How To Travel Green

How To Travel Green on Howcast

Be kind to the environment on your next trip with these simple actions.

You Will Need

• A green hotel
• Restraint while packing
• Public transportation or a hybrid rental
• Your own toiletries
• A carbon offset
• Eco-friendly destination
• Canvas shopping bag
• Coffee mug
• Water bottle
• A day flight

Step 1: Consider eco-friendly destinations

Consider taking a vacation with a small carbon footprint. Options include traveling by rail to an area where you can get around without a car, staying in an eco-friendly resort that’s made of recycled building materials and uses renewable energy, or booking a working vacation through an organization like Ethical Volunteering.

Step 2: Pack responsibly

Pack as lightly as possible to minimize the fuel required for transportation. If every American packed 10 fewer pounds, it would save some 350 million gallons of fuel a year.

Bring along a canvas tote bag, a commuter coffee mug, and a water bottle so you don’t have to use plastic bags, Styrofoam cups, and bottled water on the road.

Step 3: Turn off and turn down

Unplug all your electronics and appliances when you leave home for your trip. Lower your thermostat and water heater.

Step 4: Take public transportation

Take public transportation wherever you can — to and from the airport or rail station, and at your destination. Or rent a hybrid car.

If you’re flying, go by day. Due to complicated scientific reasons, night flights actually produce a greater warming effect than day flights.

Step 5: Pick a green hotel

Reserve a room in an eco-friendly hotel. If there is no certified green lodging where you’re going, choose a nonsmoking hotel that allows guests to reuse their towels and linens, uses compact fluorescent lighting and nontoxic cleaning products, and helps guests recycle.

Step 6: Use your own toiletries

Ignore those little plastic bottles of shampoo, conditioner, and lotion in favor of your own toiletries.

Step 7: Turn off the lights

Turn off every light when you leave your hotel. If you’re going to be gone all day, turn off the AC or lower the thermostat.

Step 8: Don’t waste paper

Take only the tourist pamphlets that you really want or need.

Step 9: Buy a carbon offset

When you get home, counteract the carbon footprint you left by making a donation to a charity that helps reduce greenhouse gas, like climatetrust.org or nativeenergy.com.

Airplanes, with their carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide, and methane emissions, contribute up to 3% of the globe’s greenhouse gas pollution.



Greencar.com

Our video from yesterday came to us courtesy of Greencar.com, a great website that gets into the details of the development of fuel-efficient cars.  If you are looking to buy a new car, I highly recommend checking out their website for great articles and videos. 

Here is a video about diesel hybrids.

Pros and Cons of Hybrids

There is definitely no question that reducing fuel usage is important, and a lot of us automatically assume that hybrids can do no wrong.  But actually there are several other aspects of hybrids to consider - more specifically, battery technologies.  Does making the battery need so much energy that it cancels out the gas savings? And does battery disposal cause more harm than the car avoids?

The Science behind hybrids!

Continuing in the same vein, here is a quick description of what a hybrid is and how it works. The hybrid used in this demonstration is the Toyota Prius.