5 Tips to Travel Sustainably
It’s summer, and things are finally going back to normal! COVID restrictions are being lifted in many countries, which means we can travel again! While this is all very exciting, you can’t help but wonder what that will mean for our environment. In the past year, greenhouse gas emissions dropped significantly due to the decrease in travel; will that all change once we start traveling again? It doesn’t have to! Here are some tips to keep in mind while planning your upcoming trips this summer!
1. Drive instead of flying in a plane
Flying in planes is actually one of the most unsustainable modes of transportation. For reference, let’s compare a Boeing 747 plane to a Honda Civic car. For a four-thousand-mile flight, a Boeing 747 plane would require twenty thousand gallons of fuel — divided by four hundred passengers, that would mean fifty gallons of fuel per passenger. A Honda Civic, on the other hand, which has a mileage of thirty miles per gallon, would only require one hundred thirty gallons for the same trip. Divided by four passengers, that equals around thirty-three gallons of gas per passenger. As you can see based on these calculations, there is a significant difference in the amount of fuel required for a plane versus a car. It is for this reason that many environmentalists choose not to fly in planes. Instead, they find other methods of low-emission transportation. Swedish youth activist Greta Thunberg actually traveled to New York in a solar-powered sailboat! However, eliminating flying entirely is obviously not a viable solution for everyone, but if possible, try driving, or some other form of lower-emission transportation instead!
2. Take public transportation at your destination instead of getting a car
Once you arrive at your destination, you’ll likely still need a reliable method of transportation aside from just going on foot (which you should definitely do whenever possible)! But instead of renting a car, try taking public transportation! Especially for large cities like Paris, New York, and London, public transportation is easy, accessible, and affordable. It’s also a fun way to experience a city instead of having to sit in traffic.
3. Bring your own reusable items
Traveling doesn’t mean you can’t have reusables! Bring your own essentials like a water bottle, utensils, towels, and more. This can save you lots of time and money on the trip as well, since you’ll always have them when you need them — that comes in handy when you’re in a foreign country!
4. Do not participate in activities that damage wildlife or nature
This hopefully goes without saying, but when traveling be sure not to harm anything in nature. There are so many ways to engage with nature without damaging anything. For example, instead of riding elephants, which seems harmless but is actually very damaging to the elephant’s emotional well-being, you can go to an elephant sanctuary and watch them in the wild instead! If you go hiking, avoid touching or picking wild plants, and definitely don’t bring them with you — invasive species are incredibly damaging to ecosystems. Find activities where you can enjoy nature while also protecting it.
5. Eat plant-based meals
While on vacation, you may find yourself eating differently than you normally would. Take it as an opportunity to experience different cultures by trying out new plant-based meals!
While being able to travel again is super exciting, let us learn an important lesson from the pandemic — since we all stayed home, greenhouse emissions were able to drop significantly and our overall environment improved. There’s no reason we can’t keep these positives when we are traveling again. Why return to the previous normal when we can create a new, better normal that’s more sustainable for us and the planet!