You Can Travel Green By Air, If You Must

Green travel doesn’t mean donning your backpack and hitchhiking across the country, or even driving for four days each way, reducing eight days of your 14 day vacation.  You can still fly and do your part to reduce the carbon footprint.

Flying across the country releases as much carbon from the plane as the typical person releases in a year of driving to and from work.  That’s just the carbon, there are other gases released from an airplane that aren’t even included here.  If you can take your trip by car, do it.  If that is not possible, though, then do your part to travel green by contributing to the carbon offset of the additional carbon you will be causing to be released into the atmosphere.

Sure, it is true that the plane would be making the trip with or without you, but if everyone on the trip was concerned about the environment and did their part then a real difference could be made.  Some travel agents and websites are linking up with non-profit and for profit carbon offsetting groups that will plant trees to reduce the carbon released.  You can add the price of the carbon offsetting in with your plane ticket at around $20 for a round trip, cross country flight.

What can the airlines do to contribute to green travel?  The obvious answer would be to reduce the number of daily flights.  If airlines would actually fill up their planes for each flight, they would be able to reduce their flight schedules by a minimum of one flight per day.  If each airline reduced flights by one per day, then it would certainly have a significant environmental impact.  Perhaps if travelers started requesting almost full flights for every leg of a trip then they could help the airlines to realize that reducing flights will not only save the environment but save them money, too.

Be sure to look for a green hotel or eco-lodge when you get to your destination, and help to conserve water and energy when you are there.  Rent a fuel-friendly car, or a hybrid if they have one available, or better yet use public transportation.  And plan some eco-friendly activities.