Explore without overcrowding

Discover more.
Leave less behind.

Sustainable tourism is not only about travelling less. It also means spreading visits more evenly, choosing low-impact mobility and designing digital tools that do only what is needed.

See our commitments

Our direction

A good route does more than move people. It can redistribute attention between places, make time outdoors more meaningful and avoid some repeated digital requests.

Four commitments, one direction

Do more with less.

Bring lesser-known places into view

Guide aims to help visitors move beyond overcrowded routes and discover villages, small towns, rural heritage and the paths less travelled.

Make low-impact travel the natural choice

Our routes are designed first for walking and cycling. Travel time becomes discovery time, without a fixed pace or unnecessary motorized journeys.

Design a leaner digital experience

We favour lightweight pages and statically served content where possible, avoiding repeated computation and unnecessary data transfers.

Measure, document, improve

We publish orders of magnitude with their assumptions and limitations. The next step is to measure a real Guide session, with and without caching, to refine the model.

Our impact study

One question.
Five digital journeys.

What is the carbon impact of a tourist looking for cultural information about a place? Our model compares five representative three-minute smartphone sessions using shared assumptions for networks, data centres and French electricity.

These are modelled orders of magnitude, not direct measurements or complete life-cycle assessments.

Estimated impact per viewcentral scenario · 3 minutes

GuideBaseline0.0483 gCO₂e
1.00×range 0.0124–0.2009 gCO₂e
Direct text website or listing0.1406 gCO₂e
2.91×range 0.0201–0.5227 gCO₂e
AI conversational assistant0.1555 gCO₂e
3.22×range 0.0315–0.5181 gCO₂e
Google then a web page0.3292 gCO₂e
6.82×range 0.0778–0.9521 gCO₂e
YouTube video, 3 min in 720p1.4850 gCO₂e
30.75×range 0.7511–2.2662 gCO₂e

What we compare

A clear scope for reading the results.

Each scenario addresses the same general need, but does not necessarily provide the same amount or type of information. The five results are alternatives and must not be added together.

One representative view

Three minutes on a smartphone to obtain cultural information about a place.

What is included

The service, data centres, network transfer, phone electricity and charging losses.

What is excluded

Phone manufacturing, content creation, development, Guide installation and travel.

An estimate to refine

The Guide scenario assumes 0.6 MB transferred, optimised images and a cached map. A real-world measurement will replace this model.

Methodological transparency

How we reach
these results.

The figures are generated by reproducible calculations using low, central and high scenarios. Open each section to review the formulas, factors, breakdown and references used.

01Central scenario formula and factors

For Guide and text-based journeys, the calculation adds the service-specific impact, network transfer, data centres and phone electricity.

impact = service + (données × réseau) + (données × centre de données) + téléphone

Mobile network50 gCO₂e/Go

Data centres27,2 gCO₂e/Go

French electricity29 gCO₂e/kWh

Charging efficiency88 %

Phone = power × duration ÷ charging efficiency × carbon intensity. Video uses an hourly Arcom–Arcep–ADEME allocation instead of a simple per-gigabyte factor.

02Central results breakdown

Journey	Service and data centres	Network	Phone	Total
Guide	0,0163 g	0,0300 g	0,0020 g	0,0483 gCO₂e
Direct website	0,0490 g	0,0900 g	0,0016 g	0,1406 gCO₂e
AI assistant	0,1514 g	0,0025 g	0,0016 g	0,1555 gCO₂e
Google + page	0,2126 g	0,1150 g	0,0016 g	0,3292 gCO₂e
YouTube 720p	0,0830 g	1,4000 g	0,0020 g	1,4850 gCO₂e

For AI and Google, the first column includes a query-specific computation factor. For Guide and the direct website, it is estimated from transferred data.

03City simulation calculation

The simulation fixes 1,000 tourists, five places and therefore 5,000 views. It multiplies the per-view impact from the previous model; actual usage proportions are not applied.

impact ville = impact par consultation × 5 lieux × 1 000 touristes

0,0483 gCO₂e × 5 × 1 000 = 241,5 gCO₂e = 0,2415 kgCO₂e

04Sources and associated limitations

Epoch AI · énergie d’une requête textuelleEstimation centrale de l’énergie d’une réponse IA standard.

Google · impact d’une requête GeminiBorne de comparaison pour l’ordre de grandeur d’une requête IA.

Google · énergie d’une rechercheFacteur de calcul d’une recherche, publié en 2009 et associé à une forte incertitude.

HTTP Archive · Web Almanac 2025Poids bas, central et haut d’une page web mobile.

ADEME · transmission de donnéesFacteur central de 50 gCO₂e/Go pour le réseau mobile.

Sustainable Web Design · modèle v4Facteur de 27,2 gCO₂e/Go pour les centres de données associés au transfert.

UC San Diego · puissance des smartphonesOrdre de grandeur de la puissance du téléphone, notamment pour la vidéo 720p.

RTE · Bilan électrique 2025Intensité carbone centrale de 29 gCO₂e/kWh pour l’électricité française.

Arcom, Arcep et ADEME · usages audiovisuelsAllocation horaire du réseau et des centres de données pour la vidéo en ligne.

Google caveat The search factor is based on an estimate published by Google in 2009. It is retained as an order of magnitude with a wide uncertainty range, not as a current measurement of the service.

At the scale of one day

1,000 tourists,
5,000 views.

Simulation: each tourist views five places for three minutes and uses the same solution exclusively. This scenario compares journeys at equal volume; it does not represent actual usage patterns.

With Guide0,2415 kgCO₂e

With Google + a page1,6460 kgCO₂e

With a YouTube video7,4250 kgCO₂e

Central scenario · 15 minutes of digital use per tourist

Key takeawayIn the central scenario, the usage carbon impact of one Guide view is estimated at 0.0483 gCO₂e, the lowest of the five journeys studied. This result depends on the assumptions used and does not prove that Guide is carbon-neutral or inherently ‘green’.

A progressive approach

Say where we are going.
Show how.

01
Define a realistic measurement scope.
02
Measure key routes, content and uses.
03
Publish results, limitations and sources.
04
Improve the product based on what we learn.

Build with destinations

Are you experimenting with more balanced tourism?

Let’s share lessons, useful data and ideas that work in the real world.

Talk with Guide

Discover more.Leave less behind.