With our Conscious Travel Rating we want to provide transparent information. The rating should give you immediate visibility and clarity in what way and to what degree a company is conscious. In the info box on the recommendation’s detail page we give an explanation of how we got to the rating. Where possible we give information on any conscious policies and practices of the company being recommended.

What we mean by conscious travel

Conscious travel to us means more than green, eco-friendly, sustainable and organic. Important is the awareness you have of the impact of your lifestyle to your surroundings. For us, conscious living and travelling comes down to: respect for your fellow humans, for animals, the environment and respect for yourself and your health.

On Conscious Travel Guide we talk about ‘conscious travel’ when, for example:

  • restaurants serve organic food and/or use seasonal, locally sourced produce;
  • shops sell recycled or otherwise sustainable products;
  • fashion shops and brands sell Fair Fashion and natural, organic clothes;
  • initiatives create awareness for a specific social topic or support community/social programmes/projects;
  • companies are making an effort to run as sustainably as possible.

As said, these are just a few examples, but you get the drift.

Explaining the Conscious Travel Guide rating icons

To easily make conscious choices when you travel, it is important to get transparent information on what companies do to run their business in a conscious, sustainable way. To help you get visibility on this transparent information, we have created a Conscious Travel Guide’s rating system.

The three conscious pillars

We rate companies on three conscious pillars:

Three coloured Conscious rating icons for environmental awareness Environment
Three coloured Conscious rating icons for animal welfare Animal welfare
Three coloured Conscious rating icons for social responsibility Human welfare and social aspects

Environment

This pillar consists of everything that has to do with sustainability: saving energy and water, seasonal and local vegetables, organic vegetables and clothing, recycling, reducing carbon footprint, reducing food waste, et cetera, et cetera.

Animal welfare

This mainly involves vegetarian and vegan food and organic meat. But we also give credits to companies that do something positive for animal welfare, by supporting projects that help animals in need, for instance. Or companies that raise awareness against animal cruelty. It can also cover businesses that are animal/pet friendly.

Human welfare and social aspects

This pillar comprises of companies that sell Fair Trade products and respect the human capital in the whole production process and supply chain. And that are actively looking for improvements. This is a tricky and difficult pillar to monitor, but we do our best to inform you as transparently as we can. Furthermore this pillar includes companies that help people that can’t make it in our society by themselves. These companies make a substantial effort to give them a place (back) in society.

The five different rating options

There are five different rating possibilities for each pillar:

  1. Not applicable Greyed out Conscious rating icons for environmental awareness
  2. Non-existing, but applicable Empty coloured Conscious rating icons for environmental awareness
  3. Good One coloured Conscious rating icon for environmental awareness
  4. Better Two coloured Conscious rating icons for environmental awareness
  5. Best Three coloured Conscious rating icons for environmental awareness

The rating is based on information that we’ve researched and on the information we get from the companies we recommend. We understand that there is a fair bit of subjectivity in the rating. Therefore we try to explain how we got to the rating as much as possible. We greatly value transparency and want to give you the conscious information you need to make a decision of your own. We do our best to verify any specific claims that a business makes in regards to operating consciously.

NOTE: Please do not hesitate to contact us if you can supply us with more, better and substantiated information for one or more recommendations. We welcome any improvements on the conscious information and recommendations we give.