Our Polar Pledge
At Oceanwide Expeditions, we recognize that exploring the world's most remote and fragile environments comes with significant responsibility. Like all forms of travel, expedition cruising has an environmental impact - one that we are committed to better understanding, further minimizing, and directly addressing. We believe that our challenge is not only to reduce our footprint, but to amplify our positive contribution.
Globally, transportation contributes about 24% of total carbon emissions. At EU level, maritime transport represents 3 to 4% of the EU’s total CO2 emissions. The cruise sector contributes around 3% to global maritime emissions, translating to less than 1% of global carbon emissions according to 2018 OECD figures. Within this, expedition cruising is a niche segment, and exact figures are difficult to establish. Reports indicate that expedition cruising has a share of between 0.1 to 0.9% of overall cruise industry emissions. However, data is lacking, and this is not an excuse to be complacent.
Both within our operations and across the expedition cruise industry, the importance of sustainability measures, given the specific areas in which we operate and the unique biomes we visit, cannot be overstated. Our specific segment—small-scale, purpose-driven expedition cruising may only represent a fraction of global CO₂ emissions, yet it demands meaningful, tangible actions. We are undergoing a verification process to evaluate our complete scope 1 emissions for 2024 and 2025. This verification and analysis will provide a benchmark, enabling us to better focus our attention where it matters most & allow us to refine our roadmap for the coming years. Once complete, further details will be shared.
While we are reducing our emissions as much as possible across our activities, some emissions are inevitable. Due to this, we are going beyond our supply chain and funding external activities to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, such as our Reforestation Project. Through this project, we aim to fully offset all scope 1 emissions* relating to our cruise activities by 2035.
Our itineraries lead us deep into the polar regions. We take our guests to the ends of the Earth, and into areas of extraordinary natural value and ecological sensitivity. We value and prioritize guest education, and the pursuit of a deeper understanding of our natural world, building on our foundations in scientific research.
As a company, we are committed to making better choices through transparency and collaboration. From investing in our vessel fleet and implementing low-impact tourism practices to making changes to our broader value chain, our efforts are rooted in both immediate improvements and long-term vision. We are active members of AECO and IAATO, voluntary associations promoting collective responsibility and purpose-driven tourism in biologically sensitive regions and work closely with regional conservation-focused organizations and groups to facilitate research.
Our ESG strategy builds on solid foundations. We are already doing much, and we are finalizing how our progress can best be shared. We are focusing on modernizing our fleet, optimizing energy use, minimizing waste, and implementing carbon reduction and compensation programs. As our strategy is further defined, it will further reflect our values as responsible operators and advocates of the polar regions and shape our future as we move forward.
As we evolve, we aim not only to reduce our footprint but also to contribute positively through education, scientific support, and partnerships with local and international stakeholders.
We may be small in scale , but we believe our choices can make a lasting difference not only in the polar world, but in our broader, global environment. No travel is impact-free. But we believe that purposeful, small-scale, and education-driven expedition travel—especially in the polar regions—can serve as a force for recognition, conservation, and a better, more balanced future.
* Scope 1 emissions are direct greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from sources that we own or control directly.
