Can you see the world without contributing to its devastation? It’s a question concerned travellers, conscious of everything from transportation-related pollution to food wastage at resorts, are asking themselves. With the World Economic Forum estimating that this planet’s flourishing travel and tourism industry now generates about eight per cent of climate change-inducing CO2 emissions, those travellers can feel more conflicted than ever.    

The good news: there are now multiple ways to access what’s known as “responsible,” “sustainable” or “green” travel. The not-so-good news: reducing your environmental footprint will likely demand extra effort and may cost a bit more.

The key to responsible travel is approaching it “holistically,” says Melissa Snape, head of corporate citizenship at Collette, a preferred partner of the National Association of Federal Retirees.

That means looking not just at greenhouse gas emissions but all facets of your trip, from how visiting at the height of tourism season could worsen the impact on already-strained local resources to which hotels support local agriculture.

While many travellers prefer to let an agency book a green tour (Collette’s tours are increasingly sustainably oriented and its Exploration small-group tour service has been carbon neutral for several years), other globe-trotters like to carve out their own adventures. One way or the other, knowing how to travel more sustainably benefits everyone. 
 

Getting there and around 

Despite steady improvements in fuel efficiency and experimentation with greener energy sources, “there really isn’t a green way to fly right now,” Snape says. 

She suggests looking at sustainable transportation alternatives where you visit. For example, while “A motorcoach is better than everyone renting cars, if there’s local transportation like a metro, that’s a better option.” 

You could also look at train travel if distances within or between your countries of choice are greater. It can be slower than flying, but it isn’t always, given airport arrival times and the increasing speed of trains, and anyway, isn’t tourism all about absorbing, rather than just scanning, places and lives other than our own?

If you’re contemplating a cruise, you’ll be hard-pressed to do it in truly green fashion. Cruise lines are regularly accused of dumping sewage into the oceans and burning frightening quantities of fossil fuels. Even the switch by some lines to liquified natural gas (LNG) has been criticized for releasing large amounts of climate-warming methane into the atmosphere. 

Snape’s advice on cruises: “It really depends on the company. That’s where you really have to dig into what is the company doing and what are they just saying? Things like food waste and how they’re handling that has a massive impact.”
 

Accommodation and meals

Although not perfect, environmental footprint calculators can help you estimate the CO2 impact of accommodation and other facets of travel and then purchase offsets to compensate for the carbon damage. 

For example, the calculator at planetair.ca — a non-profit that promotes carbon offsets — estimates an eight-day hotel stay in San José, Costa Rica, will emit 0.04 tonnes of CO2. Round-trip economy-class air travel for two from Edmonton to San José adds 3.75 tonnes. Tack on car rental for 1,500 kilometres, and your total jumps to 4.05 tonnes. You can “offset” that by spending just over $120 at planetair.ca to support, for example, reforestation in Canada or housing and conservation in Africa. 

Calculators, however, don’t take into account individual variations in accommodation, eating habits and the like. Selecting a hotel with a sustainable certification (see green travel resources) will reduce your footprint while ordering at least some vegetarian meals and looking for local ingredients also eases the pressure on the planet. 

Other simple tactics include hanging up your hotel towels to signal you will reuse them, keeping showers short — especially in water-deprived regions — drinking your morning coffee at a café where cups can be reused instead of asking for takeout, and carrying a refillable water bottle.  
 

Shopping and entertainment

Like eating at locally owned restaurants, shopping at smaller vendors who stock locally produced goods mitigates the climate effects of importing goods from abroad and helps keep money in the community to benefit its residents.  

Watch, too, for shops and vendors that sell green-certified items, those that support Indigenous culture and those run by female entrepreneurs, who have too often taken a back seat to their male counterparts. 

When searching for museums and special events, check a site such as greenkey.global for potential green ratings.
 

Green(er) destinations

Among the spots netting kudos for their green creds: Singapore, which is a pioneer in green urban development); Norway, which banned all future gas and oil exploration in 2021; Valencia, Spain, which has urban parks, bike lanes and a plan to generate more than 70 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030, and Costa Rica, which protects more than one quarter of its land as reserves and national parks. 

In the end, there isn’t a single easy way to ensure your travel is completely environmentally sustainable, Snape says. “One of the most difficult things is figuring out the best choices. There’s a lot of information out there... [and] it’s very fragmented.” But reducing your footprint as much as possible will not only benefit future generations, it also will make you feel a lot happier about loving to travel.
 

Green travel resources

planetair.ca: Carbon footprint calculator, CO2 offsets
Global Sustainable Tourism Council: Sustainably certified accommodations, destinations and tour operators
greenkey.global: Environmentally responsible hostels, campsites, attractions and more in 70-plus  countries (excludes most of North America)
travelhub.wttc.org: Articles and videos about responsible travel and tourism
greenmatch.co.uk: 50 tips on green travel