Reducing the climate impact of school trips

School trips can be among the most impactful experiences in a student’s education.

Those of us who organise them, however, experience an uncomfortable tension, knowing such trips can require one of the most carbon-intensive forms of transport - flying.

Aviation is one of the fastest-growing sources of greenhouse-gas emissions and one of the hardest sectors to decarbonise. How can schools preserve the educational value of travel while taking responsibility for the climate impact it creates?

The Alliance for Sustainable Schools (TASS) works with students to understand the climate impact of school travel and explore how schools can reduce and offset the associated emissions.

Offsetting the emissions of school trips

Following a conversation between TASS founder Anthony Dixon and John Gwyn Jones, CEO of the Federation of British International Schools in Asia, students at Alice Smith School in Malaysia were invited to analyse the impact of air travel to the 32nd annual FOBISIA Leadership Conference by delegates last November. They estimated it generated 451 tonnes of carbon-dioxide emissions.

The students then proposed that the conference could offset this impact by purchasing carbon credits that fund projects in the Global South that seek to reduce or remove carbon from the atmosphere.

To carry out this work, the students took part in six workshops led by Anthony, where they learned how to calculate travel emissions, understand the voluntary carbon market and assess the evidence, risks and costs associated with a range of offsetting projects.

The students recommended credits from four of them and presented their findings to about 400 school leaders on the final day of the conference. FOBISIA accepted their recommendations and purchased and retired the credits for US$1,860 (£1,400).

Empowered to make change

Of course, carbon credits do not make trip emissions disappear. But they are a good way for schools to take responsibility for the emissions that remain after reviewing whether any trips could be avoided or redesigned or whether lower-carbon destinations or modes of transport are possible.

As such, inspired by their success, the students made the case for Alice Smith to address its own travel footprint.

This led to the school purchasing and retiring 394 carbon credits to offset emissions from its trips weeks in 2025 and 2026. Other schools that have begun to offset their travel emissions include Marlborough College Malaysia, Amnuay Silpa School in Thailand and Chinese International School in Hong Kong.

The key is not just that students are made aware of climate change and its impact, but that they are empowered to do something about it and engage their own schools on the issue. What’s more, it helps them to develop real skills through a real-world problem many are deeply concerned about.

For example, when investigating climate credits and the projects that produce them, they have to interpret data, interrogate claims made about the projects, understand the factors affecting price and quality, and make a convincing case to decision-makers.

The value of negotiation

This last point is particularly important. At Alice Smith, leaders did not agree to the students’ proposals immediately, and their reservations were reasonable. Past media investigations have highlighted cases where carbon credits have failed to deliver their claimed benefits.

As such, the leaders wanted to know how the school could avoid “greenwashing” and how they could know whether the carbon benefits had been overstated or were unlikely to last.

There are no simple answers to these questions - no project is free from risk.

But the evidence the students had gathered from project documentation and independent ratings enabled them to explain why some projects were more credible than others, and to be transparent about the limitations of offsetting.

Cost was another concern. Rather than asking the school to make an open-ended commitment to carbon offsetting at uncertain future prices, the students suggested starting with trips week and a specific project they had vetted and then consider if, and how, it could be expanded in the future.

During the 2026-27 academic year, the school plans to extend this approach to all overseas curriculum trips and institutionalise climate-responsible travel principles within school policy.

Climate-Responsible Travel for Schools campaign

Building on Alice Smith’s experience, TASS has launched the Climate-Responsible Travel for Schools campaign. The campaign aims to involve 100 schools and offset 50,000 tonnes of carbon-dioxide travel emissions by June 2027.

We invite educators and school leaders to join the campaign. Measure your travel emissions, explore opportunities to reduce them, and involve students in deciding how to address what remains. Starting with one trip or event makes the process manageable and creates a basis for wider action.

School trips are invaluable, but their carbon impact cannot be ignored. At Alice Smith, making that impact visible prompted difficult but useful conversations about the school’s responsibility for its travel emissions and the limitations of offsetting.

Carbon offsetting by itself will not make school travel climate-responsible. But the project has changed how the school thinks about travel and given students first-hand experience of what it takes to influence change.

David Morris is head of enrichment at Alice Smith School in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Hannah Richardson is head of sustainability at Alice Smith School

Anthony Dixon is the founder of The Alliance for Sustainable Schools