You may live sustainably at home but what about when you travel? What is sustainable travel? Does it mean keeping your carbon footprint light? Or should you also be conscious about giving back to local communities?
What is sustainable travel?
Sustainable travel is all about making simple choices in order to create a positive effect on the destinations you visit.
We’ve put together a list of practical tips that will help you along the way, even if you’re just getting started on your sustainable travel journey.
Most of our sustainable travel tips are ridiculously simple, such as using a refillable water bottle and buying locally made products rather than imports. Each one of these choices may only make a small difference in the big picture, but becoming more conscious about these little things can have a huge cumulative positive impact.
1. Use eco-friendly ways to travel
There really aren’t any green ways of flying. The only thing you can do is to minimize as much as you can to travel more sustainably. Avoid a flight when there are easy alternatives. This is often the biggest single thing that you can do to cut your carbon footprint and limit your own impact on the environment.
Unfortunately though, sometimes flying is non-negotiable or other ways of transportation are not an option. If you live in Europe and you would like to visit Asia, you’re not going to take a sailboat. So the best solution is to fly less and to take conscious decisions and steps when your are flying. In our blogpost about traveling the world and saving the climate we shed a light on whether is traveling around the world by plane and sustainable travel is a contradiction
Travel less but stay longer.
Stay longer wherever you go. Instead of taking three or four short city breaks by air each year, aim to take one, longer trip by plane and travel overland whenever possible. Not only does this make your trip more cost effective and give you more time to explore the whole area properly (not just the tourist hot spots) it also minimizes the impact of tourism.
Select a full flight on a large plane in a fuel-efficient fleet.
The International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) regularly analyzes the fuel efficiency of the 20 leading airlines. Fuel efficiency measured in how passenger kilometers per liter depends mainly on seating configuration and aircraft fuel burn (i.e., fuel economy of the aircraft operated).
Book direct flights
During a flight, fuel is emitted most during takeoff and landing. The less flights you take, the less takeoffs and landings, the less fuel emissions that are seeping into the air.
3. Offset your emissions
More and more airlines offer you the option to purchase “carbon offsets” that essentially take the carbon dioxide emissions you’ve contributed to as a passenger out of the air through a variety of ways such as planting a tree. Even if the airline you choose does not have it’s own carbon offset program, you can still offset your emissions through different projects from coral reef protection to indigenous communities protecting rainforest in Fiji.
To find out how much carbon you “produce” on a trip, you can calculate your carbon footprint on the following websites:
Please keep in mind, that Aircraft emissions are tough to calculate in the abstract. The estimates vary since there are also a lot of variables in play like how many seats are filled, how far and how high a plane travels, its route, the time of year and time of day, flight delays and reroutings, etc.
4. Pack lightly!
The more cargo a plane is carrying, the more fuel it will need to use, which results in a higher emission of carbon dioxide into the air. Though the majority of the weight of the plane is from the plane infrastructure itself, every little bit counts. Most of the time we pack up to what we’re allowed, even if we don’t need to bring that many items with us. Raise your hand if your suitcase is often sliding in at 20 kg. Many people think that packing light means sacrificing style or comfort. But this is not true, it just requires rethinking the way you pack.
Here are some packing tips to help you:
- Clothes
- DO
- Pack Outfits That Mix and Match
- Pack clothes in a neutral color palate for outfits, e.g. a palate of black, white, tan and gray. This way you can maximize the amount of outfits you can wear with as little clothing.
- Bring layering items. Wearing a thin t-shirt under a sweater will allow you to wear the sweater more often without it getting smelly and gives you more options for different climates.
- Bring “dual purpose” items – a scarf that doubles as a blanket, a coat that doubles as a pillow, etc.
- Wear your bulkiest clothing on the plane to make room in your carry on.
- DON’T
- Don’t bring anything you don’t wear on a daily basis. If you don’t wear it at home, you most likely won’t wear it while traveling.
- Don’t Pack More Than a Week’s Worth of Clothes. You will certainly find an option to wash your clothes.
