We love to travel as I’m sure a lot of you do as well. Travel is often associated with large carbon footprints. So how do we make sure we do our part to make it as eco-friendly as possible?
We have some tips in one place to help you get started:
1. Green tags
At some airports, you have the option to offset your carbon footprint by buying ‘green tags’. For example, if you bought a green tag for $18 (NYC to LA), you’re basically donating to clean power in order to offset your carbon footprint for that flight. Not all green tags are created equal. Make sure that you buy directly from the company providing the clean power service and not a third party seller.
You can calculate how much carbon footprint you’re generating through a calculator here. You can also buy green tags through TerraPass or some travel companies like REI Adventures already build this into their packages.
2. Bike sharing
Bike sharing is now offered in most major cities including London, Montreal, Paris, Amsterdam and Netherlands. It’s also coming to NYC soon which we’re personally very excited about. This program lets you rent a bike for a day and has multiple convenient locations for returning the bike. It is a fun, cheap and eco-friendly way of discovering a place.
You can find out if the place you’re traveling too offeres such a program here.
3. Handy dandy smart phone
You can use your phone for not only taking amazing photos of your vacation but also to have access to maps, restaurant reviews, translation guides and much more. And to charge all this activity, why not use a portable solar charger?
4. Sleeping tight
If you are staying at hotels, make sure to request no daily change of sheets (we most likely don’t do it in our homes), re-use your towels, and switch off the lights when you leave the room.
Or, better yet, stay at someone else’s house through Airbnb. Not only you might end up staying at a super cool residence, smaller houses are much easier to keep in line with sustainable practices, which is much harder for larger hotels.
5. Supporting local wherever you go
Don’t forget to check out local farmer and vintage markets for delicious picnics, and cool gifts to bring home. Sometimes, we got our best tips for exploring through locals at these markets, so make sure to strike up conversations.