TravGanic Helps Reduce Your Carbon Footprint Through Travel

Alice Ford, Founder and CEO of TravGanic, helps people travel responsibly with brands and companies that believe in putting our planet first.

Alice is an avid traveler and lover of nature, people, and history. It is her hope that more people respect our world and protect our planet while still traveling. She started the company TravGanic because she wants more people to travel responsibly with brands and companies that believe in putting our planet first.

Alice is from our Travel Massive Los Angeles chapter and has answered a few questions to give Travel Massive readers a little more insight into traveling responsibly and getting to know TravGanic.

What is TravGanic all about?

Our initiative is all about giving consumers amazing travel experiences with companies and brands that are protecting our planet. Travel is one of the most polluting activities we do as a society, but it doesn’t have to be. There are thousands of hotel and tour companies out there providing innovative ways to reduce their footprints. Our website is a way to bring all those companies into the same place. Helping consumers find eco travel experiences and helping businesses connect with consumers.

What inspired you to create TravGanic?

I grew up loving to explore nature, hike mountains, swim in our lakes and oceans. I had a father that stressed the importance of protecting our water and our lands, by reducing waste, recycling and knowing the life cycle of products that we used. As I grew up and my love for nature turned into a love for travel, I saw the destruction that the tourism industry had on our earth. I tried to find ecohotels, eco tours and carbon friendly ways to travel but found myself searching through dozens of websites and often not being able to book online.

I created TravGanic because I wanted to have a site that showcased all of the companies, hotels, tours, and vacation rentals that help preserve our earth. A place where you would see the benefits of staying at a green hotel over a traditional hotel. A place that gives you motivation to connect more closely with nature.

Is there a unique story of how it came to be?

I have spent the last five years as a professional stuntwoman. While working on Transformers 4, we traveled to China. I saw first-hand the smog and pollution that enveloped this once remarkably beautiful place. After we were done, I traveled with my partner through Cambodia, Malaysia, and Borneo. We hiked mountains, snorkeled in what were supposed to be pristine reefs and explored the jungles. The one thing I saw the most of, was trash, everywhere.  I knew there and then that my travel needed to turn into something for good. While working on Star Trek and the newest Transformers movie, I spent my extra time building partnerships with green certification companies, hotels, and non-profits in the travel realm. By 2016 I had enough money and a well-established idea on how I would make TravGanic possible.

What do you hope your initiative will accomplish in the next 2-5 years?

We hope that in 2 to 5 years we will be the largest green travel website in the world. We hope that we can help businesses and consumers in giving back and making our world better. We hope to have volunteering vacations, eco-expeditions, nature tours and airfares with carbon credit discounts.

Do you have any tips for aspiring do-gooders who want to give back or start their own social project?

Make your voices heard. You won’t get anywhere by sitting around. If you have an action or topic you are passionate about. Research it, get involved and find ways to help that are different and unique from anyone else.

How can someone help or get involved?

We are raising more funds on Indiegogo until the end of February. You can check it out and help fund us on Indiegogo.

We are also looking for travel writers that want to guest post on our blog. Ecotourism related content only.

But most importantly use our website for your next trip.

Purposeful Traveler is a series that profiles inspiring people or projects making a purposeful change to the way we travel. You can connect with Alice and TravGanic on Travel Massive, Facebook, and Twitter.