Travel Green : Simple Ways to Fly Smarter

Hi, hello, and happy Earth Day! 

Spring is springing, flowers are blooming, and the weather is beginning to turn. What better time to talk about ways to protect all the natural beauty of the world than now, when it’s all starting to look beautiful and inviting after a long, cold winter. I’ve talked on here about sustainable and responsible travel before but I wanted to dig into one particular facet of sustainable travel and that is carbon emissions. 

We probably all remember at some point learning about our “carbon footprint” and the ways in which we contribute to emissions and resource usage. While I applaud the initiatives individuals take to reduce their daily impact by recycling, biking instead of driving, or turning off their lights to use less electricity, the major contributors to carbon emissions are big corporations and larger industries like the airline industry. While many airlines are making efforts to offset or reduce their carbon emissions, there is still a long way to go. 

A lot of activists, and Greta Thunberg, say we shouldn’t be flying at all and should find more sustainable ways to travel like by boat, train, or on foot. Yes those other ways of traveling are more sustainable, as in they require less natural resources and don’t emit as many greenhouse gases, but it’s also unrealistic to tell everyone not to fly any more, especially in countries like the US where we don’t have the infrastructure for high speed trains between destinations and our cities are too spread out many times to solely explore by foot. I looked at Amtrak recently to see how long it would take and how much it would cost to take the train from Denver to Chicago. Unfortunately, it would take even longer than it would to drive and cost about the same as a flight. We just don’t have the realistic systems to make train travel worthwhile. 

Although climate change and sustainability are going to require bigger shifts than our individual actions, there are some things we can do to help. 

1 - Avoid shorter flights.

If you can drive there, take a decent length train ride, or just not go at all, choose that. Short haul flights are less efficient than long-haul and in many cases are unnecessary. France recently introduced legislation to ban domestic flights under 2.5hrs to encourage citizens to travel more sustainably by train or car. While long haul-flights are bigger polluters, they are often unavoidable, but short flights can be replaced with other methods of travel. For short business travel, try replacing an unnecessary trip with a video call. For backpacking around Europe, take trains, or for Latin America, take buses. You’ll see more from a train or bus than you would on your quick flight too. There are lots of ways to work around short flights so try to get creative and be conscious of your travel decisions.

2 - Offset your carbon emissions.

“Carbon offsets offer a way to balance out your pollution by investing in projects that reduce emissions of carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.”  This can be things like donations to an organization planting more trees to capture more CO2, projects that help industries implement cleaner practices, etc. A few airlines offer this option at checkout anyway, where you can select a box to offset your flights and add just a few dollars to your booking. Easy-peasy. However, if your airline doesn’t offer this option you can still offset your emissions from flying by using any one of many organizations that do carbon offsetting and have multiple projects or programs to choose from for your donation. The extra advantage of doing this? Your carbon offsets are tax-deductible if they’re going to a 501(c)(3)! Sounds like a win-win. 

Qantas Airlines offers a carbon offset option at checkout so we were able to offset our very long flights to and from Australia last year easily.

3 - Look for direct/ nonstop and take a pass on first class.

If you can choose a nonstop/ direct flight to your destination rather than two separate flights, go for it! Like I mentioned above, shorter flights are inefficient so it’s likely going to save you time to just take the direct route and be a more sustainable decision. Also try to opt for economy when you do fly, since first class and business class seats take up more space and reduce the efficiency of the flight since less people can then fill the plane. Less people booking first class signals to airlines that planes should be filled and more efficient. 

When traveling by plane, I typically try to offset my flights whenever possible. It’s easy, affordable (truly usually less than $20 for an international flight), and makes you feel a little bit better about your travel. I offer this service as an add-on to any of my trip planning packages as well so you don’t have to worry about finding a reputable organization and doing that research yourself! 

This planet is big and beautiful and there is so much to see and do. We should do our part to be conscious of how we go about seeing it so the generations after us will have the same opportunities to see the glaciers in Patagonia or the forests and animals in Australia. So remember these things when you plan your first (or maybe second!) post-COVID trip!

Let’s all try to treat every day like Earth Day!