Let’s Talk about the 2023 Impact Report

I consider myself very lucky to do the work that I do. I get to combine my passion for travel and sustainability into one, working within The Travel Corporation’s (TTC) sustainability team to make sure we are conducting business in an ethical and responsible way, while providing the same type of trips to our guests. As someone working in communications, I especially value the level of transparency at TTC—something that’s critical to sustainability in a day and age when so many brands are greenwashing just to jump on the bandwagon. For us at this group, sustainability is not just a trend or marketing tactic.

Since launching our How We Tread Right sustainability strategy in 2019, releasing our yearly impact reports has become one of my favorite annual benchmarks. It's so exciting to see the progress our brands made in the last year and get to showcase it in one beautifully designed piece. I think it’s a great way to motivate and drive progress within our family of brands and inspire sustainable operations across the travel industry.

If you haven’t read the full report yet, I highly recommend you do. You can check it out here.

Uniworld had so many great initiatives to contribute to TTC’s overall impact last year, and I’m excited to share some of the initiatives featured in our 2023 Impact Report:

 

1. In 2023 an EU funded project called Path2Zero commenced. This project is a collaboration of organizations across the inland shipping industry (led by Technical University Delft) and is aimed at devising the most suitable path for our industry to reach net zero by 2025. Uniworld is the only cruise company participating in the 5-year project, committing their own captains, engineers, and technical experts will participate in the project’s various living labs and workshops.

 

2. Uniworld completed the rollout of its food waste management system, Leanpath, across its full fleet of 11 owned ships and reduced food waste by 36% from its 2019 baseline. This equated to almost 64,000 meals saved! Uniworld engages guests with Leanpath and its mission to fight food waste with a new optional dining opportunity across the fleet called the Progressive Dinner. The dinner is hosted by the Hotel Manager with no more than 10 guests at a time. Each course is served in a different “back of house” area of the ships. The kitchens are included in this Progressive Dinner, which gives their chefs an opportunity to demonstrate how Leanpath is used to reduce food waste and why doing so is a priority for us.

 

3. Uniworld’s staterooms and suites are 100% free of single use plastics. The ships have made several more sustainable upgrades lately, like providing toiletries in refillable bottles, offering fabric bags for laundry service, and using glass dishes for buffet items like butter and jam instead of single-use containers. Now, Uniworld is even looking to their supply chain to remind them of our efforts and work towards eliminating single-use plastics in deliveries.

 

4. TTC’s goal is to have at least one MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® Experience on 50% of itineraries by 2025. Appearing on itineraries across our family of brands, these excursions are created based on criteria endorsed by industry experts and developed exclusively for TTC to ensure that each MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® Experience is actively advancing at least one of the United Nations Global Goals (UNSDGs). This means that our guests and partners know that by participating in these experiences, they are positively impacting the community we visit in an authentic and meaningful way. Not only did Uniworld already hit that goal in 2023, but they crushed it with an incredible 67% of their itineraries featuring MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® Experiences. Now they’re setting their sights even higher, working to get one on every single itinerary.

And while some initiatives are big and splashy, the more subtle changes matter too—like the new energy-efficient boiler at our Encino office that will reduce fuel consumption by up to 15%, financed by our Carbon Fund. The journey towards sustainability really does need to be holistic, and I’m proud to say that while there remains lots of work to be done, we are fully committed to doing our part for the future of our planet, its people, and wildlife.

Note: The contents of this article are accurate as of the publication date. Uniworld itineraries and inclusions are subject to change at any time.