- Stay organized
- A cornerstone of ultralight travel is expert-level organization. Packing cubes are great for maximizing space in your bag. They categorize items and store them separately, making it easier to find exactly what you need in your suitcase or backpack.
- DO
- Toiletries
- Say “no” to travel-sized items if you can. Try these alternatives instead: Use a shampoo bar and/or bar soap in a tin travel case instead of mini bottles of shampoo, conditioner and body wash. Did you know, that solid shampoos, conditioners, and small bars of soap tend to weigh less than their liquid counterparts?
- Try washable make-up pads instead of single-use makeup remover wipes.
- Electronics
- Traveling with the right electronics can save you both weight and space. A typical e-reader or tablet weighs in at somewhere between eight ounces and one pound, roughly the same as just ONE modestly sized paperback guidebook or sizzling beach read.
5. Zero waste travel
The best way to reduce your waste output is to produce less.
Going paperless for boarding passes & itineraries.
Download your airline or TSA app before your trip. Or make sure when booking to have your boarding pass emailed or texted to your smartphone.
When at the check-in counter, specify right away that you do not need a printed boarding pass or flight itinerary as many people will automatically just print one for you.
Packing snacks for the flight
Airport food is notorious for being overpriced, and many snacks will come wrapped in single-use plastic and be honest, unless you fly business or first class the food is often far away from being delicious and tasty.
Avoid this by bringing your own zero waste snacks. It’s not hard, all it takes is a little preparing! Produce bags filled with pastries, fruit, bulk snacks like nuts or granola or a sandwich are a great option.
Bringing a reusable water bottle and a reusable coffee cup
Don’t forget to bring a reusable water bottle. A reusable bottle made from glass or steel helps you drink more water on the go and reduce your carbon footprint.
Make sure to drink the contents before going through security or keep it empty. Fill it up right before your flight at a water fountain or if you can pop into an airport bar and kindly ask the bartender to fill it up for you. That way, you can stay hydrated during your flight without having to drink out of a plastic water bottle on the plane since there won’t be drinkable running water.
If you are like me and think plain water is boring, there are great options to add some flavour. A while ago we discovered waterdrop, a start up company from Austria. They compress natural ingredients into a small, sugar-free, dissolvable cubes, that enrich your water with fruit, plant extracts and vitamins. This helped me a lot to drink more water. Taking a reusable water bottle is now a real option for me.
And if you’ve got a long travel day ahead and plan to grab a cup of coffee at the airport, bring along an empty reusable coffee cup in your carry-on to use instead of a single-use paper cup.
The best way to travel sustainably is to be more mindful.
6. Spend your money locally
Many local people in Asia and Africa are not benefiting from tourism in their country. Did you know that often as little as 5 USD out of every 100 USD spent by a visitor stays in the country’s economy? Why not spread the wealth and focus on putting your money towards experiences that put the local economy first by
- Choosing locally owned accomodation
- Supporting locally owned restaurants
- Buying locally produced food
- Buying locally made products
- Choosing local experiences
7. Safeguard Nature and Wildlife
- Use organic products like reef-safe sunscreen and DEET-free bug repellant. They are not only better for you but also for the environment..
- When hiking stay on the trails to preserve the natural ecosystem
- Don’t buy items from animal parts
- Choose your animal experiences carefully
These are the top 10 of the world’s cruelest attractions:- Riding elephants
- Taking tiger selfies
- Walking with lions
- Visiting bear parks
- Holding sea turtles
- Watching performing dolphins
- Watching dancing monkeys
- Touring civet coffee (Kopi Luwak) plantations
- Charming snakes and kissing cobras and
- Visiting crocodile farms
- Don’t pay to have your picture with any wild animals.
Very likely they have been taken from the wild, drugged, harshly trained or have had teeth removed to ‘behave’ around tourists.
Take only memories. Leave only footprints.
Chief Seattle
The best way to sustainable travel is to be more mindful.
