It’s that listicle time of year, when magazines start putting together their “best of” and “most influential” lists. Time Magazine has just released their Time 100 Climate list, as in “the 100 most influential leaders driving business to real climate action.” The list includes titans of business, world leaders, actors and… Prince Harry, founder of Travalyst. Harry came up with the idea for Travalyst more than a decade ago, but he ended up launching it in his final year as a “working royal” in 2019. When Harry divorced himself from the Windsors, Travalyst came with him. Travalyst is a stand-alone thing now, separate from Harry’s office in Archewell, but he still does a lot of work for and with Travalyst. Here’s Time Magazine’s rather lovely write-up (and you can see the full Time 100 list here):
The Duke of Sussex supports conservation groups in Africa and says he really became an environmentalist during a trip in 2012 to the Caribbean when a 7-year-old boy told him that England’s environmental impact was damaging the coral reefs. After that interaction, he was inspired to start Travalyst (“travel” and “catalyst”), a nonprofit that provides people booking travel with emissions data so they can consider the most sustainable options. The aim is to help make a dent to the industry’s carbon footprint; tourism makes up about 11% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
Travalyst worked with Google to create the Travel Impact Model, a free, publicly available methodology launched in 2022 that predicts per-passenger CO2 emissions produced by upcoming flights. Travalyst’s coalition of partners, representing a combined market value of $3 trillion, includes top tech companies used by tourists like Booking.com, Expedia Group, Mastercard, Skyscanner, Tripadvisor and Visa. On Sept. 12, Travalyst announced that its flight emissions data has appeared in 65 billion searches worldwide.
Prince Harry has stressed that sustainable travel also means travel that boosts local economies and supports tourism businesses that hire local talent. He summed up Travalyst’s mission at its fifth anniversary celebration on Sept. 24 during Climate Week: “As I sought solutions to some of the world’s most pressing conservation challenges, I quickly realized just how profound an impact the travel and tourism industry has…together we are proving that travel can be a force for good. So let’s continue this journey together and make sure that travel benefits everyone everywhere.”
One of the things I appreciate about Travalyst is that they’ve never tried to be a stand-alone thing, separate from the tourism industry. Like, you don’t have to go to some separate site to do your research on flights and pollution and what have you. By partnering with Booking.com, Tripadvisor, Visa, etc, Travalyst folded itself within the tourism and travel industry flawlessly to provide information where people are. It’s so smart and it really was one of Harry’s best ideas.
Is it also really funny that Harry made Time’s Climate 100 and Prince Keenshot did not? For sure. I can hear the incandescent rage from here.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images, Travalyst video.