Our Approach to Sustainability
Our goal is to reduce the environmental impact of our trips while supporting local communities in Jotunheimen and Valdres. By working with local partners, we aim to strengthen the local economy and social networks. Here is why and how.
SUSTAINABILITY AT JOTUNHEIMEN TRAVEL – THIS IS WHY WE CARE
At Jotunheimen Travel, we are true nature lovers. Whether we are out hiking, skiing or biking, we appreciate our beautiful surroundings and everything in it. It is therefore of utmost importance to us to be active in engaging ourselves and to take responsibility to protect our planet for generations to come.
On this page, you can read everything about our vision, goals and ventures regarding our engagement.
This is an ongoing work in progress, as we embarked on a years-long journey to develop step by step. Frequent updates will follow here – take a look what we are up to!
CERTIFICATIONS
Why are certifications important? Certifications in sustainability demonstrate an organization’s genuine commitment to responsible tourism. They lead to operational savings, legal compliance, market differentiation, and increased demand from conscious travelers. These certifications also play a critical role in supporting broader goals of climate action, biodiversity conservation, and sustainable development.
Our Awards and Certifications
The Travelife Certified award is a recognition of our excellence towards social and environmental sustainability. We comply with more than 200 criteria related to sustainability management, office operations, working with suppliers and customer communication.”
Travelife is a three-stage certification program for tour operators and travel agents: (1) Travelife Engaged; (2) Travelife Partner and (3) Travelife Certified. We are at stage 3 – Travelife Certified. Our certificate is valid until 22 December 2027 and will be reassessed then.
See our certificate here.
Our Valdres region is part of the Sustainable Destination network in Norway. This indicates that there is systematic work to develop sustainable tourism, and a requirement to document substantial improvement every 3 years. It includes not only environmental improvements, but also improvements in terms of the impact on the local community and the preservation of cultural heritage. Take a look here or here for more information.
We prefer working with destinations who were awarded, such as Visit Sognefjord.
Our Suppliers
To us it is very important that our partners are just as invested in being sustainable as we are. We are proud to say that many of our suppliers have already set examples on being a radiant actor by getting certified. It is our goal at Jotunheimen Travel to have as many certified partners in our supply chain as possible. In the future, we will prioritize suppliers certified by independent corporations such as B Corp, Eco-lighthouse, Green Key, or ISO.
Below you will see a list of our suppliers who have already been certified, including certificate and link for more information. Note that this list will be updated regularly as more suppliers get certified.
See the List Here
| Name of Company | Type of Supplier | Certificate | Year of Certification | Info Link |
| Thon Hotels | Accommodation | Miljøfyrtårn | 2015 | ⇒ |
| Gomobu Fjellstue AS | Accommodation | Miljøfyrtårn | 2021 | ⇒ |
| Ruten Fjellstue | Accommodation | Green Key / Hanen | 2021 | ⇒ |
| Bygdin Høyfjellshotell AS | Accommodation | Miljøfyrtårn | 2024 | ⇒ |
| Gjendesheim DNT | Accommodation | Miljøfyrtårn | 2005 | ⇒ |
| Danebu Kongsgaard | Accommodation | Miljøfyrtårn / Hanen | 2022 | ⇒ |
| DNT Oslo og Omegn | Accommodation | Miljøfyrtårn | 2003 | ⇒ |
| Preikestolen Fjellstue Drift AS | Accommodation | Miljøfyrtårn | 2018 | |
| Oset Fjellhotel | Accommodation | Miljøfyrtårn | 2023 | ⇒ |
| Norway’s Best – Future of the Fjords | Activities / Accommodation / Transport | Miljøfyrtårn | 2021 | ⇒ |
| Dovre & Lesja Aktiv | Activities | Miljøfyrtårn | 2025 | ⇒ |
| Lemonsjø Fjellstue & Hyttegrend | Accommodation | Miljøfyrtårn | 2026 | ⇒ |
| Herangtunet | Accommodation | Miljøfyrtårn | 2023 | ⇒ |
| Beito Resort | Activities / Accommodation | Miljøfyrtårn | 2019 | ⇒ |
| De Bergenske | Accommodation | Miljøfyrtårn | 2019 | ⇒ |
| Lindstrøm Hotell | Accommodation | Miljøfyrtårn | 2012 | ⇒ |
| Fjord Safari Flåm | Activities | Miljøfyrtårn | 2022 | ⇒ |
| Rødne Fjord Cruise | Activities/Transport | Miljøfyrtårn | 2024 | ⇒ |
| Panorama Hotell | Accommodation | Miljøfyrtårn | 2011 | ⇒ |
| VY buss | Transport | ISO 14001 | 2008 | ⇒ |
“At JVB Travel, we believe it is our responsibility to ensure that our guests can explore nature in a way that not only preserves but also enhances our natural environment and local communities. Our goal is to create positive impacts for society while minimizing our ecological footprint.”
OUR PARTNERS: CREATING A STRONG NETWORK TOGETHER
Sustainability cannot be achieved alone. Only a common effort as a team and as a strong network can really facilitate change and make a difference in the Valdres and Jotunheimen region. Whether it is accommodations, transport companies, destinations, or guides: We strive to be good influencers and raise awareness when it comes to environmentally friendly practices, to make sure we all work towards the same goals.
