Open-Access Carbon accounting with Travelfootprint

The Travel Footprint Tool is an open-access carbon accounting tool developed by Risklayer for the tourism sector. It calculates emissions from:

• Travel to and within the destination
• Accommodation
• Tourism activities

The Travel Footprint Tool estimates the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the main components of a travel itinerary: transportation, accommodation and activities. Its underlying emission-factor database draws on methodologies and datasets developed by Risklayer through several years of collaboration with ECEAT, complemented by recognized public data sources and specialized external services. To maximize transparency, the Travel Footprint Tool cites the methodology and underlying data source used for every component of the itinerary, allowing users to see exactly how each estimate has been derived.

ASI Reisen is embedding carbon accounting into every ASI Originals trip using Risklayer's Travel Footprint Tool. Discover how transparent emissions data is helping transform climate commitments into practical decisions across trip design and product development.

Because the availability and quality of data differ between itinerary components, the results should be understood as transparent and consistent estimates rather than exact measurements. To make the calculation as clear and traceable as possible, the Travel Footprint Tool identifies the relevant emission factor, methodology and original data source separately for each stage of the itinerary.

Use the Travel Footprint Tool to calculate emissions from transport, accommodation and activities across your own itineraries.

Access the tool free of charge:
travel-footprint.org

For API integration, portfolio-level applications or technical collaboration, contact us.

Application with ASI Reisen

ASI Reisen is a leading adventure travel company offering trips in more than 100 countries. Family-run and now in its second generation, the Austria-based operator primarily serves the German-speaking market and was the first tour operator in the DACH region to achieve B Corp certification.

Like many active and adventure travel operators, ASI Reisen faces an unavoidable challenge: taking travellers to remote and remarkable places often generates substantial emissions, particularly through air travel. Rather than avoiding this tension, the company has built its climate strategy around understanding it.

As a signatory of the Glasgow Declaration, ASI Reisen follows a simple, structured approach: measure emissions, reduce them, and take responsibility for what's left. It sounds obvious when you put it like that, but tourism is a genuinely emissions-intensive industry, and honest, transparent reporting is the unglamorous foundation that everything else rests on. You can't reduce what you haven't measured.

ASI Reisen uses the Travel Footprint Tool to calculate the emissions of its ASI Originals trips. The tool gives the company a consistent basis for comparing trips, monitoring changes over time and identifying where reductions can have the greatest effect.

Each itinerary is assessed day by day. The calculation covers flights where relevant, transportation within the destination, distances travelled, accommodation and activities. As with any modelling platform, the precision of the results depends on the quality and granularity of the available input data. Information may vary between routes, accommodation providers and activities. The value of the tool lies in providing a transparent and consistent methodology that can improve as better data become available.

ASI Reisen publishes the calculated results on its travel platform, allowing customers to see the estimated emissions associated with individual trips. Instead of relying on broad claims such as “carbon neutral,” it presents the underlying numbers.

What the 2025 results show

Across all ASI Originals trips in 2025, average emissions were 1,216 kg of CO₂ per traveller.The results show a significant difference between trips with and without flights:

• Trips including flights averaged 2,296 kg of CO₂ per traveller
• Trips without flights averaged 136 kg of CO₂ per traveller

The comparison confirms that aviation accounts for the largest share of the footprint of many international trips.

Excluding flights, average on-the-ground emissions were 20.56 kg of CO₂ per person per day in 2025, compared with 18.44 kg in 2024.

The results by trip category were:

• Earthbound trips: 18.49 kg of CO₂ per person per day, an increase of 2% from 2024
• European trips: 20.53 kg per person per day, an increase of 2%
• Long-haul trips: 22.68 kg per person per day, an increase of 34%

An increase in reported emissions does not necessarily mean that the underlying trips became substantially more carbon intensive. In this case, much of the change resulted from improved data quality, particularly more precise information supplied by accommodation providers.

This illustrates an important benefit of continuous measurement: better data can reveal impacts that were previously underestimated. ASI Reisen can now incorporate that information into its targets and product decisions for the coming year.

Turning measurement into reductions

Measurement is useful only when it informs decisions. ASI Reisen focuses on two principal reduction levers within its ASI Originals portfolio:

1. Optimising trip design
2. Engaging product managers and other stakeholders

The company holds annual meetings with its product managers to review itineraries and identify practical improvements trip by trip.

For long-haul travel, flights already account for most of the total footprint. Extending a trip by several days may therefore add relatively little to its overall emissions while increasing the economic value retained in the destination. ASI Reisen consequently applies minimum-duration guidelines:

• At least four days for Alpine trips
• At least six nights for European trips
• At least 13 nights for long-haul trips

Other interventions include reducing the distance travelled each day and replacing private or high-emission transport with public transport where feasible.

Product managers now work with defined emissions targets and performance indicators. Carbon considerations are therefore incorporated when trips are designed, rather than assessed only after the itinerary has been completed.

ASI Reisen has also excluded particularly carbon-intensive activities from its ASI Originals portfolio. Helicopter sightseeing flights, for example, are not offered.

Taking responsibility for remaining emissions

Until 2026, ASI Reisen used conventional carbon offsetting to address emissions it could not avoid. Its approach is now evolving.

The company directs its climate investment into a Climate Impact Fund supporting young businesses working on practical decarbonisation solutions. These include low-emission mobility, energy efficiency, energy storage, sustainable materials and climate-adaptive infrastructure.

The objective is to move beyond balancing emissions through offsets and instead support technologies and business models capable of reducing or avoiding future emissions.

Integrating carbon data into everyday planning

ASI Reisen is now developing an API connection to the Travel Footprint Tool. This will allow emissions calculations to become more directly integrated into its product-development and trip-planning processes.

Rather than calculating the footprint as a separate exercise after an itinerary has been designed, teams will be able to consider emissions alongside duration, transport, accommodation, activities, cost and customer experience.

This is an important next step: moving from periodic carbon reporting towards carbon-informed decision-making.