Sustainability
Sustainability, Honestly.
Expedition travel has a real environmental cost. Here's what that cost is, what the industry does about it, and what you can actually influence.
Is expedition travel sustainable?
Not entirely. Reaching Antarctica or the high Arctic requires long-haul flights and a ship, and no amount of onboard recycling changes that. What expedition travel can be is well-regulated, low-impact at the destination, and a source of funding and advocacy for the places it visits. Those are real benefits, and they are not the same as being carbon neutral.
We'd rather tell you that than sell you a claim you can't verify.
Polar tourism is more regulated than most people expect.
Antarctica has no government, but tourism there operates under the Antarctic Treaty and is coordinated by IAATO. Only 100 visitors may be ashore at one site at a time, ships coordinate schedules so sites are never crowded, landing sites have individual visitor limits, and vessels carrying more than about 500 guests cannot land passengers at all.
- Site-by-site visitor caps set by the Antarctic Treaty parties
- A shared scheduling system so operators do not overlap at landing sites
- Mandatory biosecurity procedures before and between every landing
- Wildlife distance rules enforced by expedition staff
- No permanent infrastructure of any kind
The Arctic works differently.
The Arctic has no equivalent of the Antarctic Treaty — Svalbard, Greenland, and the Russian Arctic each sit under national jurisdiction. AECO, the Association of Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators, fills that gap with voluntary guidelines covering wildlife distances, cultural site visits, and community engagement. Every Arctic operator we book follows AECO guidelines. Glacial Expeditions is not itself an AECO member.
More on conduct ashore in our responsible travel guidelines.
What the newer ships do differently.
Expedition vessels built in the last decade use hybrid-electric propulsion, battery packs for silent running near wildlife, hull designs that reduce fuel consumption, and onboard water treatment that eliminates most single-use plastic. The gap between a 2010 vessel and a 2022 vessel is substantial.
- Hybrid and battery-assisted propulsion on several ships in the fleets we book
- Elimination of single-use plastics, following IAATO's commitment under the UN Clean Seas campaign
- Advanced wastewater treatment and zero discharge in protected waters
- Citizen-science programs that collect real data for research institutions
Ship age is one of the things we check when we recommend a vessel. If this matters to you, say so and it will shape which ships we put in front of you.
What you can actually influence.
The single largest share of your trip's emissions is the flight, not the ship. Flying less often and staying longer does more than any onboard measure. Beyond that, choosing a newer vessel, travelling in a shoulder month, and combining regions into one longer trip all reduce impact more than small onboard choices do.
- Combine destinations — one longer voyage beats two separate trips
- Consider a newer ship where hybrid propulsion is available
- Follow the biosecurity procedures properly; invasive species are a bigger local threat than emissions
- Choose direct flights where they exist
- Buy quality gear once rather than replacing it
What we don't claim.
We don't describe our trips as carbon neutral. We don't claim that booking with us funds conservation, because we don't operate a fund. We don't use the phrase eco-certified, because there is no single certification in this industry that would mean much if we did.
What we can tell you is which operators have invested in cleaner ships, which have credible science programs, and which are doing the minimum. That's a more useful conversation than a badge.
Where we stand.
Glacial Expeditions is an Associate member of IAATO, which sets the visitor guidelines governing Antarctic tourism, and a corporate sponsor of the Expedition Cruise Network. We follow IAATO guidance on every polar voyage we plan, and the Arctic operators we book follow AECO guidelines.
Read the responsible travel guidelines, how we think about wildlife encounters, or more about Glacial Expeditions.
Written by your expedition advisor
Erika Commisso · Travel Experience Architect
CLIA Elite Cruise Counselor · ASTA Verified Travel Advisor
Chris and Erika have personally sailed 18 expedition ships across eight expedition regions — and visited ten places in total, adding French Polynesia aboard the Paul Gauguin and Churchill by land.
Last updated .
Want a ship with a smaller footprint?
Tell us it matters and we'll factor it in — vessel age, propulsion, and science programs are all things we can filter on.