Here are some relevant partners in the network of Jotunheimen Travel:
Accommodations
Guides
Activity Providers
Destinations
Transport
Local Food Producers
Heritage Places and Sights
Strengthening our Local Network – an Example
Supporting Local Ski Trail Maintenance
Well-maintained cross-country ski trails are an important part of the winter experience in Valdres and Jotunheimen. Many of these trails are maintained by local organisations (løypelag), supported by volunteers and community contributions. As our guests also benefit from their work, we want to contribute to the costs of maintaining these trails. For every guest booking one of our cross-country skiing packages, we include a fee of NOK 100, which we donate to the local ski trail organisations after each winter season. This is one concrete way we support the local communities and help maintain the trails enjoyed by both visitors and residents.
Once we have finished the winter 2026/27 season and have donated the amount, you will find a payment proof here. Stay tuned!
OUR TRANSPORT SYSTEM
Making sure our guests get from the airport or from the big cities Oslo and Bergen all the way to Valdres and Jotunheimen in a comfortable way is a big priority for us. Our aim is to book seamless, comfy and efficient journeys for our customers that are an equally nice part of their trip, alongside their hiking or cycling activities, and not only a bare necessity.
At the same time, we need to be honest: That these means of transport create CO2 emissions, is unfortunately something we cannot avoid at this point, but also something we strive to minimize as much as possible. This is why all of our trips are designed around existing train and express-bus services. We want to actively reduce the need for guests to use a private car for the main journey to and from the destination.
Our operating principle:
“Public and shared transport where available – private transfers when necessary.”
With including shared, scheduled transport such as public busses and trains wherever possible, we reduce greenhouse gas emissions per passenger in comparison to diesel or petrol cars used individually:
Source: klimasmartsemester.se
At the same time, honesty and transparency is very important for us here: Sometimes we need to find solutions outside of the public transport system when a comfortable and safe journey for our guests can no longer be guaranteed otherwise.
This is why we do need to book taxis for our guests when some public buses no longer run after the high summer season, or when emergency solutions are required.
One example for our taxi use is the stretch between Eidsbugarden and Tyinkrysset for guests who have booked our Green Route plus the fjord cruise to Bergen as an add-on. If the last day of the trip happens after the Norwegian school holidays, no bus will run for these 24 km, and we will book a taxi for you. Also, if your rental e-bike fails to function in the middle of nowhere, we will make sure you will be picked up, and a taxi might need to drive a longer distance to reach you.
More Facts About Transport at Jotunheimen Travel
- Luggage transport with our own luggage cars makes for quite a big part of our transport system, with over 20.000 km of driving in one season. Most of the Mjølkevegen, as well as parts of our hiking trips are covered by our luggage cars. Since 2025, we have used electric vehicles with zero CO2 emissions for this purpose. In 2025, we saved about 5 tonnes of CO2 emissions from our luggage car in comparison to 2024 with a diesel vehicle.
- Public buses are part of our complex luggage transport system as well. They are not only very practical for us, but can also serve several functions (transport of people and luggage). This way, we avoid that a (combustion) vehicle must drive a specific route just for the purpose of carrying some bags.
PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH – WHAT WE CONTRIBUTE IN DAILY OFFICE LIFE
Even though it is great when you strive to make big changes, the small things matter too! Here are some practices that we have incorporated in our everyday lives in the office:
- The welcome packages for our customers include a branded, reusable beeswax cloth for your lunch pack, and we have grown very fond of that wrap too. Some of our empolyees use it every day instead of using single use wrapping paper.
- Since summer 2026, we have a new way to assemble our welcome packages so that no envelope is needed. This way, we saved 368 paper envelopes only in the summer season 2026.
- We have a strict waste separation management system in our office.
Measuring Our Carbon Footprint and Supporting Climate Projects
We recognise that travelling creates greenhouse gas emissions, and we want to better understand and reduce the environmental impact of our operations and travel products.
Since January 2025, we have been measuring our greenhouse gas emissions using Carmacal, a carbon footprint calculation tool for the tourism industry. You find the calculation This helps us identify where emissions occur and where we can focus our efforts to reduce them.
Our calculations include:
- Business travel by our employees
- Emissions associated with the trips we sell
- Emissions from our office operations
Supporting Climate Projects
In addition to measuring our emissions, informing our clients about it, and working towards reducing them, we financially support external climate projects through the purchase of carbon credits at atmosfair. These contributions support climate initiatives outside our own operations and travel products.
It is important to understand that these contributions do not eliminate or reduce the emissions generated by our trips. We therefore do not describe our company or our travel products as carbon-neutral based on these contributions.
Our priority remains to understand our environmental impact, identify opportunities to reduce emissions and communicate transparently on this page about the actions we take.
From June to September 2026, we have calculated:
In 2025, we have calculated a total of:
Our donation goes to atmosfair:
Quo Vadis – Our Engagement Goals for the Future
We are not perfect and a lot of big changes take time. But we have our goal in mind to be the leading actor for sustainable, nature-based travel experiences in our region. And we have big plans.
Here is a list of tangible goals we are working on at the moment, on our way to become the most high standard, environmentally friendly company we can be:
- Sustainability communication to our guests: Inform about the CO2 emissions of each of our products on the specific product pages.
- Measure and compensate for unavoidable transport emissions included in package prices.
- Hosting an annual open partner event where sustainable tourism is one of the main topics
Do you have any questions on our sustainability engagement?
Get in touch with our sustainability manager Georg!