Today we’d like to introduce you to Lilith Diringer.
Lilith, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Once upon a time… Walking by the tables, I get more and more annoyed. It’s not that I am picky when it comes to breakfast. But if I see a buffet full of meat, milk, eggs and other animal products, I always wonder why so many accommodations worldwide are still not ready to provide a healthy breakfast suitable for vegetarians and let alone vegans. Food is not the only topic: Unsustainable water management, energy supply: not from renewable sources, no possibility to separate waste easily, and the list goes on.
After some time of observing, I could not stand by anymore. I began exchanging with hotels and flat owners and didn’t notice that I had just started a journey that is continuing to this day and hopefully a long time into the future. But let’s start from the beginning…
Too many things to change…
In April 2019, I started to become more concrete. Registering at the initiative project together, I soon met Rafael de Mestre, a pioneer in the e-vehicle industry. He himself organizes events like 80edays traveling around the world with an electric vehicle or ecograndprix – a car race 100 % electric. I convinced him that e-mobility isn’t the only important factor when it comes to sustainable traveling and we soon joined forces. Nevertheless, it wasn’t easy to figure out which problems to tackle first. From all the research, I derived a basic pattern:
– 75% of travelers say that they would even pay more to travel more sustainably friendly,
– 150+ sustainability certificates exist in the travel industry,
– <1% of accommodations are certified.
When interviewing travelers, I repeatedly got told that it was too complicated to travel “green” and that they did not understand which certificate means what. Thus, they ended up without orientation, unable to distinguish between greenwashing and honest environmental engagement. On the other hand, hoteliers and flat owners saw the customers raising awareness for sustainability management, however they firstly did not know what to improve and secondly not how to communicate their engagement transparently.
Certificates over certificates over certificates…
In April 2020, I began to develop my concept systematically with Franzi and Micha from plant values guiding me through Business Model Canvas, USP development, SWOT analysis,… In this process, I got into touch with many certifiers acknowledged by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council and decided to pair up with the ones making a profound and reliable analysis of accommodations. Being aware of the situation of small hotel and hostel owners who may not be able to spend the resources for getting fully certified, I designed our ChargeHolidays Sustainability Check which gives the accommodations an assessment about their current sustainability management and help them setting goals for improving.
Cooperation partners
This stage was already interspersed with ups and downs. What helped me to overcome my doubts were all the inspiring meetings. There is for instance Luis from What3Words with whom I started a cooperation from the beginning on as we immediately understood that a modern way of navigating will improve the travel experience. Or Tutaka, a marketplace which complements the portfolio of ChargeHolidays perfectly by offering sustainable hotel products. It was always a great motivator to see what can be achieved when collaborating.
From the 30 founders story to Purpose
As winner of the “Chemiesonderpreis” in chemistry 2017 at “Jugend gruendet” I had already gathered some insights in how to found a company. From the first moment on it was crucial to integrate sustainable management into the DNA of my business. Consequently, I tried to get insights into as many different models as possible. I met with DarkHorse, a company built by 30 co-founders, researched about social enterprise entities in other countries and finally got in touch with the Purpose foundation. However, at that stage I was not yet ready to really kick off my start-up and put it into a legal format. So what was left to do?
Stepping backwards or forward?
I was really excited when I was accepted at HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management for participating in Batch 2 at Digital Space as well as yooweedoo. In both of those programs, I met many other inspiring founders but also had the chance to work a lot on my own project. Often it felt like a step backward. I had to rethink my ideas, reenter into the research process, build up hypotheses and often: kill my darlings. But at the end this was exactly what my business idea needed at that moment for developing further.
And then there was the boy who just didn’t say “no” quickly enough…
For far too long, the project was just a theory with great functions and nice displays but everything remained a mock-up. Until I finally dared to ask Jeroen, my dance partner in Rock’n’Roll Acrobatics and Cheerleading, whether he would try not only to be the responsible for my survival when catching me in our stunts but also the one responsible for bringing my project to life. I knew that he studies computer science, so I attracted his interest offering to collect a bit of experience programming an app. “Collect a bit of experience” ended up in becoming a full-time occupation and a project of the heart – finally for the both of us.
ChargeHorizons GmbH – Names over names over…
Founding a company sometimes feels like giving birth to and raising a child. There is so much you want to shape and – you always want to make the perfect decision! (Disclaimer: mostly there is none!). One huge decision for us was to fix a name. We painted post-its, sent and resent messages, created neologisms… and finally ended up with a decision. It was not that different in the decision of the type of enterprise. We immediately agreed on our values and when I told Jeroen about the concept of social entrepreneurship and stewardship, he was immediately on board. We finally signed the contracts becoming a Purpose company in September 2021. We are still very happy to be a member within this community and have guaranteed that our enterprise will grow sustainably due to reinvestments and engaged employees who own the company.
The first app…
In November 2021, we launched our first prototype. We were both: Proud of the already done work and still unsatisfied as there were so many ideas which were not implemented yet. Nevertheless, it was a great feeling to make the first rounds of advertising and not only talk to people about the project but really have something to test and try out.
To be continued…
We are still developing a lot. The backlog with ideas will never be empty, and we want to give you a small insight into what to expect.
