Now climate change is quite rightly gaining more attention, all of us should be making more informed decisions about the way we live and work. Travel has come under particular scrutiny, with flights – and many other activities – singled out for generating carbon emissions and damaging our environment.

But don’t give up on holidays completely.

Many operators have made sustainability a core concern, helping guests to calculate, reduce and off-set carbon generated by their travels. Here they share a few essential tips for making breaks as eco-friendly as possible.

Mike Kelly, co-founder Coral Tree Travel (coraltreetravel.com)

After many years living and working in Africa, Mike Kelly and his wife Tess founded Coral Tree Travel to provide unique family safaris across Africa. Having worked in many hotels and eco lodges implementing sustainability practices, they saw for themselves the sensitivities of working in wilderness areas and the importance of Africa as the lungs of the earth. Making sure that those who visited did so with minimal impact was crucial to their company’s vision.

Use a specialist tour operator

By choosing the right accommodation (which is why using an expert like Coral Tree Travel can help) you can help support many conservation initiatives, which include tree planting and land preservation. Jobs created by tourism in African wilderness areas provide local communities with a sustainable source of income, which reduces their reliance on less sustainable practices such as cattle herding, logging or other less sustainable activities.

Mould change makers of the future

Don’t underestimate the educational value a holiday in Africa can provide to your children. Coral Tree Travel’s strapline, ‘Not all classrooms have walls’, signifies the importance of exposing our children to nature, its challenges and a more sustainable tourism model for the future.

Ben Morison, founder Far and Wild Travel (farandwild.travel)

Far and Wild have launched a carbon scoring initiative providing an accurate carbon footprint score for every holiday quote and booking for their clients. Along with eCollective, they’ve created a survey to measure the carbon footprint that each element of a Far and Wild trip has on the planet.

“This is a world’s first for tailor-made travel – we’re immensely proud to be able to give a unique carbon footprint score to every single tailor-made holiday we create, empowering our customers to make more sustainably minded choices when selecting where and how they travel,” says Morison.

Use air conditioning wisely

Aircon is one of the worst polluters around the world. The irony is what’s keeping us cool is actually heating up the planet. At Far and Wild we prefer evening breeze, a much smarter alternative. When using the air conditioning keep windows and doors closed and turn it off when not in the room.

Be the voice of change

Don’t be afraid to change old habits, question the norms especially at luxury hotels. Think plastic toiletries, fresh towels everyday, imported drinks. Many businesses are scared to make the change and stick to the ways luxury hospitality has always operated. Be a voice for change and give your feedback.

Thomas Power, co-founder and CEO Pura Aventura (pura-aventura.com)

Latin America and Iberia specialist Pura Aventura recently became arguably the first tour operator in the UK to carbon label all of its trips – including international flights. They have also introduced one of the travel industry’s most ambitious carbon mitigation plans that balances a carbon mile for every kilometre travelled by their guests – an extra 60%.

Linger Longer

This year Pura Aventura introduced a collection of Epic Escapes encouraging guests to fly less but experience more by lingering longer in a destination. They’re encouraging travellers to take fewer flights, to go on one ‘big’ holiday per year and immerse themselves in one destination.

Explore new areas

Over-tourism puts pressure on fragile areas and ecosystems. Often bucket list attractions have equally beautiful but unknown equivalents. “We’ve always preferred to stay longer and go deeper off the beaten track; it’s in our DNA,” says Power.