Experience the Art of Felting with Asral NGO
Join our half-day felting workshop in partnership with Asral NGO, a Mongolian Buddhist organisation dedicated to tackling poverty and supporting vulnerable communities in Ulaanbaatar.
Located in the heart of the Bayangol ger district, Asral’s community centre offers the perfect setting to explore the traditional craft of Mongolian felting. You’ll create your own felt item while learning the practical techniques behind one of the world’s oldest textiles—made from sheep’s wool and used for generations in Mongolia, especially in the insulating layers of gers.
The workshop also offers insight into Asral’s wider outreach work, including the Made in Mongolia project, which empowers women through craft-based livelihoods.
Founded by Tibetan Lama Ven. Panchen Ötrul Rinpoche, Asral is committed to keeping families together and preventing homelessness. By taking part in this experience, you’re not only learning a meaningful cultural tradition—you’re also supporting impactful, community-driven change.
Group Size – Minimum of one and maximum of six. For larger groups please get in touch.
Includes transfers to/from Asral NGO community centre via taxi. Alternatively, you can pay extra for a private driver.
1 Guest US$ 130 pp
2 Guests US$ 80 pp
3-5 Guests US$ 65 pp
6 Guests US$ 55 pp
We are members of Tourism Declares A Climate Emergency and a signatory of The Glasgow Declaration which requires us to publish an annual Climate Action Plan. It also means we have essentially signed up to work towards halving our emissions by 2030. We must report publicly on an annual basis on progress against our interim and long-term targets, as well as on actions being taken. We do this in our Climate Action Plan linked above.
One of the five pathways defined in the Glasgow Declaration is ‘measure’ and we have started the process of measuring the carbon footprint of our tours.
- We wanted an accurate footprint analysis whilst also keeping the process manageable, achievable, and affordable. Of the limited carbon calculators available to small tourism companies with a restricted budget we have signed up with the carbon calculator tool Carmacal – specifically designed for tour operators and the 2017 winner of the UNWTO Award for Innovation in Research and Technology.
- However, there are limitations with this online tool in the fact that – like most online carbon calculators – you can only measure transport and accommodation and a few very specific activities. But, the main contributors to carbon footprints are food, consumption, transportation, and energy, and all are heavily utilised during a tourism experience.
- As a result, founder Jess has worked with two postgraduate students from the Responsible Tourism Management Postgraduate Course of Leeds Beckett University in the UK – the only responsible tourism management MSc certified by the UNWTO – looking at how we can measure the carbon emissions of meals on tour as well as the carbon footprint of our office as well as certain tour activities.
Balancing Our Carbon Footprint
We are in the process of measuring the carbon footprint of each of our tours. Once this is complete, we will balance those emissions by purchasing Plan Vivo–certified carbon certificates (environmental service certificates that each represent the reduction or avoidance of one metric tonne of CO₂) through C-Level and the Mongolian Nomad Project, delivered in partnership with the Mongolian Society of Range Management. The Plan Vivo Standard is built on ethical principles that deliver long-term climate, livelihood, and biodiversity benefits.
In the meantime, we have partnered with C-Level to fund a secure carbon calculator (linked below) for our guests. Through this, you can:
Balance the footprint of your flights
Offset a chosen amount of CO₂ (including your annual footprint)
Or make a direct donation to support the project’s work
Each contribution is invested in Plan Vivo Certificates that support the Mongolian Nomad Project
We know this isn’t perfect, but it is a start. As the saying goes: “you can’t manage what you don’t measure.” For us — a small business with limited resources — this approach is both realistic and achievable.
