Sustainable Travel
It is all of our responsibilities to ensure this wonderful earth is there for future generations. We are doing our best to do our part to ensure this happens.
At Bike Odyssey HQ
We are proud to run an energy-neutral headquarters. The Bike Odyssey head office in Australia is now fully solar-powered, uses 100% recycled paper and we have invested in electric vehicles for travel to our events.
- Provide Scicon Day Bags our riders use tour after tour rather than throwaway single-tour use daybags.
- Use genuine silverware, real plates and food storage containers for our gourmet picnics.
- Use rags for mechanics, no paper rolls.
- Replaced individually wrapped muesli bars with homemade trail mixes with locally sourced treats, replenished each day.
- Buy bulk powdered energy drinks to avoid any throwaway.
- Buy locally grown products and foods; they are the best anyway!
- Have guests use their own water bottles to avoid more plastic throwaways - these are clogging up our oceans!
- Buy biodegradable garbage bags instead of plastic garbage bags and sort waste for recycling.
- Replaced plastic luggage tags with tags made of recycled material.
- Encourage partnering hotels and restaurants to offer filtered water in glass bottles.
Off the Bike
We like to give back, both to our riding community and to where it is needed most.
1% for the Planet brings together companies and organisations working to protect the places we all depend on. For us, this means supporting groups that care for the landscapes we ride through and educate others on sustainable ways forward.
We have committed to donating 1% of our annual revenue to environmental and social causes.
So far we have donated $49,692 AUD.
As well as being members of the Adventure Travel Trade Association, we are delighted to support The Adventure Travel Conservation Fund. It impressed us with its aims -  conservation of the world's natural resources and the socioeconomic stability of local communities. With these our industry can grow so who else but us should contribute to their conservation?
In 2026/27 we are donating a spot on The Odyssey to their ATCF Auction!
ReCycle is a remarkable community project in the Riverina, NSW, founded by our guide Max Hofman. Max and his team collect donated bikes and parts from across NSW - many contributed by our own riders - and rebuild them alongside underprivileged school children. Each child then takes their bike home to keep. For many, it's the first bike they've ever owned, so the program goes a step further: teaching the kids how to ride, often for the very first time.
Read all about it here:
Bring out your old bikes! ReCycle!
We are excited to support World Bicycle Relief's mission of providing bicycles to rural communities around the world. The impact of their work is impressive and we look forward to working with them on projects into the future.
So far, between our riders and us we have donated $7,545.
The High Atlas Foundation (HAF) is a Moroccan-American nonprofit founded in 2000 by former Peace Corps volunteers, dedicated to community-led sustainable development across Morocco. HAF manages a network of organic fruit tree nurseries across Morocco's provinces and has helped plant over five million fruit and nut trees nationwide, generating long-term income for rural farming families. Beyond agriculture, the Foundation promotes organic farming, women's empowerment, youth development, education, and health initiatives shaped by the priorities of the communities themselves.
In 2025 we donated $20,000 AUD to the HAF. Read about this here
We are proud to support the Chris O'Brien Lifehouse.
This began in 2017 with our Lionheart - Venice to Paris Odyssey working with our friend Richie Johnson who rode many tours with us and later died of cancer.
As part of this we donated $7500 to the Lifehouse.
Read how it began here:
http://bikeodyssey.cc/richie-johnson-lifehouse-lionheart-project/