Eurostar has launched a new partnership with environmental organisation Trees 4 Travel, allowing passengers to plant trees when they book via the Eurostar for Business platform.
The Eurostar for Business platform was launched in September 2020 and allows organisations to book travel on their colleagues’ behalf or for individual employees to manage their own bookings. It has a single dashboard which shows all bookings in one place and also provides access to promotional fares – for every 15 bookings made by a company, free upgrades or tickets are offered for the next trip.
Passengers using the platform can now choose to plant a tree at a cost of £3 per tree, with Eurostar matching each tree purchased. The high-speed rail service said that the collaboration is in response to growing demand from business travellers to further support sustainable travel initiatives.
According to Eurostar, Trees 4 Travel will undertake reforestation projects in developing countries to restore eco-systems, biodiversity and support indigenous communities through employment.
Eurostar’s head of Indirect Sales and Distribution, Paul Brindley, said:
“We are proud to be the greener way to go between the UK and the continent and we are committed to reducing our own impact on the environment. We know that sustainability is at the heart of business travel policies and we are always looking for more ways we can help our business travellers to be part of creating a more sustainable future. We are pleased to partner with Trees4Travel to bring this to the Eurostar for Business platform and look forward to growing our relationship and many trees on behalf of our travellers.”
Nico Nicholas, co-founder and chief eco officer at Trees 4 Travel, added:
“We are so delighted to be working with this most sustainability forward-thinking transport provider. This Eurostar initiative will not only draw down more than double the carbon created by any of the journeys it represents, but also should inspire other carriers to recognize that so much can be done, if we only work together on climate action.”
The sustainable project to plant trees is not new to Eurostar. In 2020 the rail service planted a tree for every train service that it operated across its routes, partnering with the Woodland Trust, Reforest Action and Trees for All. In total, it planted 20,000 trees in woodlands across the UK, France, Belgium and the Netherlands.
The high-speed rail service says that a passenger’s carbon footprint from one flight is equal to 13 Eurostar journeys, based on 2019 CO2 emissions.
This new partnership comes after the approval of the Eurostar/Thalys merger in March 2022.
