Sustainability - Planet B

On March 1st, 2024, Planet B by Bollig Tours was awarded the “Travelife Certified” sustainability award. The Travelife Certified award is a recognition of our excellence towards social and environmental sustainability. We comply with more than 200 criteria related to sustainability management, office operations, working with suppliers and customer communication. Travelife standards are formally recognized by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC), the highest global body for sustainability in tourism, supported by the United Nations. Travelife is a three-stage certification program for tour operators and travel agents: (1) Travelife Engaged; (2) Travelife Partner and (3) Travelife Certified. We are at stage 3 – Travelife Certified.

Our sustainability policy

At Planet B, our commitment lies in developing our brand, products and activities in line with sustainability principles. We recognize that the environment, communities, and cultures in which we operate are critical to the success of our business. We also recognize that we share responsibility for preserving the environment, communities, and culture in the countries we travel to.

Therefore, acting responsibly and respectfully is one of our company’s core values. Our stated aim is to maximize the positive impact of tourism on individuals and local communities, while minimizing the negative social, environmental and economic impact. This relates to all dimensions of sustainability: people and their culture, the economy, and the environment.

This policy sets out what we have already achieved, what we are currently doing and what we want to achieve in the future. It defines practices that are at the core of our product development, our organization and our relationships with external partners. Every member of the Planet B product team is a valuable contributor to this policy and believes in the importance of sustainable travel.

We are therefore committed to the following goals concerning

The people

We attach great importance to long-term, trusting and fair business relationships with our local partners. This includes fair contractual conditions and fair payment, which enables our partners to invest in staff, equipment, and training. Price dumping is definitely not part of our business practices.
We favour cooperation with partners who share our commitment to sustainability and have a clearly defined sustainability policy.
In our travel countries and regions, we prefer to work with local companies that preserve and reflect the local culture. This applies to hotels/lodges, transport companies, restaurants, craft businesses/art and cultural centres. In return, we avoid overnight stays in foreign hotel chains so that as much of the travel price as possible remains in the regions travelled to and does not flow into foreign corporations. We only use international hotels in exceptional cases (if there is no suitable accommodation in terms of quality and sustainability).
We and our partners are always working to optimize the social impact of our trips in order to improve local living conditions. Respect for human rights (including the rejection of child labor under the age of 14) is an absolute condition for cooperation with Planet B. Any violation of human rights will result in immediate termination of the co-operation.
Planet B has an equally absolute zero tolerance for corruption and the sexual exploitation of children. Here too, an offence leads to the immediate termination of the cooperation.
Together with our partners, we ensure that the trips we organize do not have a negative impact on the environment or society, particularly in the case of sensitive activities that may bring travelers into contact with animals, children or remote communities. Care is also taken to ensure that any activities organized by our partners do not negatively impact the local population’s access to and availability of land and public space, clean water, food, healthcare and energy.
Planet B requires its local partners to carefully select and train their tour guides (with a particular focus on sustainability and all related issues, including illegal souvenirs) and to pay them fairly and in accordance with the law.
In the spirit of mutual enrichment, we consistently focus on encounters between locals and travellers.
We promote responsible tourism in our industry and among the stakeholders we deal with in our destinations and pass on our expertise in this area in the countries and regions we visit.
We drive positive change within our value chain and provide information, training and support to colleagues and external partners to engage them in sustainability.
We give back to the neighbouring communities in our region by supporting projects that address local development challenges and by promoting fair employment opportunities and the promotion of prosperity.
We put our customers and guests at the centre of everything we do and help them to make informed decisions about their travel. In our travel announcements, we provide information about the sustainability of our products to encourage our customers to choose Planet B’s sustainable holidays. We provide further information on sustainability with the travel documents, including information on illegal souvenirs (link to WWF souvenir guide https://www.wwf.ch/fr/guide-souvenirs).
Of course, we also respect our employees and their diversity and promote their well-being wherever we can.

The environment

Preserving the environment and continuously improving our environmental footprint is very important to us.
When planning trips, we take care to avoid feeder or intermediate flights and to create programs that are as resource-efficient as possible. Within the countries and regions travelled, longer distances are covered by train if possible, without compromising on quality. In cities, we favor public transport. Of course, we always keep an eye on quality and safety.
We offset 100% of the CO₂ emissions from flights and land-based services.
Internally, we measure our consumption of natural resources, especially energy, and look for ways to reduce it. We use green electricity in our offices. Our website is hosted on a server (also powered by green electricity) located in Luxembourg.
We monitor and reduce our waste in a responsible manner.
Wherever possible, we buy local products and limit the use of small packaging (e.g., coffee from a local, sustainable roastery, tea from local producers).

Planet B by Bollig Tours has firmly anchored the principles of sustainable development in its core business, the development and production of holidays. All relevant laws are complied with. Through regular training and dialogue, we ensure that our employees understand our goals and take responsibility for implementing our sustainability guidelines. We monitor our daily processes, share best practices (where necessary) and sensitize the team and our partners worldwide to the issue of sustainability. Once a year, we communicate internally and externally about the achievement of our sustainability goals by means of detailed reporting.

Not everything is always perfect and not everything can always be realized the way we want it to be. In many countries, especially in Europe, the idea of sustainability is not yet firmly established in all areas of tourism. In the spirit of a partnership of equals, we are grateful for any comments, ideas, and suggestions regarding the sustainability of our holidays – by phone (+352 729722-1), by email (info@planetb.travel), or on site at our travel agency in Echternach (121, route de Luxembourg).