Traveling is one of the greatest experiences someone can have. Whether it is going to a sandy beach to soak up some sun and listen to the waves crashing on the shore or going to a bustling city on the other side of the world to try new cuisine and experience another culture, traveling is a wonderful way to spend time.
However, it is important that when people travel, they do so in an environmentally conscious fashion in order to preserve and respect the locations that they visit. While individuals can only do so much as travelers, the companies that facilitate travel and cater to tourists can make an even larger impact.
The Importance Of Keeping Travel Eco-Friendly
It is incredibly important for both individuals and companies to look to ways to make travel more environmentally conscious because the majority of travel is inherently not eco-friendly. Whether someone is traveling by air, land, or sea, there is a good chance that a huge amount of pollution is generated in doing so through the burning of fossil fuels. Additionally, travel tends to encourage the unnecessary use of plastics from travel-sized products and the damage is compounded when there are few opportunities to recycle in certain locations.
Additionally, international tourism is a massive industry that employs approximately 235 million people worldwide and is often one of the main sources of income for developing nations. This means that many of the places where tourism is the most important are also some of the most vulnerable places that might not have the resources necessary to deal with the environmental impact that tourism can cause. Not only is eco-friendly tourism essential in preserving the natural areas that draw visitors from around the world, but it is also important to factor in the human element and consider how tourism impacts local populations.
When individuals and companies do their best to embody the ideas of eco-friendly travel, it can have a whole host of positive effects. The goals of ecotourism should be to preserve the natural environments and ecosystems that are important to local communities and travelers alike, as well as promote economic stability for those living permanently in popular destinations. This will help to reduce the carbon footprint that individuals and companies leave behind and help communities to grow and thrive in a responsible manner.
What Individuals Can Do
Individual travelers don’t have to take any particularly extreme measures to engage in eco-friendly travel. Making small environmentally conscious decisions can have a serious impact if done regularly. Opting for paperless travel by using EVisas and online check-ins and digital boarding passes can go a long way when it comes to reducing environmental impact.
If taking a road trip, travelers can consider renting a hybrid car if their personal vehicle is a bit of a gas guzzler. Hybrid vehicle or not, though, gas usage can be reduced by doing a little research before a road trip to find the most efficient routes and times of day for driving using map programs like Google Maps or other GPS tools.
Travelers can also make eco-friendly decisions that are healthy for them personally. When traveling, tourists can choose to walk as often as possible instead of utilizing cabs or renting vehicles. Additionally, travelers can invest in a reusable stainless steel drinking bottle to reduce the amount of plastic waste that they generate while on their travels, keeping them hydrated while simultaneously reducing their environmental impact.
Finally, if travelers find themselves in an area where walking between locations is simply not a viable option, learning how to use local public transit can also help to reduce carbon emissions. Trains and buses produce far less emissions than individual cars, and while it may take travelers slightly longer to get to their destinations, they will be fully immersed in the local culture while they are on their way. It is also important for travelers to make sure they are aware of what the weather will be like at their destination and whether or not that will impact their ability to either walk or take public transit.
What Companies Can Do
While individual travelers can make a positive impact on a micro scale, the large companies that enable world travel can take steps to make positive eco-friendly decisions on a macro scale. Though the U.S. is slowly turning towards the renewable for its energy needs with nearly 20% of all electricity in the U.S. being generated by renewable sources, many travel destinations still rely heavily on fossil fuels. Companies within the travel industry generally have the capital to invest in more renewable energy sources such as solar panels or even to bring those renewable energy sources to the communities in which they operate.
The idea of a company making these sorts of environmentally friendly decisions that are designed to help both the environment and communities at large isn’t uncommon. This type of self-awareness and purposeful decision-making is one of the core tenets of conscious capitalism, which is an approach to thinking about capitalism in a more reflective and positive way. Companies like Trader Joe’s, Southwest Airlines, and Whole Foods all engage in conscious capitalism, still turning a profit while also providing value services to the world in which they operate.
Hotel chains have some of the greatest potential to engage in eco-friendly practices or to participate in conscious capitalism. Using green building materials during construction, implementing in-house water recycling programs, and even installing and maintaining apiaries on their roofs to house thousands of honey bees are all fantastic, workable ideas that large hotel companies can use. Making these small decisions will not only have a serious global environmental impact, but also do wonders for a company’s public image.
Eco-friendly travel doesn’t have to be a pain. There are small steps that both individuals and large companies can take in order to make large impacts. Eventually the idea of eco-friendly travel will be completely mainstream, but there is no reason that anyone, or any business, shouldn’t get ahead of the curve.
