Part One of Two
Some days all I need to be recharged is to see my daughter laugh until she snorts over the silliest of things. Now that she’s at least one plane change or two solid days of driving away, it’s not as often as I selfishly would like. Keeping a small carbon footprint in check when your family and friends or work take you around the world is a challenge to state the obvious.
The close of summer is just a few days away, and with it ends one of the busiest travel seasons in the U.S. Increasing fuel and travel costs have curtailed some of our shuttling from location to location, but is that a bad thing? It’s certainly diminished a small portion of our very large carbon footprint associated with travel.
If you’ve never calculated your carbon footprint, it’s an eye-opener (for a quick look, try www.terrapass.com for their carbon footprint calculator or for a more comprehensive look try The Nature Conservancy's calculator at http://www.nature.org/greenliving/carboncalculator/index.htm). I made a decision several years ago to limit my air travel and rediscover road trips with my high mileage, low emission diesel Jettawagen. (And, don’t even get me started on how I would prefer to travel by rail service in the U.S as I have in Europe.) Even with reducing air travel my footprint is still larger than I like, so what are my options? Mitigate my travel by supporting projects through carbon offsets (http://www.carboncatalog.org/), travel less or travel smarter. For me, it’s a little of all three.
The hospitality and travel industries include many options for smarter travel. On a global scale, travelers and hospitality professionals can learn much from organizations like Sustainable Travel International (http://www.sustainabletravelinternational.org/documents/au.html). On a domestic level, we have the choice to support businesses incorporating sustainable practices like one of my favorite B&Bs, Rosemont Inn and Cottages, whose owner supports Farm to Table by purchasing and serving local foods. Your travel can be greatly enriched with a little research in advance on locally-owned restaurants, businesses and recreational opportunities located along your route.
Shared travel with family and friends as well as regional staycations have my photo album full and ready for viewing next time I’m snowed in!
Part Two: Helpful guides, practicing the RRRs on the road, and a different way to travel
