Flight Centre Travel Group’s (FCTG) philosophy of ‘Reward and Recognition’ is a key ingredient in its recipe for success. Global Gathering (GG) is an annual global event that celebrates the end of the financial year and the hard work of FCTG’s top performers. GG provides a common goal for all employees, incentivising them to go above and beyond their job description for the chance to attend a weekend of fun, adventure and unforgettable memories.
At GG 2022 in Vegas, Global Sustainability Officer, Michelle Degenhardt, launched our sustainability vision of ‘preserving and enriching a world worth seeing.’ This vision aims to address the environmental and social impacts of travel while ensuring that all our efforts benefit our people, destinations, and communities.
Michelle Degenhardt launching our sustainability vision at GG22 in Vegas.
At GG 2023 in Bali, we continued the usual fun and festivities, but we also had a new focus: to leave Bali even better than when we arrived.
Attendees from Global Gathering 2023 in Bali.
Our sustainability efforts at GG23 were widespread, from reducing single-use plastic and food and water waste to supporting local businesses and communities. Read on to learn more about some of our key initiatives that helped to bring our sustainability vision to life.
By partnering with our local destination brand, Discova, we were granted the opportunity to build a Community Hub in the village of Manggis within the Kaura immersive retreat, a space where local villagers can gather to exchange ideas and learn. A prominent feature inside the Community Hub is a Learning Hub for young Balinese children, which has been brought to life using collected donations from all GG23 attendees. The Learning Hub focuses on sustainable development, teaching environmental conservation, art, languages, computers, and skills that support the children's learning outside of school classes. During this year’s GG event, attendees also painted more than 4,000 roof tiles for the new community centre, which is well on its way to completion.
1,800 GG attendees set aside time to make their painted additions to the Kaura Community Centre.
‘Take 3 for the Sea’ is an award-winning Australian charity on a mission to rid our oceans of plastic pollution. We were thrilled that one of our GG23 sponsors, Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL), partnered with us to bring ‘Take 3 for the Sea’ to Bali. The goal for the initiative was to ensure every GG23 attendee took three pieces of rubbish with them before they boarded their flight back home. To help with this endeavour, each attendee was given a specific collection bag, and a beach clean-up event was facilitated by NCL to help keep the local Bali beaches pristine.
This year, we also partnered with Scott Goddard (a former Flightie), Founding Director of RREPP to produce our GG t-shirts. RREPPP’s 100% fairtrade and organic cotton products are free from child labour, adult exploitation, harmful chemicals, toxic PVC plastics, and are sourced from Chetna Organics in India, who work with over 35,000 farmers in the rainfed regions of Odisha, Maharashtra, and Andhra Pradesh. Furthermore, to offset the creation of 2,050 t-shirts, RREPP will plant 2,050 trees on behalf of FCTG.
Our ongoing sustainability partnership with Trees4Travel and their Trees4Events tool allowed us to compensate for the total carbon emissions associated with our GG23 event by planting trees in our FCTG forest in Nepal. On top of this, every tree is assigned a share of an investment into a United Nations Certified Emissions Reduction (CER) renewable energy program, essentially doubling our promise. This program enables us to go beyond carbon neutrality in the fight against climate change and allows us to work together for a cleaner, safer, and more equitable world.
The combination of our sustainability initiatives, guided by our vision, made GG23 the cleanest and greenest GG to date, setting a new standard for future GGs and other global events.
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