Eco-friendly travel is easier than it looks, and despite the hype, travel and tourism are not all bad - in fact they can benefit the environment in the right circumstances. Follow our simple steps to make sure your conscience stays 100% green while on holiday. It's as easy as A-Z...
Ask
the locals for recommendations on their food, restaurants, places to go, and avoid the tourist honeypots, imported products and globalising chains. Don’t know what it is? Looks strange? Smells funny? Try it! Just think how off-putting some of our delicacies might seem to foreign visitors – Stinking Bishop cheese and Marmite sandwich, anyone?
Borrow
travel gear such as backpacks, camping equipment and so on from friends, or lend them yours. It’s not worth using resources for items you only need once or twice a year.
Carry
reusable travel accessories such as the Onya bag, cutlery like the ingenious Spork, the resin mug, and chopsticks if travelling in Asia, and save resources. In China alone, an estimated 45 billion pairs of disposable chopsticks are used and thrown away annually. This adds up to 1.7 million cubic metres of timber or 25 million fully grown trees every year.
Don’t
think your choice won’t make a difference. Even a weekend break can impact the environment. Pass on green inspiration to children – show them the importance – and fun – of taking care of our planet with the help of engaging books such as Dinosaurs and all that rubbish by Michael Foreman and 10 Things I Can Do to Help My World, and quiz games like What in the World Am I? and, for older kids, Save the Planet.
Energy
can be saved in the same ways when you’re away as when you’re at home – so stick to your routine of turning off lights when leaving a room, taking showers instead of baths, recycling wherever possible, and so on. Get more tips in How can I stop climate change? and How to live a low carbon life.
Flask
Take a flask or thermal mug for hot drinks and reuse your water bottle, rather than re-buying drinks in plastic bottles or polystyrene cups. If you’re travelling in a country where tap water is unsafe to drink, take a water purifying kit.
Genuine
Check your ‘eco’ resort or tour provider’s true value. Lonely Planet’s Code Green is a guide to eco-experiences around the world and helps you spot ‘green credentials’, while The Ethical Travel Guide provides a more general synopsis.
Holiday
at home instead. For the ultimate eco-holiday, stay close to home for the holidays and rediscover loads of amazing places to visit, within easy reach by foot, train or coach. See our range of books re-introducing you to the pleasures of the UK, such as the Eco escape books, Britain and Ireland’s Wild Places and Time Out’s Seaside.
Indigenous
Buy locally crafted gifts that will not have been imported (adding to greenhouse gas emissions) and that support home-grown communities and craftsmanship. After all, why buy a souvenir from Paris that was made in China?
Jumpers
are good investments, especially if you’re heading to chillier climes. Make sure your jumper is fair trade, from organisations such as One World is Enough, who sell jumpers hand-knitted by villagers in Nepal, People Tree or Natural Collection. Pile on two or three at a time so that you can keep the heating down in your accommodation too.
Keep
air conditioning off in your accommodation or hire car – air-con releases tonnes of CO2. Electric fans use much less energy and are still effective cooling devices. Shade sun-facing windows to help keep rooms or parked cars cool too.
Laundry
save on it by not having your hotel towels changed every day – many hotels display a small notice in bathrooms, requesting that if you want towels replaced, you put the used ones on the floor or in the bath-tub, making it clear to the chambermaid you mean green. This saves both energy from the washing machine and detergent from polluting waters. Some hotels give you the chance to choose how often you have your bed linen changed too.
Make
your holidays longer. If you’ve travelled a long distance to a destination it’s more sustainable to stay there a longer time, rather than taking shorter holidays many times throughout the year. Plus it gives you the chance to travel slower and really get into the place that you’re visiting. For tips on taking it slow, read Go Slow England.
Night
flights are twice as bad for the environment than daytime flights. Scientists have found that the warming effect of aircraft is much greater when they fly in the dark, because of the effects of the condensation trails they leave. So if you must go by plane, make sure it takes off in daylight.
