Green Traveling tips and tricks for environmentally conscious travel
Well, you have already heard about the trend to travel environmentally conscious? This is already the first step into a better future. So before you go on your next vacation, you can start packing your suitcase and pay a little respect to the environment. Also with the means of transport and your accommodation there are numerous possibilities to make you familiar with the so-called Green Traveling!
Nowadays, everyone rolls their eyes in annoyance or suppresses their eyelids when the word “ecological footprint” is mentioned falls and also the color green, seems to be no longer so popular. Think green, live green, eat green and travel green! Environmental consciousness is hard to imagine without and accompanies you through the last months and years – now you should also pay attention to your vacation planning to keep everything as green as possible?
We tell you why it is worthwhile. It’s not that hard and it doesn’t affect you at all. So you can smoothly throw all your worries overboard.
What is Green Traveling?
The term “Green Travelling Basically, sustainable tourism means nothing other than sustainable travel, i.e. respecting one’s responsibility towards the environment while traveling and thus taking ecological and social considerations into account. But it also means respecting foreign cultures and offering support. Especially in this day and age, we all know how important it is not to leave any ecological footprints behind, or rather, how important it is to be environmentally friendly. We are committed to keeping these emissions as low as possible and to using resources responsibly.
Interesting info
The 3. April this year was the starting point for this issue, at least from a political point of view. In fact, the first Green Travel Conference took place at the Impact Hub in Vienna, which focused on sustainable mobility in tourism and made a strong case for raising awareness of travel behavior. People from the organizer to the managing director of Sleep Green Hostels, but also developers of solar-powered electric cars were on hand to share approaches and solutions for sustainable yet affordable tourism.
Sustainable Tourism
If you think that sustainable tourism means only regional vacations, you are wrong. Basically, however, it is important to choose the destination with care and good consideration. A good overview is provided by the non-profit organization “Ethical Traveler”. Every year, they present a list of emerging developing countries that can be considered as destinations from an ethical perspective.
Attention is paid to the following points in particular:
- Striving for sustainability and animal welfare
- Political and social situation
- Respect for human rights and the social system
Flight and destination
Of course, the means of transport also plays a major role and therefore, ideally, flights should be avoided and people should switch to long-distance buses, trains or carpooling. Especially when landing and taking off, the CO2 emission is particularly high and thus contributes to the constant climate change. If you can’t travel to your destination without a flight, you should at least book a non-stop flight.
As you can see, you don’t have to go to the nearest swimming lake just to travel in an environmentally conscious way. On the contrary, according to the organization “Ethical Traveler”, which cares about the respect of human rights, but also evaluates the environmental standard, even says that the Bahamas (in 2014) is as the most ethical destination among developing countries. We would say: Problem solved. Crystal clear water in the middle of the Caribbean and bright white sandy beaches don’t sound bad, do they??
Hotel and accommodation
Staying in an eco-conscious and sustainable hotel does not mean you have to fill a big hole in your wallet afterwards. It is quite enough if the hotel is certified by a sustainability certificate (for example, Green Key Global , Green Globe International , Green Seal and EcoRooms& EcoSuites ) is awarded. These certificates are awarded to hotels that use environmentally friendly products and renewable energy.
However, the most efficient way is to stay with locals – i.e. in vacation rentals or guesthouses, mainly because it is more exciting and definitely less expensive. In this way you also support the local economy and contribute to the fact that large hotel chains move into the shadows.
By the way, you should also feel at home in your accommodation, no matter if it is a vacation home/apartment or a hotel. This means in plain language: not to shower for five hours just because it is not your own water consumption that you have to pay for, not to leave the light on when you enter another room and also not to change the bed linen including towels every day, or do you do that at home as well??
Means of transportation on site
Of course we know that no one can walk to Indonesia or even swim to any island. But on site you can simply use public transportation instead of a rental car. These are not only more exciting and cheaper, but above all more environmentally friendly. This will give you a chance to relax and take in the natural scenery on site for real.
Local long-distance buses and trains also allow you to get from A to B quickly and easily. And the best? You can even be among the locals, get to know the culture and talk to the people. Doesn’t that make a real trip?
Food and drink
Yes, of course, MC Donalds, Burger King and many other well-known fast food chains are everywhere. But seriously, does this still have something to do with real travel?? Even when it comes to food, the rule is: local’s best! If you choose local products, which are produced and processed in the immediate region, you will also be doing the environment a huge favor. In the meantime, there are even travelers who go in search of such places and thus true “streetfood experiences” experience.
Furthermore, even if there are not too many possibilities in many countries, you should make sure to throw the garbage in the garbage can. What is valid at home, should be self-evident elsewhere. A reusable water bottle with an integrated filter is also better than buying three new plastic bottles of water every day.
Trips
Riding elephants in Thailand or feeding monkeys in Bali – of course, this should not be missing on such a vacation. But, there is one thing you can do and that is to inform yourself really well. Do the locals keep the ethical principles? Are the animals tortured or are they treated appropriately?? You should therefore ask yourself many questions in advance, in order to prevent such abuses.
What do you think? Do you know any other useful tips to save the environment? We want to hear your opinion! You can easily – under the post – leave us a comment! If you have cool ideas, we are of course not averse to include them in our article.