Gadling’s Guide to traveling Green

by Brenda Yun on

Travel as we used to know it is changing for the better, thanks to green initiatives like LEED for building projects, carbon offsetting for flying, and green outfitters like Go Lite. There are so many reasons travelers should travel greener and no reasons not to. But what does traveling green look like, and is it harder to do?

Here are a few tips on how to travel green. Odds are you’re already greener because you have a greener conscience, so instead of thinking of these as preachy steps to make you eco-conscious, take these tips as a green refresher.

  • Walk or bike, don’t drive: This is a given. Your feet don´t ruin the environment unless you leave a blaze of fire behind you (which you don´t). This is kind of travel, which many call “slow travel,” is often the best way to travel anyway, as you can take your time soaking in the sights and sounds around you.
  • Take public transportation if you have to: …and I don´t mean a taxi. If you´re traveling far, hop on a ferry, bus, or train. Spare the gas spent solely for you. Limited resources like fossil fuels really will run out one day, so save them when you can.
  • Travel light — and turn off the lights: The less weight you carry, the easier it will be to get around — and the less burden you have for others. Always remember to save energy when you can by turning off lights you don´t need to use.
  • Reuse and recycle: Those plastic bottles that you buy abroad can be reused! So can scraps of paper, lines of rope. Be resourceful when you can, use new products only when necessary.
  • Buy local: Definitely avoid fast food joints when you´re abroad. You´re better off eating street food anyway. Buy fruits and veggies from the local farmers´markets and artisans´goods from small kiosks. Your money to them goes much farther.
  • Take fewer, longer trips: This is a no-brainer to some, but the hardest thing to do for others. Since I live in Hawaii I´m always trying to consolidate my travels. Whenever I need to make a journey across the ocean I always try to tack on another journey with it. It saves time, and more importantly it saves precious resources.
  • Offset your carbon footprint if you can: All of the major airlines are encouraging sustainable travel by informing travelers of ways they can calculate their carbon footprint. More importantly, most airlines like Continental are providing innovative ways to give back to the environment exactly what we are taking away by traveling.
  • Take a “clean break” by staying in green eco-lodges: If you haven´t heard of green resorts and eco-lodges, you will soon enough. There are some really affordable ones popping up all over the world, so being green no longer means you´re spending more money. It just means you´re being more conscious of your effects on the environment — and that´s always a good thing.

This HowCast video offers a nice summary of the tips detailed above.

It is possible to travel green and responsibly! Now go out there and have fun.

How global warming could change travel

by Brenda Yun on

We heard it from Al Gore in “An Inconvenient Truth,” and we’re hearing it again — this time from the World Ocean Conference 2009 that is in its third of a five-day conference, taking place in Manado, Indonesia: rising sea levels will likely displace millions of island dwellers in the next twenty years. According to two recent articles in the Conde Nast Portfolio and AFP, the the polar ice caps are melting, causing ocean levels to rise, thereby shrinking some very populated and travel-worthy islands.

Places like the Maldives, Kiribati, and Tuvalu are literally shrinking and could be completely submerged by 2050. Mount Kilimanjaro and the Swiss Alps could lose over 40% of their snow within 20 years. Perhaps most importantly, an estimated 150 million people could be displaced from their lowland homes because of significant sea level rises.

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So, what does this mean for travelers? Well, the implications are quite clear. Those of us interested in visiting the polar destinations like Greenland and Antarctica or even glacial regions threatened by shrinking glaciers should enjoy them while they’re still cold. The same goes for the shrinking islands, such as the Phillipines, and the warming waters of the Great Barrier Reef, which could lose over 90% of its live coral within 50 years.

The five-day World Ocean Conference has drawn hundreds of officials and ocean experts from 80 countries and is the prelude to December talks on a successor to the expiring Kyoto Protocol, whose aim was to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 5.2%, compared to data drawn in 1990. It has been twenty years since this Protocol and other climate initiatives have been evaluated, so it’s about time we think about being as green as possible.

