The JoCo Cruise
Carbon Roadmap
Our initiative to mitigate our carbon footprint.
A LETTER FROM JONATHAN COULTON
After over a decade of JoCo Cruising, it’s remarkable to look back and see how much we have grown and changed as an event, a community, and as a company. We feel an ongoing and sincere responsibility to be a positive force in the world, not only through the fun and welcoming space we all work together to create, but also in how we at JoCo Cruise run our business. We love cruising, but are also acutely aware of its impacts on the environment. That’s why we are excited to share the steps we’re taking to reduce our carbon footprint.
One thing about running a cruise for nerds is that, when you speak about science, your ducks best be in the straightest of rows. So before settling on a course of action, we educated ourselves about the science behind climate change and our own carbon footprint. We engaged a consultant who helped us understand the findings of the IPCC (the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, formed by the UN) on the global carbon budget, and to estimate and quantify our emissions. What we learned was sobering, and we want to present that information and our plan to begin addressing it.
We’re aware that carbon is only part of the picture, but believe it’s the area in which we can most quickly effect real change. We also know that reasonable people can disagree about the acceptability and effectiveness of carbon offsets and offsetting strategies, and we both expect and welcome tough questions and critical comments from our community of thoughtful, well-informed smarties.
We will review our strategy annually and incorporate new findings and science on this subject as JoCo Cruise continues to grow and change; as the technologies to combat climate change evolve; and in light of feedback we receive. We will always make our best efforts to listen, learn, and find the best way forward, in support of our larger mission to minimize our impact on this planet.
We’re excited that we’ve already taken a few steps down this path, and look forward to what will surely be many more to come, as we work as a community to face the challenges ahead of us.
Yours in cruises,
– Jonathan and The Management
Jonathan Coulton, Paul Sabourin,
Storm DiCostanzo & Drew Westphal
Revised on 3/5/2023
Guided by experts in the field, and grounded in the best available science, we’re committing to a framework for offsetting JoCo Cruise’s carbon emissions.
Check out our comprehensive (and super-interesting!) whitepaper to learn the latest science about the planet’s carbon budget, the urgency of addressing climate change, and the criteria we use to chart our course of action.
CURRENT STEPS
We’ve partnered with an industry leading carbon management firm to vet and purchase ethical, equitable carbon removals for JoCo Cruise
With a staff of over 30 scientists, including Virtual Cruise 2021 Speaker Julio Friedman from the Columbia School of International and Public Affairs, Carbon Direct has partnered with JoCo Cruise to help us meet our Carbon Removal goals. Our first purchase through Carbon Direct of 2600 tonnes of carbon removal credits from two high quality afforestation/forestry management projects combines conservative science backed carbon metrics with equitable, local, community-based afforestation/forestry management to generate reliable, monitored carbon removals.
We’ve made a “down payment” to offset marine fuel and flight emissions from current and previous JoCo Cruises
Prior to our partnership with Carbon Direct, we made a “down payment” to afforestation projects and an N2O abatement program that has collectively offset the marine fuel emissions for:
- JoCo Cruises 2018 through 2022
- JoCo Cruises 2011 through 2013
- All flight fuel emissions for our crew and performers on JoCo Cruises 2019 through 2022
Together, these two projects amounted to over half the volume of emissions from marine fuel and air travel since JoCo Cruise began—and our longer-term goal is to retroactively offset ALL prior JoCo Cruise events!
With additional time and research, we intend to account for additional emissions sources within our business, beyond marine fuel and air travel.
We’re seeking additional ways to reduce our sailing’s carbon footprint and increase sustainability
We’re working with our cruise industry partners to find additional ways to reduce our sailing’s carbon footprint and increase sustainability, above and beyond the ever-growing number of initiatives they already have in place.
we’re seeking additional ways to reduce our sailing’s carbon footprint and increase sustainability
We’re working with our cruise industry partners to find additional ways to reduce our sailing’s carbon footprint and increase sustainability, above and beyond the ever-growing number of initiatives they already have in place.
track our progress on this page
As we move forward, we’ll track our progress on this page (jococruise.com/carbon), and we’ll post updates to our Roadmap as applicable. As we’ve noted, this is an ongoing process involving many steps, and we look forward to making continued progress and taking additional steps in our larger mission of minimizing our impact on the planet.
