At 404 Noir, we have always sought to pioneer a progressive and effective approach to mitigating the inevitable environmental impact of our operations. Being consumers in modern society we take our personal responsibility very seriously. Working in the UHNWI travel sector brings with it additional responsibilities, often consuming as it does comparatively high levels of fossil fuels be it with private aviation, yachting or accommodation.

Our approach and internal policies favour the most efficient and effective available methods. We seek to support non-profits through our active philanthropy journeys, but we also recognise the immediate climate crisis and know more needs to be done. We believe existing commercial ‘offsetting’ options available today to fall short of what is required to create genuine impact to slow down and reverse our current concerning trajectory.

There is much we are powerless to influence, much we cannot do. We seek immediate solutions, so we focus on what we can do. From this determination, we have created the '“CAN” process - calculate - apply - nominate.

— CALCULATE: Calculate the significant carbon emissions from not only each journey but also all business operations through a propitiatory calculator based on official UK Government scientific data. We recognise that calculating CO2 alone doesn't take into account other environmental impacts or emissions, which is in part why we seek to overwhelmingly mitigate.

— APPLY: Apply a fair price per tonne of CO2 produced. This price for journeys guided by the 404 Noir team is determined by the seminal 2017 world bank sponsored report on climate change prepared by Nobel laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz and Lord Nicholas Stern who are co-chairs of the high-level commission on carbon prices. The top range of their increasing sliding scale usd amount this year 2024 is $88 / tonne. We have found no better method for applying a fair price for CO2 emissions.

— NOMINATE: Nominate a verified non-profit to partner with to mitigate the impacts. The majority of the funds allocated (60%) are used to purchase tracts of threatened tropical forests, in collaboration with non profit partners. These are secured with the collaboration and support of local communities, they border existing national parks, and are purchased in perpetuity. This not only sequesters many more times CO2 than was generated, within a few years through the process of photosynthesis, more CO2 is sucked out of the atmosphere than was generated making our operations demonstrably carbon negative. Not only this, the land creates essential wildlife corridors, supports alternative local incomes, while enhancing biodiversity. From the remaining funds, 10% is destined to support hi-tech carbon capture technology which is in need of such investment to scale and bring the costs down. The remaining 30% is destined for innovative blue carbon reduction programmes world-wide with trusted local non-profit partners.

We believe that such methods immediately sequesters at least 5-10 x the CO2 generated, and after several years will have removed from the atmosphere at least the CO2 generated. In subsequent years the protected forests will carry on their good work of removing carbon. In this way, we believe this method has considerably more efficacy than can be achieved through conventional carbon offsetting or certifications schemes.

REPORT AUTHORS DETAILING THEIR REASONING FOR CO2 PRICING