The Alliance of Small Island States, the European Union, and the U.S. are all proposing greenhouse gas emission cuts of over 80% by 2050, but important developing nations such as China (who faces a very real threat to sea level rises in its overpopulated urban cities of Beijing and Shanghai) have yet to determine how much they can do in this global effort.

Afghan wildlife refuge: no hand grenade fishing

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Afghanistan is going green. The war-torn country has declared Band-e-Amir its first conservation area. While it may be premature to book your trip to this spectacle, at least there’s hope that you’ll get to enjoy it someday.

Band-e-Amir, like the rest of Afghanistan, has had a rough run over the past 30 years. Let’s face it: that’s how long the country’s been engaged in one war or another. The region’s snow leopards fell victim to the conflict between Soviet troops and mujahideen in the 1980s. Of course, the great Buddha statues were destroyed by the Taliban in 2001.

The fighting is reportedly in other parts of the country, these days, which the locals will attract foreign visitors. The lakes are the major draw, assuming you’re willing to subject yourself to a brutal daylong drive from Kabul. The destination may be billed as safe, but the journey certainly isn’t. Head into Afghanistan at your own risk.

For now, local merchants have their fingers crossed for Afghan tourists. Westerners, one would assume, would come much later.

If you do throw caution to the wind, be sure to follow the rules. Fishing with hand grenades is no longer allowed.
Among the local practices that are now banned: no more fishing with hand grenades. If you role the dice, don’t worry. The rangers tasked with enforcement are paid less than $60 a month and can be on duty for up to 24 hours at a time.

Five tips for green travel

by Tom Johansmeyer on

1. Green your flight
Offset the carbon footprint created by your share of air travel, buy some carbon credits. Several websites can yelp you calculate your carbon footprint (such as TerraPass.com and ClimateCare.org), allowing you to take action. The offsets you buy will ensure that energy from renewable sources will be sent to the grid.

2. Book an environmentally friendly tour
Intrepid Travel has introduced “carbon offset” trips, designed to be eco-friendly without, frankly, sucking. This year, 38 of Intrepid’s 400+ excursions will be eco-friendly … close to 10 percent.

3. Give back a little
RockResorts has “Give and Getaway” vacations, where you can pitch in on volunteer projects – like trail restoration with the National Forest Foundation – in trade for discounted lodging rates.

4. Watch what you drive
If possible, carpool to and from the airport. Too often, we all fight for airport parking (and emit a bit of extra carbon) for no good reason. When you get to your destination, consider renting a hybrid.

5. Stick with your new green habits
When you get home from your trip, give back to a destination by donating to an organization such as Travelers’ Philanthropy … and try to turn a small experience into a lifelong habit.

Clean living in Stockholm

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Scandinavians are recognized as being on the cutting edge of environmentally-friendly innovation. Nowhere is this clearer than at Hammarby Sjöstad, a community of apartments in Stockholm designed to reduce carbon footprint and generally enable clean living. Large windows make the most of sunlight, especially in the summer, and carefully planned logistics – down to trash pickup schedules – lead to lower emissions and a reduced environmental impact.

Once fully developed, the collection of 11,000 homes, which can be purchased or rented, take advantage of new technological developments to enable conservation without thinking. The consumption of water, for example, is lowered by showers that mix air with water to create the feeling of deluge without the environmental implications. Even raw sewage is converted to energy.

The flaw in most green initiatives – behavior modification – is present at Hammarby Sjöstad. Technology goes only so far, and people have to provide the final push. But, the residents surveyed said that living in there has inspired many to change their lifestyles.

The development is still new and remains a work in progress. The project is expected to be completed in 2015. But, early signs are positive. The home of the future will not resemble some Disneyland fantasy, it seems. Rather, it will reflect Scandinavian sensibility and an effort to keep the planet alive a little longer.