Offset
your carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and make your trip carbon neutral with organisations such as www.climatecare.org; www.futureforests.co.uk and www.carbonneutral.co.au. The carbon emissions from a return flight between London and Malaga, for example, can be offset for £3.30. Even better, join the Low Fly Zone’s Flight Pledge and register your intent not to fly for environmental reasons. The more who sign up, the more the government will take notice. Calculate your carbon emissions with Carbon calculator and find out more with The Rough Guide to Climate Change.
Pay
to see endangered wildlife and help keep them protected in countries where if it wasn’t for tourist interest, the animals would be hunted or culled. See Nature Trek and Wild Asia for trip ideas. Don’t, however, pay for souvenirs made from any animal product, especially from endangered species. Over 800 species of animals and plants are currently banned from international trade and a further 30,000 strictly controlled by CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) and EU legislation including many corals, reptiles, orchids and cacti as well as tigers, rhinos, elephants and turtles.
Question
your holiday activities – do you really need to play golf, go quad-biking, jet-skiing or hunting? Quad-bikes are not only noise polluting, but their tracks damage the ground and ecosystems. Most jet-skis use engines which emit 20-40% of their fuel unburned. And there’s no need to explain the detrimental effects of hunting… For holiday activities that are just as thrilling but are glowing green, try mountain-biking, wild swimming and wildlife-watching instead. Other low-carbon activities include canoeing, sailing, climbing, diving, horse-riding, cookery classes, learning to belly dance, and bushcraft and survival courses. For more inspiration, see Wild Swimming and 50 Quirky Bike Rides.
Refrain
from wandering off designated footpaths to avoid erosion and destruction of vegetation, and from feeding wild animals. Have you ever heard of a monkey or an elephant eating potatoes? Then don’t feed them your chips. If the animals eat your food, they won’t ‘prune’ the native vegetation by eating the fruits and leaves, could pick up illnesses, and may become dependent on humans feeding them.
Stay
in a homestay, house swap, host accommodation or a tent, rather than financing the hotel trade. Habitats are destroyed and significant resources used for the building and running of hotels, yet millions of hotel beds are unused most of the year – a terrible waste.
Take the train
to almost anywhere in Europe and even into Africa and Asia without setting foot on a fuel-guzzling plane. Rail travel makes the journey an added perk to your holiday, rather than an uncomfortable ordeal. Mark Smith shows you how in his new informative book The Man in Seat 61 and in Time Out's Flight-free Europe. Reminisce on rail journeys of bygone eras with First Class - Legendary Train Journeys Around the World
Use
biodegradable and concentrated all-purpose soap to prevent polluting waterways and to save on packaging. LifeVenture’s is also organic and can be used for washing your body, face, clothes, and even fruit.
Volunteer
and give something back to the country hosting you – plant trees, build wells or schools, monitor wildlife…there is something to match everyone’s skills. Websites such as www.responsibletravel.com and www.voluntaryprojectsoverseas.org are good places to start, as are informative books such as Working with the Environment, Green Volunteers and Lonely Planet’s Volunteer.
Walk
or cycle instead of taking taxis or driving short distances and save on fuel emissions as well as giving yourself the chance to appreciate your natural surroundings. See our walking and cycling pages for more inspiration.
Xenophile
It’s good to love all things foreign! Many places rely on tourism as their main income, so without your interest in foreign lands, many communities, historic sites and nature areas would suffer.
Years
Be careful how you dispose of your rubbish – an aluminium drink can will last for about 495 years; steel items for 95 years; ordinary plastics for 220 years; disposable nappies for 550 years; plastic bags for 500 years, and glass could last one million years. Find out more about the effects of our Trash.
Zzzzzz
Sleep soundly, knowing you’ve done your bit for the planet, even while on holiday.
Further resources
- See real-time simulation of CO2 emissions, birth and death rates of every country in the world: www.breathingearth.net.
- The Green Travel Guide - your passport to responsible, guilt-free travel
- The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) - international campaigning organisation investigating and exposing environmental crime.
Author: Rachel Ricks
Date: 8 October 2008
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