK CEO, Joe Ponte, the company’s winter brands have been lagging behind.

Joe Ponte – photo © Hotelplan UK

“At Hotelplan UK we have 5 tour operator brands across different categories, and we are committed to becoming the most sustainable in each of the categories that we operate in,” he said.

“Whilst some of our brands are very well progressed towards this goal, our winter focused brands, Esprit, Inghams and Santa’s Lapland, do not yet showcase high enough standards in sustainable travel.

“However with the definition of our Climate Action Plan, and other key initiatives we are launching, we are making significant steps to our commitment to become leaders in sustainability.

“We have much work to do, but hope these early commitments will help highlight the importance of sustainable practices in the broader ski and winter sector and raise awareness of the necessity to act now.

“We all have a responsibility to work together to build a more sustainable ethos—and Inghams, Esprit and Santa’s Lapland will continue to look to lead the sector in this area.”