Our carbon neutral statement

Down2Earth does not pretend that we can undo our carbon footprint by planting a tree every time someone boards a plane. Unfortunately, plane travel is difficult to avoid in today's already globalised society. While our core values dictate that we constantly seek to minimise our impact on the planet, we accept that people can only work within the structure given to them, and that as charter planes are overbooked as a matter of routine, the benefit of cross cultural communication and resultant sense of global solidarity gained through participating in overseas volunteer work will outweigh the present immediate damage on a longer term scale. We do campaign for avoided deforestation as a more genuinely effective way to reduce our carbon emissions and actively encourage our volunteers to travel overland or by boat where possible. We provide suggested overland routes to our volunteer projects and offer a 10% discount to any volunteer that can show evidence of having travelled by alternatives methods other than flying.

If you do wish a tree planted as a small compensation for your air travels, we suggest you donate to Tree Flights.