Employee Passion

Our employees are passionate about Travel For Good. Here are some of our efforts over the past few months:

  • In September, we gathered in cities across the country to help clean, maintain, and renew our country’s public lands on National Public Lands Day.
  • To raise awareness for Go Zero, we distributed over 6,000 sapling trees in October to people in New York City, Dallas, and San Francisco.
  • In December, we visited a small village in the Dominican Republic and provided books and clothes for school children there.
  • At the end of January, we helped a hurricane ravaged neighborhood in New Orleans rebuild through hands-on volunteer work and donations.
  • In New York City, for Earth Day, we distributed Eco Bunny stickers to encourage people to learn more about carbon offsets and how they can help.

Note to our CEO from an employee about our Go Zero Program in March 2007:

I can’t contain myself any longer. I am so very proud of our Company. I worked for 6 years in the “environmental” field, but found that that company was anything but environmentally conscious. Then I found that Travelocity has these wonderful ecotours. Now, Sabre will give a grant to employees to allow them to contribute their efforts towards one of these tours. How awesome! Then I find that we also have an effort to lower fuel emissions (GoZero). How great is that! If I didn’t already love this company, I would be in love now. I am so proud of these efforts that I just wanted to thank you and let you know that this is a noble and responsible way to do business.

--Dyna

Travelocity Travel for Good Efforts

Company Commitment

Travel For Good is about protecting the future of the places we love. As a travel company, it’s our way of conveying our sense of responsibility and respect for these places, and our commitment to minimizing the environmental impact of any journey. Since launching Travel For Good in August 2006, we’ve planted trees, cleaned up public lands, saved endangered turtles, forged partnerships with “voluntourism” non-profits, and created a cause-oriented grants program. Read on for more details.

Weeding national park; planting a tree; Dominican Republic

Go Zero and Carbon Offsets

We’re proud to be the first online travel agency to allow our customers to donate carbon offsets. Administered by The Conservation Fund’s Go Zero program, these donations pay to plant native, carbon-reducing trees at the Bogue Chitto National Wildlife Refuge, a cherished wilderness 45 miles north of New Orleans.

  • The first tree was planted in November 2006, with Louisiana’s Lieutenant Governor Mitch Landrieu, Travelocity’s Chief Marketing Officer Jeff Glueck, and the Conservation Fund’s Chris Fanning all in attendance.
  • Since then, approximately 18,000 trees have been planted. Over their lifetime, each of these trees will trap more than 21 million pounds of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere (more than 22,000 tons).
  • In Q4 2006, we began offsetting all Travelocity employee travel in North America and we will continue doing so each quarter.
  • Our Eco-Bunnies educational video explains carbon offsets in layman’s terms and is being developed as an environmental curriculum in schools.
  • Virgin Records recording artist KT Tunstall hosted a private concert in Las Vegas on January 31 to promote Go Zero and address climate change.
  • During the Great Turtle Race of 2007, Travelocity sponsored a leatherback sea turtle named Turtleocity to raise awareness of the plight of endangered species.

Change Ambassadors Grants and Volunteer Vacation Partners

Joss Stone and Habitat for Humanity

To bring volunteer vacations, or “voluntourism,” to the mainstream, Travelocity’s Change Ambassador program makes it easy for our customers to help important causes in the destinations they visit. We’ve partnered with some top voluntourism providers to offer everything from habitat restoration and animal-rescue missions to humanitarian and homebuilding projects around the world.

For potential volunteers who cannot afford these experiences on their own, we’ve created the Change Ambassadors Grant. There are three grants awarded per quarter: two for customers and other non-employees, and one for employees.

  • The Change Ambassador Grant committee accepts and reviews applications quarterly. Each application period ends on the last day of each quarter (March 31, June 30, September 30 and December 31).
  • Travelocity employees donated enough during their annual Give Together campaign last fall to fund an additional Change Ambassadors Grant every quarter.
  • In early May, Singer Joss Stone volunteered as a Travel for Good “Change Ambassador” with Habitat for Humanity to build a home for uprooted Katrina victims while in New Orleans during this year’s Jazz Festival.