Sustainable Travel Part 1: Air Travel

We’re right in the middle of the summer travel season, and many of us already have our vacations planned, but even if you do (and especially if you don’t) you can still find ways to employ principals of sustainable travel to help not only minimize your environmental footprint, but help to support local cultures, preserve natural habitats, and promote understanding and awareness of the world we live in.

As Mark Twain said, “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many or our people need to sorely on these accounts.”

This first post on this topic focuses on air travel.

The most apparent aspects and concerns of sustainable travel is the actual traveling – getting from here to there. Many of us fly to our vacation or adventure destinations and, of course, air travel is a significant contributor to global warming. To its credit, the commercial aviation industry has taken great strides in cleaning up their act. Jet engines today are 40% more efficient that those designed in the 1960’s. Sulfur and soot pollution has been virtually eliminated from jet exhaust.

Nonetheless, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, more than 85,000 flights take off every day from the world’s airports, burning an annual 130 million metric tons of fuel every year, with that figure expected to rise to 450 million tons by 2050.

All that fuel burning, or course, dumps carbon into the atmosphere; to the tune of more than half a billion tons every year, contributing 2% of the total greenhouse gas emissions annually.

While less than the 18% contributed by the earth-bound internal combustion engine (a.k.a. cars and trucks), it is still significant and made more so by the emission of these gasses at high altitude. The IPCC estimates that greenhouse gasses released at high altitudes are up to four times more harmful to the environment than an equal amount released at ground level.

What can you do? Obviously, not flying is the best option, but this is about traveling, so the next best thing is to offset your carbon emissions through a carbon offset program.

As most probably know by now, a well-managed and regulated carbon offset program is a means to help mitigate your carbon footprint and, while not an “excuse” to burn carbon with wild abandon, it can be a useful means of minimizing your impact.

One offset program I regularly use to offset my air travel is from Bonneville Environmental Foundation’s Green Tag program. Green Tags support the development of renewable energy on existing power grids, solar power systems for schools and public buildings, wind power systems of farms, ranches, and communities, and watershed restoration to improve water quality and native fish habitat. Further, these Green Tags are endorsed by the Natural Resources Defense Council, Renewable Northwest Project, and the Northwest Energy Coalition.

True, buying green tags, or any other carbon offset, adds to the cost of travel, but it is relatively minor and, for a well managed carbon offset program like Bonneville’s Green Tags, well worth it.

It’s a good habit to get into; after you book a flight, calculate the carbon footprint for the travel miles and buy an appropriate offset (you can do all that at the Bonneville website). It isn’t a total solution, nor should it be used merely as a means to assuage our guilt, but it does make a difference.

In my next post will focus on eco-travel and adventure destinations in our quest for sustainable travel.

Sources and Further Reading
CNN.com
Sustainable Travel International
Bonneville Environmental Foundation

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Sustainable Travel Part 1: Air Travel

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