SUSTAINABILTY POLICY

What is carbon offsetting?

Carbon offsetting is a process to balance out your climate impact and compensate for the greenhouse gas emissions you produce. It accomplishes this by reducing or removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere elsewhere.

Why is sustainability important for Discovery Summer?

At Discovery Summer we acknowledge that our activities - particularly the greenhouse emissions created by our students' flights to/from the UK - have an impact on the environment.

How is Discovery Summer offsetting carbon emissions?

For the last 3 years we have partnered with Sustainable Travel International to support a range of verified climate initiatives around the world. These projects fight climate change by removing greenhouse gasses from the atmosphere or avoiding emissions that would otherwise happen.

Larimar Wind Farm

In 2024, we offset 860 tonnes of CO2 by donating £4312 to support the Larimar Wind Farm in the Dominican Republic.

The Dominican Republic's booming tourism industry consumes a large amount of energy, with fossil fuels accounting for most of the supply. Set in a less developed part of the country, the Larimar Wind Farm utilizes the sea breeze to generate clean electricity. By creating local employment and improving education, the project fights the inequalities that all too often affect rural communities.

In previous years we supported the projects below.

Maissa REDD+

The endemic centre of Belem is an area of immense biodiversity within the Brazilian Amazon. The region is home to more than 450 animal and plant species, many of which are found nowhere else on the planet.

Increasing the economic value of the standing forest and improving surveillance, the project aims to protect this critical habitat and create better living conditions for local inhabitants.

Katingan Mentaya Project

This project is protecting and restoring one of the largest remaining peat swamp forests in Indonesia. Massive stores of carbon are locked away beneath the swamp's surface, while the aboveground forest habitat is home to over 5% of all remaining Bornean orangutans. Along with conserving this critical ecosystem, the project is enhancing the quality of life of rural communities by creating livelihood opportunities, formalizing land rights, and improving public services.

We look forward to teaching our students about this project and other environmental issues in the summer.

Discovery Summer is working with all its host centres/ suppliers in regard to improving e.g. recycling, avoidance of waste, improving all aspects of procurement processes.

Discovery Summer will reduce use of single use plastics whenever within our control (e.g. by continuing to provide reusable water bottles at all residential centres)