McCALL, ID (Thursday, April 18, 2024) – Outdoor enthusiasts looking to turn their good intentions into meaningful action have a new tool to offset the impacts of their camping trips and outdoor adventures. In honor of Earth Day 2024, the revolutionary Lodestar outdoor adventure app is dropping its subscription fee – making it free to everyone forever.
Planning outdoor adventures is complicated, and sustainable options are often lacking and hard to find. The Lodestar platform solves these challenges and provides one place to plan, share and protect by connecting outdoor adventurers with vetted, local grassroots nonprofits working to protect the wild places travelers cherish. Among other user-friendly features, the app calculates the carbon footprint of a traveler’s itinerary and allows them to make each adventure climate positive with just a few clicks or taps, right in the app.
By empowering individual travelers to give before they go, Lodestar will provide an important new source of support for local communities caring for places impacted by overtourism.
“Inspiring outdoor stewardship is at the heart of our mission,” says Lodestar co-founder, Alicia Roessler. “We’re excited to make the Lodestar outdoor adventure app free so people can devote their funds and support directly to our grassroots nonprofit partners doing meaningful work for our climate, our communities and the wild places we play.”
The new free membership model also broadens the reach of the app by removing financial barriers to make it more inclusive and accessible to everyone who wants to get outdoors and explore, regardless of their budgets.
KEY FEATURES:
EASY TRIP PLANNING — ALL IN ONE PLACE – Create detailed trip itineraries, routes, 3D maps, and lists. The Lodestar browser extension saves anything from the web directly to the trip builder.
DISCOVER AND BOOK CAMPSITES – Search public lands and 97K+ reservable campsites, cabins, fire lookouts, and RV sites. View campground amenities and photos.
MAP YOUR ADVENTURE – 3D maps show routes, trails, lodging, places of interest, campgrounds, 3k+ public recreation areas, free camping on public lands, and more.
BUILT IN SUSTAINABILITY – Lodestar uses member-created itineraries to calculate each trip’s carbon footprint and identify local nonprofits that users can donate to – right in the app.
CONNECT AND COLLABORATE – Members can invite friends and family to plan and share trip plans, vote on favorites, and upload photos and record memories in the trip journal.
SAVE, ORGANIZE, AND RE-USE – A customizable adventure library makes it simple to save and re-use itineraries, trails, camping spots, packing lists and more.
Lodestar’s founders were inspired to create the platform after experiencing frustration with other outdoor apps that didn’t have all the features they wanted to plan a camping trip. Most outdoor apps provide one or two of the tools to find a camping spot or map an itinerary, but none of the existing apps have all the features needed to streamline the planning process from start to finish or to incorporate environmental stewardship as part of the process.
“We’ve heard from a lot of people who have good intentions when it comes to making their travels sustainable, but with all the other steps it takes to put together an outdoor adventure trip, that sustainability piece often got pushed to the side,” says Roessler. “We want to make it easy for people to give back more than we take.”
Lodestar’s growing network of Impact Partners includes Little Ski Hill/Payette Lakes Ski Club, Leave No Trace, Sage Trail Alliance, Sea Trees Sustainable Surf, Tahoe Backcountry Alliance, Wilderness Youth Project, and Recreate Responsibly, among others.
Roessler, a nonprofit environmental attorney, founded Lodestar along with her partner, John Roessler, a global tech and outdoor travel veteran.
Lodestar is the first software company in the Outdoor Rec space to achieve B Corporation certification, earned by meeting rigorous social and environmental standards and balancing its purpose with its profits. The Lodestar Giving Platform is growing to be the most comprehensive network of local non-profit organizations that share a passion and mission for environmental and community stewardship of the outdoors.
Free Memberships Make Sustainability More Accessible
Annual memberships to the app were previously priced at $29.99, but travelers are now invited to sign up and use the app for FREE.
DARE TO EXPLORE BETTER with Lodestar: Free memberships are now available at lodestarhub.com.
MEDIA IMAGES available for download here: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/k12ghsrgs9yzmwpj1dr64/h?rlkey=28hbfv5harfmfallyr471lzkj&dl=0
About Lodestar:
Lodestar is a women-led B-Corp dedicated to making the outdoors more accessible while promoting environmental stewardship and building a global community of adventure enthusiasts that are passionate about discovering and protecting our planet. Founded by Alicia and John Roessler, a nonprofit environmental attorney and global tech and outdoor travel veteran, the Lodestar web app is built to empower and inspire outdoor travelers to take action and make each adventure matter.
