How to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint When Traveling

The expansion of deserts is one of the effects of climate change.

© Marcela Torres

By Marcela Torres

While governments and industry representatives struggle to reach agreements on how to stop global warming at the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Durban, South Africa, I thought it might be useful to give some good tips on small but significant contributions we can make as travelers.

• Choose a Responsible Company: When planning your trip, choose travel companies that employ local workers and guides or source locally grown produce and local services. This is a good way to support the local economy.
• Unplug While Away: Before you leave home, remember to turn off the lights as well as the air conditioner/heater and unplug all household appliances that can be left unplugged while you are away.
• Treat the Place as Your Home: Take care of the environment when on holiday as if you were at home. Always use garbage can to dispose of trash. If there are no bins in the area, take the litter with you and throw it once you find a bin.
• Avoid Plastic Bottles: Instead of buying bottled water, carry your own refillable water bottles and use the hotel’s potable drinking water supply.
• Save Water: Water is scarce in many destinations. Use the minimum amount of water needed for a shower/bath, don't let water run while shaving, brushing or washing, and check if the hotel has a linen reuse program - if so, reuse your towels and bed sheets by placing the card to indicate you don't wish to have them washed every day, if not, request hospitality staff not to change them every day.
• Choose Public Transport: Use public transportation (bus, train, taxis, etc.) as much as possible. It's a more sustainable way to get around.
• Walk Around: Instead of renting vehicles, take time to walk around. You will not only do some exercise and help the environment, but you will also get to know better the place you are visiting.
• Avoid disposable batteries: Whenever possible, buy rechargeable batteries for your essential travel items such as cameras, razors, and flash lights.
• Eat Local: Trying local food is a good way to learn about the culture of the place you are visiting. Visit a local farmer's market, shop at a locally owned grocery store and choose locally owned restaurants, since they usually will buy local produce and that means less fuel was consumed to transport the product.

Air Travel

Air travel is one of the big issues discussed during all climate change Conferences of Parties meetings and significant progress is never achieved. I have already talked about the impact of air travel in a previous blog, but since at present there is no adequate regulation for it and flights are sometimes unavoidable, the responsibility lies mostly on the tourists themselves to minimize their impact.

Some good tips to consider are:

• Avoid Stops: Fly the most direct route possible and try to avoid short hops by air, because take-offs and landings use the most fuel.
• Fly Economy: More people in a plane will result in fewer emissions per person.
• Avoid Night Flights: Fly during the daytime, because during the night the condensation formed from jet-fuel exhaust remains in the atmosphere much longer due to the cool night air.
• Pack Light: By reducing the weight of luggage, you will help the planes burn less fuel.
• Longer Stays: Try to stay longer in a destination instead of making many short trips.
• Offset the Unavoidable Footprint: Make your trips "carbon neutral" by contributing to a credible carbon offsetting program that supports conservation, renewable energy, and other environmental projects. A few airlines have these schemes in place and will offer them to you when you purchase. If yours doesn’t, some non-governmental organizations such as The International Ecotourism Society and SustainableTravel International have reliable carbon-offsetting programs.

This entry was originally posted by the author on December 6, 2011.

Biofuels for more eco-friendly flights

Air Bus plane.
© Air Bus

by Marcela Torres

Air travel has broadly been identified as a major source of greenhouse gas emissions and an important factor in climate change issues. This raises questions as to the implications of increasing costs of fuel and energy in the future and the need for tourism to be seen in the wider context of environment, resources and mobilities if it is ever to become sustainable.

Although some say planes only contribute between 2 and 3 percent of global emissions, airlines are aware of the criticism and have been tackling the problem for several years. The results? Last month, Boeing performed the first-ever transatlantic crossing of a commercial jetliner using renewable, biologically derived fuel. And this week, Lufthansa and Airbus launched the world’s first daily passenger flights using sustainable biofuel.

But the road to sustainable air travel has not been always been easy or voluntary. When the European Union adopted the Directive to include aviation in its Emissions Trading Scheme in January 2009 many airlines complained that it would hamper their operations in the region. How does emissions trading work? Passengers and companies contribute to some conservation project to offset their carbon emissions, which are sold on a carbon market.

Some airlines such as Qantas, Air New Zealand, Virgin Atlantic, and Continental voluntarily created their own carbon offset programs to allow passengers to reduce their environmental footprint when flying even before any regulations were passed. They were certainly pioneers in the field, but questions quickly were raised about how much should tourists pay per ton of avoided carbon dioxide and about the need to favor reduction of emissions instead of offsetting schemes.

Many expected science and technology to play an important role. Tourists see scientists as key actors in providing up to date information to allow government officials to make the right decisions, while the industry relies on technology to solve the problem of carbon dioxide emissions without reducing flights.

The one big truth is that airplane travel is here to stay and that the search for biofuels to replace fossil fuels is a positive step in the right direction. Some view this progress with skepticism and criticize that the trials by Boeing and Airbus only use a percentage of biofuels in combination with kerosene. Others warn against the amount of water that will be required to irrigate crops used to produce biofuel and whether or not the increasing need for biofuels will motivate more deforestation to grow crops.

It’s a problem difficult to solve. But the fact that the air travel industry is making efforts to actually reduce emissions instead of just offsetting them is a good sign that times are changing and sustainable tourism may be possible after all.

This entry was originally posted by the author on July 22, 2011.