Travel sustainably... + make a difference!
Follow these 10 travel tips for Aussie travellers and the world will thank you
1 BE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR TRAVEL EMISSIONS
Minimising (and mitigating) the emissions created by our trips is crucial to sustainable travel. Begin before you’ve even packed by browsing for inspiration using the Ecosia search engine (ecosia.org). The company invests
80 per cent of its ad profits into tree-planting initiatives in more than 30 countries. While offsetting your emissions doesn’t erase them, most climate scientists agree it’s an important step. All major Australian airlines offer offsetting schemes, or you can offset through a program such as Tomorrow’s Air (tomorrowsair.com), which removes emissions by pumping the amount you select underground, where they turn to stone.
2 SUPPORT RESPONSIBLE OPERATORS
Tour operators committed to sustainability handle much of the legwork for you, from carbon-offsetting your tour to providing meaningful employment opportunities for locals. Check company websites to learn more about their initiatives. Look for certifications such as B Corp status, acquired by the likes of Intrepid Travel (intrepidtravel.com), which indicates a high level of accountability, while Australia’s leading ecotourism products are identified by Ecotourism Australia’s Advanced Ecotourism label (ecotourism.org.au).
3 BOOK GREENER HOTELS
Accommodation providers are increasingly making their operations more sustainable. Book hotels that impress you with their sustainability policies, or search and book via platforms that collate properties for you, such as Life Unhurried (lifeunhurried. com) for domestic “slow stays” and Book Different (bookdifferent.com), which features more than a million green stays around the globe.
4 CONSIDER YOUR SOCIAL IMPACT
There’s more to sustainable travel than your environmental footprint. Help to ensure the people who live in the places you visit benefit from your stay by making a conscious effort to respect local culture, support community-minded local businesses and always ask permission (or parental consent) before photographing locals.
5 MAKE MINDFUL FOOD CHOICES
Sampling local dishes is one of the greatest joys of
travelling. Along with being a fun way to engage with local culture, it’s also a more sustainable way to eat, as local produce travels a short distance to your plate. However, there are exceptions – if an endangered or unsustainably harvested species is a local delicacy, give it a miss.
6 MINIMISE YOUR WASTE FOOTPRINT
With thousands of water purifying solutions and reusable travel items available (are you even an Aussie traveller if you don’t have a Scrubba wash bag?), there are few excuses for falling back on single-use plastics on the road. It’s also important to consider your travel destination’s waste disposal capabilities. If there’s no opportunity to recycle, consider taking recyclables back to Australia to dispose of thoughtfully.
7 EXPLORE AUSTRALIA WITH AN INDIGENOUS GUIDE
Combine two sustainable travel goals by travelling closer to home and seeing your backyard in a new way on an Indigenous tour. Most Indigenous experiences are centred around the concept of caring for Country with tours often taking the form of carbon-friendly guided walks. Get inspired by the array of bookable experiences on the Welcome to Country website (welcometocountry.com).
8 SELECT SOUVENIRS WISELY
Before you reach for another magnet, consider how your purchase supports the area. Check labels to ensure products are local and not made from unsustainable materials such as plastic, sea shells and threatened wildlife and timber species.
9 CHOOSE SUSTAINABLE WILDLIFE EXPERIENCES
Wildlife tourism can be a powerful tool countries can leverage to diversify their economies while safeguarding their biodiversity. It can also be a cruel industry that puts animals at risk for human entertainment. Experiences that focus on observing wildlife in its natural habitat, with no hands-on contact, are generally the most sustainable – and thrilling.
DON’T HOARD TRAVEL SNAPS
Did you know that even your digital storage has a carbon footprint? With digital technologies thought to be responsible for at least 1.4 per cent of global emissions, editing down the travel snaps you store on your cloud can help to reduce the volume of energy needed to power the servers your data is stored on.