CIE Tours has signed the Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism. The Glasgow Declaration encourages climate action through partners’ commitment to reduce emissions by at least 50 percent over the next decade and to achieve net zero by 2050. As a signatory, CIE Tours has committed to aligning its actions with the Declaration’s designated five pathways, reporting annually on progress made, and sharing best practices and solutions for the betterment of the industry.
CIE Tours also announced the appointment of Ken Lyons as sustainability manager, based in the company’s office in Dublin, Ireland. Bringing more than 15 years of tourism and hospitality experience to the organization, he will lead the charge in development and oversight of all companywide sustainability strategies to ensure the program’s long-term success.
Lyons will focus on industry relations and forging strong partnerships with the goal of advancing CIE Tours' sustainability agenda; implementation of initiatives that support the organization’s recently developed decarbonization strategy; and adoption of best practices that support both CIE Tours' parent company, CIE Group, and the global community. Lyons’ recent work has included projects like Screen Ireland, which focused on better understanding the impact of carbon emissions within the Irish film and TV industry and development of a decarbonization roadmap for the organization.
To establish a baseline, in 2022, CIE Tours calculated its carbon emissions across its operations, including tours and flights taken by guests. This large-scale effort formed the foundation for the company’s carbon reduction targets with the goal of meeting the following deliverables by 2030:
- 50 percent reduction in corporate emissions
- 50 percent reduction in emissions from land arrangements
- 25 percent reduction in emissions from aviation
To support these goals, CIE Tours has also implemented a pilot program with select industry suppliers to gather data, identify best practices and to establish benchmarks. Initial pilot partners include the Guinness Storehouse, Aer Lingus, Dalata Hotels, Hyatt Centric The Liberties, Ballygarry Estate Hotel & Spa, Croke Park Hotel and Cronin’s Coaches, who are running CIE Tours’ 2024 schedule of "Irish Gold" tours on biofuel (hydrotreated vegetable oil), which includes more than 50 departures.
For more information, visit www.cietours.com.
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