MINDFUL TRAVEL
21 ways to ease the impact of your travel
Amanda Woods THE size of our carbon footprint is something we care about more than ever as we see the impact climate change is having. Cutting emissions by changing the way we take our holidays is one way to make a difference, while carbon offsetting is another.
Offsetting means buying credits from projects that prevent or remove the equivalent amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that our emissions create. But we shouldn’t see them as a way to wipe our slate clean. Tree planting, for example, is a popular offsetting scheme but can take decades to have an effect.
When planning our holidays, it’s best to look for ways to both reduce our emissions and counteract those we can’t avoid.
Here are 21 ways to help.
1 GO LONG
If you’re heading overseas, extend the holiday as much as you can. Swap short international hops for one big one and then spend the rest of your holidays closer to home to both save emissions and support local businesses.
2 ADD IT UP
Non-profits such as atmosfair and myclimate allow you to offset your flight, cruise and car but be aware the calculations can differ between offset companies and airlines. Return flights from Melbourne to Denpasar, Bali, with atmosfair is calculated at €46 ($75) on an average airline or €38 ($62) on Jetstar, while on myclimate it’s €34 ($55) for all airlines. atmosfair.de/en/, myclimate.org/
3 GET ON THE RIGHT TRACK
Eurostar from London to Paris isn’t only faster than going by plane, it creates about 90 per cent less CO2. But not all train journeys are equal. Diesel train emissions can be twice those of electric trains, and a country’s power source counts too, with trains running on coal power creating more emissions than those on renewable or nuclear sources. Use ecopassenger to see how your train compares to flying or driving. ecopassenger.org/
4 FLY NEW
Choose an airline that uses the latest, more fuel-efficient planes – including Boeing 787 Dreamliners and Airbus A350900s – and burn less fuel on your flight.
5 BE CURIOUS
How does your airline calculate and spend credits? Virgin Australia adds the fuel used over the previous year on a route to ground activities including electricity in airports, then divides it by the number of people who flew on those planes and subtracts weight for freight. Offsetting then helps Tasmanian Land Conservancy to protect about 12,000ha of native forest. virginaustralia.com/
6 TOP UP
Flying business or first class? Consider going beyond your airline’s carbon offset scheme. The larger the space you sit in, the higher your carbon footprint but airline offsets are more one size fits all. Atmosfair allows you to choose your cabin class and aircraft type with carbon credits for a return Sydney to Los Angeles flight in an A380 costing €140 ($226) in economy and €263 ($425) in business class.
7 DRIVE AWAY
Road trip in the smallest and most ecofriendly car you can find on your holiday. Hertz and Avis are among those that offer hybrid cars, and Avis recycles as much as it can from its rental cars, including motor oil, tyres, glass and parts. hertz.com.au, avis.com.au/
8 IN YOUR ELEMENT
Built with sustainability in mind, Element by Westin hotels use recycled materials in construction and design, and offer electric car chargers and in-room water filtration. element-hotels.marriott.com/
9 EARN POINTS
Qantas’s Fly Carbon Neutral program gives frequent flyers 10 Qantas Points for every dollar spent on their offset program and matches every customer dollar for double the impact. Projects include protecting the Great Barrier Reef and native Tasmanian forest. qantas.com/
10 POLES APART
New expedition ships are raising the bar on sustainability. Head to Antarctica or the Arctic on the world’s first hybrid electric-powered expedition ship, Hurtigruten’s MS Roald Amundsen, or sail on Scenic Eclipse, the world’s first discovery yacht which uses marine gas oil, the highest grade of marine fuel. hurtigruten.com.au, scenic.com.au/
11 BE DIRECT
Avoid stopovers where you can. Taxiing, taking off and landing use more fuel than flying through the air.
12 GO GREYHOUND
University of NSW research found driving a car solo from Sydney to Melbourne has almost the same carbon footprint as if you flew because you’re not sharing the burden. Coaches have the lowest average emissions per seat per km and all new Greyhound buses are built with fuel efficiency in mind. greyhound.com.au/
13 WALK ON
Join a World Expeditions small group trek – 100 per cent of your land travel is carbon offset, supporting a wind farm in Vietnam, a hydropower plant in China and more.
14 SAIL CARBON FREE
Lindblad Expeditions offsets 100 per cent of emissions from all of its ships, landbased operations and its offices in New York and Seattle. Carbon credits are used to support renewable energy, reforestation and community-based projects in six countries including Mexico and Peru. au.expeditions.com/
15 LIGHTEN UP
Pack only what you need. The more your bag weighs the more the plane weighs and the more fuel it needs to burn, so think twice about that extra jumper.
16 ON YOUR BIKE
Pedal power is emission free and, with bike sharing in more cities than ever before, it’s easier to do too.
17 ANIMAL INSTINCTS
Natural Habitat Adventures works with the World Wide Fund for Nature to create safaris, polar bear tours, Galapagos cruises and more. Natural Habitat Adventures also became the world’s first carbon neutral company back in 2007 and supports reforestation of native trees in Zimbabwe and provides biomass-fuelled cook stoves to replace burning wood in Rwanda. nathab.com/
18 BE POSITIVE
Intrepid Travel has been carbon neutral since 2010 and this year started offsetting clients’ flights as well as tours as they go carbon positive. Offsetting goes to wind power projects in India and Mexico and a solar farm in Mauritius. intrepidtravel.com/au
19 SAY HELLO SFO
San Francisco International Airport is busier than ever but has still cut emissions by 39 per cent from a 1990 baseline. It has its eyes on a triple zero prize, and aims to produce zero carbon, zero waste and zero net energy unless it’s renewable. flysfo.com/
20 SHARE YOUR RIDE
UberPool, Ola Share and Lyft Line match passengers going in the same direction, making it easy to share and reduce the number of cars on the road. uber.com, ola.com.au, lyft.com/
21 GET ACTIVE
Kayaking, rafting, snorkelling, hiking and cycling get the blood pumping and are carbon free too.