Lodestar will celebrate International Women’s Day on Friday, March 8, 2024, by proudly unveiling its groundbreaking web app. The Lodestar app is a do-it-all outdoor adventure platform with environmental stewardship built in. Lodestar is a women-led company founded on the belief that regenerative travel is the best future for outdoor recreation.
Lodestar was designed to centralize outdoor trip planning and empower outdoor enthusiasts to make a positive impact on the wild places and communities they visit by inspiring hope and taking action.
Founded by Alicia and John Roessler, a nonprofit environmental attorney (Alicia) and global tech and outdoor travel veteran (John), Lodestar sets a new standard with its unwavering dedication to environmental responsibility and its success in creating a truly comprehensive app for outdoor lifestyles – all in one place. Lodestar offers a full spectrum of features to cover all aspects of sustainable travel planning.
Key Features
Easy Trip Planning In One Place – Create and save detailed trip plans, routes, maps, and lists. Save reservations, maps, and trail info from other apps, or use the Lodestar browser extension to save anything from anywhere on the web.
In-App Campsite Reservations – Search public lands and book 97k+ campsites, fire lookouts, cabins, and RV sites directly from Lodestar. Discover detailed campsite information, view site pictures, and reserve from recreation.gov.
Built-In Sustainability – Simply plan a trip, and Lodestar will use the itinerary to calculate the trip’s carbon footprint and connect members with their growing network of local nonprofits. It’s easy to donate, support, and make each trip climate-positive before it even begins.
Connect and Collaborate – Invite friends and family to plan and share trip ideas and itineraries, vote on activities, and use the integrated trip journal to record memories and save photos and videos.
Capture, Organize, and Reuse – Lodestar’s customizable Adventure Library simplifies saving and reusing itineraries, favorite activities, shopping, packing lists, and more for future adventures.
The Lodestar Origin Story
Lodestar’s “aha moment" happened when co-founders Alicia and John Roessler came home from taking their two boys camping in the Sierra Mountains.
“As a busy mom, I did most of the trip planning and was wasting a lot of time using multiple apps and online resources and had no place to store and reuse trip itineraries and resources I found. I wanted everything streamlined and in one place so I could also easily share trip ideas with friends and family,” says Roessler. “I was also concerned about our impact on the places we visited. After speaking with a lot of other friends, we realized that while many understand the benefits of sustainable outdoor travel, making the trip 'sustainable' often got overlooked in the planning process.”
Thus, Lodestar was born - a seamless, enjoyable platform that makes planning sustainable outdoor adventures easy by matching itineraries with local nonprofits and providing one place to plan, share, and protect.
Stewardship Made Simple:
According to a 2023 OnX study, 77% of outdoor enthusiasts venture outdoors at least 12 times annually. Surprisingly, only 19% participate in stewardship activities during the same period. This discrepancy arises despite 96% of respondents acknowledging the importance of preserving public lands, ensuring access to recreation, promoting wildlife health, and maintaining clean air and water.
Lodestar bridges the gap between good intentions and meaningful action by making it easy to connect with organizations already working to offset human impacts on natural spaces. Lodestar’s Impact Partners include Leave No Trace, Sage Trail Alliance, Sea Trees Sustainable Surf, Tahoe Backcountry Alliance, Wilderness Youth Project, and Recreate Responsibly.
Lodestar is the first software company in the outdoor rec space to achieve B Corporation certification. The Lodestar Giving Platform is growing to be the most comprehensive network of local nonprofit organizations that share a passion and mission for environmental and community stewardship of the outdoors. By empowering individual travelers to give before they go, Lodestar will provide an important new source of support for local communities and places impacted by overtourism. Lodestar is also committed to donating at least 5% of its annual revenues to its nonprofit Impact Partners.
Free Trial Includes All Features
Lodestar offers a 14-day free trial that gives users access to 100% of the platform’s features so users can enjoy the true Lodestar experience, which is 100% ad-free. No payment information is required for the trial. Annual membership is just $29.95 with a $3.95 monthly option. Each annual membership allows for five users to share the account, making it easy and affordable for everyone in the member’s household to collaborate. Student memberships are free (school email address required).
DARE TO EXPLORE BETTER with Lodestar: Start a free trial at lodestarhub.com.