It’s not about the money
Unfortunately, it doesn’t work without it. For going our next steps in the development of the app and to finalize our booking engine, we decided to open another big chapter: Crowdfunding. We became creative, setting up Goodies for our supporters such as sports workshops or writing a personalized song. It was a funny but also hard way for reaching our Crowdfunding goal in December 2021.
Travel & Educate – Two aspects which should always be thought together
Our huge goal is not only to enable sustainable friendly trips for everyone but to lift stereotypes and biases. Did you know for instance that Pakistan planted more than one billion trees in three years or that in Florida’s prisons human rights are violated every day?
Locations are not only what we hear from the news. Travelling should be appreciated due to its unique possibilities to get insights into a different culture and the life realities of people all over the world. How do we want to lift the stereotypes?
AI-based travel recommendations:
What is the best way not to be bound by your own stereotypical believes? By discovering offers in categories which are not set by yourself. Our AI-based system is going to help you as traveler to discover your unconscious wishes and suggest destinations which fit to you personally.
(H)Art(d) Facts:
Our newly designed postcards will revolutionize the postcard industry. We want to make an end to the “the weather is nice and I have already gotten a suntan” news we all currently receive from friends when they are on vacation. Instead, it is much more interesting to get a postcard which informs about the situation of the country in which you are staying. Above that, we have designed recipe cards for cooking originally Nigerian, South Korean or many other dishes around the world and created t-shirts with travel sayings as well as country shapes – don’t hesitate to play the geography nerd
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I always describe my story as a roller-coaster. There were a lot of ups and downs.
Hard moments:
– Every time you think: the market is not yet ready for this
– Every time people you reached out to, do not response – for instance: accommodations which tend to not see the emergency and necessity of changing
– Every time, I understand that the sustainable tourism world is more difficult than I initially had thought (even though this sometimes also motivates me to work even harder in order to improve)
What motivates to get over these hardships:
– Partners within the company
– Supportive friends and family members
– Believers (people you know will always tell you how great your product is – even though you also need the skeptical critics in order to improve, some of those people who always support your idea are important to have as well)
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about ChargeHorizons?
Really proud of:
– That we are the first and to date only one who really makes a different product and do not only copy what exists already and paint it green
– That we are always open towards creative ideas
– That we value cooperation much more than plain competition
– That we create a respective working environment for employees from all over the world
What we do:
ChargeHolidays tackles customers already during the first steps of trip planning. The platform’s machine learning system helps them discover new destinations based on their personal preferences. Through flexible location and time specifications, mass tourism is avoided and exclusive travel experiences are offered. Our mobile-first booking platform makes it possible to implement travel plans with a small footprint. We make sustainable travel convenient by enabling accommodations to communicate their sustainability management transparently. Additionally, we include features like CO2-compensation, payment with Social Cashback and the display as well as filter option according to the own electric vehicle. Our cornerstone lies in the breakdown of stereotypes so that superficial mass tourism will have an end and tourism which aims a deep cultural and historical understanding and which increases the well-being of the environment increases.
Besides providing our App, we are also offering a particular service for artists which want to travel to their concerts and masterclasses in a sustainable way and want to organize their tours sustainable friendly. We also coach companies to set up and implement a sustainable travel policy, as well as individuals who want to organize a sustainable-friendly event such as a birthday or wedding party.
We are very conscious about our sustainability criteria. Detailed information can be found here: https://www.chargeholidays.com/sustainability-check/
So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
– Everybody interested in intercultural and international exchange is welcome to reach out to us -everyone with ideas how to design travel more sustainable free and get rid of stereotypes and prejudice during a trip.
– Everyone from the tourist industry, particularly accommodation owners, tour operators, travel agencies.
– Every business/institution we can help with setting up a sustainable travel guideline for their businesstrips.
– Every individual we can advise to plan their trip more sustainable friendly.
– Every individual who wants to organize a more sustainable event like a wedding or birthday party.
– Every artistic group who wants to tour around the world with a small CO2-footprint.
– Everyone interested or having expertise in the field of latest technology (in particular AI and machine learning).
– Everyone who wants to invest in a promising solution combining sustainability and the latest technology (in particular AI and machine learning).
– Every school/university/educational institute/event which we could visit and give a workshop for kids, youth or adults about sustainable travel.
– Every politician/office/… we can support to travel more sustainable friendly and receive guests more sustainable friendly.
– Every local government/tourist department we can support to create a great environment for tourists spending a sustainable friendly trip at.
– Everyone interested that we hold a speech/give a talk/make a workshop/participate in a conference/share our experience no matter to which audience.
– Everyone who wants to volunteer to help with our social media, acquisition, education programs or whichever field you may be interested in
– Everyone else who has fun speaking to us, asking questions and exchanging ideas.
Pricing:
- Our main services are free for every travel enthusiast– the App can be downloaded in the App store and on Google Play without any payments to be made
- For accommodations, it is free to register and to fill in the chargeholidays sustainability check including a small coaching session regarding its sustainable behavior.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.chargeholidays.com/
- All links: https://chargehorizons.bio.link/
- Information about our sustainability check: https://www.chargeholidays.com/sustainability-check/
