Our Initiatives
At Follow the Camino, sustainability is not a side project. It is built into how we operate. We actively review how we work and perform across governance, workers, community, environment, and customers.
Our CEO and team work together to discuss initiatives that help us manage our organisational impact on the environment, and to share recommendations with our customers and suppliers on how to operate more sustainably.
We work with locally-owned accommodation providers and encourage our clients to eat at independent restaurants, buy locally made products, and participate in local experiences. This keeps economic benefit within the communities we travel through.
We measure our carbon footprint annually and share that data publicly (see our Sustainable Tourism Policy).
Our Priorities
Our sustainability work is built on three pillars: Awareness, Improving our Footprint, and Customers and Communities. At Follow the Camino, we recognise that we have a role to play across the communities and environments we work in, and we organise our efforts accordingly.
Awareness
Awareness of the environmental and social impact of travel is built into how we work. We share information with our customers about slower travel options, local food and accommodation, and how their choices affect the communities along the Camino routes.
Measuring and managing our footprint
Each year, we measure the emissions associated with the trips we organise. Since 2023, we have offered vegetarian meal options across our Camino network, where available. We also purchase and retire carbon credits from certified climate projects; you can see the year-by-year details in Our carbon credits.
Customers and Communities
We actively share practical information with our customers to help them make more considered choices during their Camino journey — from recommending locally-owned restaurants and shops to highlighting low-impact transport options. We point them to sustainability resources and partners relevant to the routes they walk.
Our Projects
Introducing Vegetarian Meals on the Camino
We have created a series of videos with recipes prepared by a local chef highlighting fresh ingredients and culinary techniques native to the Camino. Our aim is for the hotels and restaurants we work with to adopt these recipes for their own menus. We also encourage clients on our Guided Tours to have at least one vegetarian meal during their trip.
United Nations World Food Programme
Since 2014, the company has donated €10 per month per employee to the UN World Food Programme. While it is not a comprehensive solution to the many crises the world is facing, we see it as a concrete and ongoing contribution to addressing global hunger — a problem that can be meaningfully reduced with the right support.
Investing in climate projects
Since 2020, we have purchased and retired carbon credits from certified climate projects, supporting wind and solar power in India and clean water and cleaner cooking in Uganda and Kenya. You can see the year-by-year details, projects and certificates in Our carbon credits.
Measuring Our Emissions
Since 2015, we have calculated the carbon footprint of the trips we organise, including accommodation, luggage transfers and passenger transfers. As a fully remote team, we have no office commute, and most of our meetings and events take place online.
Team and Sustainability
Follow the Camino supported employees in completing a Carbon Literacy certification programme in partnership with Irish sustainability consultancy Earthology in 2023. This initiative helped staff make more informed decisions around carbon in both their professional and personal lives. To support ongoing staff engagement with sustainability, we also developed an Internal Sustainability Guide, shared with all employees and reviewed annually.
Responsible Public Policy Engagement
Follow the Camino is committed to engaging with public policy only in ways that contribute to positive social and environmental outcomes, consistent with our B Corp commitments, the B Lab Standards, and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Our current activities: We make a financial contribution to The Shift Project, a think tank that advocates for the transition to a post-carbon economy through hands-on, non-partisan, specialists-professional-citizen led research and proposals. The main objective is to align the Paris Agreement treaty with science/social equality based solutions. Their work is open source and the findings and publications are then directly submitted and debated with political and economic decision-makers. This contribution is reviewed annually to ensure continued alignment with our values. Annual review criteria include alignment with our values, scientific rigor, and no advocacy for positions that conflict with our environmental and social commitments.
Our principles:
- We base all policy positions on reliable scientific evidence
- We make no financial contributions to political parties or candidates
- We make no in-kind contributions to political parties, candidates, or political organisations
- We prohibit bribery, corruption, or any form of improper influence in any political engagement
- We assess supported organisations annually and will end relationships if their positions contradict our impact commitments. Where a supported organisation holds a position that conflicts with our public policy commitments, we will: (i) publicly report our position in comparison to theirs; (ii) document and communicate any actions taken to positively influence their position toward alignment with our values; and (iii) apply clearly defined red lines — assessed case-by-case against our environmental and social commitments — beyond which we will end the relationship.
Governance: This policy is approved by Umberto Di Venosa/CEO and reviewed every two years. The CEO is accountable for its implementation. HR is responsible for communicating this policy to all staff, including during onboarding. This policy is available to all staff via the company’s internal documentation system and published on our website. The CEO annually reviews compliance and assesses any risks of non-compliance. If any breach is identified, it will be addressed directly and documented.
