1. Bring your own recipients along!
We are always longing for a hot cup of coffee in our travels, or a midday snack! It can be very tempting to just buy some coffee-to-go at the nearest coffee shop, but it can also be bad for the environment (and your pocket!). A few years ago we decided to start bringing our thermos and water bottles to our travels, so we could always have coffee or tea available, at a much cheaper price and without using those awful paper cups that most likely will not be recycled.
After getting used to bringing bottles to our travels, it was only a matter of time until we started taking tuppers, cloth bags and towels, and always using our own shower gels and shampoos instead of the ones in the hotels. We know everyone loves the hygiene articles of the hotels, but it is much more sustainable to bring your own. You don’t know how many soaps and shampoos are made only for a day in a hotel! Let’s face it, it is not very environmentally friendly.
So bottom line, try to reduce the amount of one-use articles you buy in your trip! It is always easier, cheaper and better to use your own bottles and snacks than to go around buying plastic-wrapped crackers and bottled water.
2. Second-hand outfits!
Either if you’re planning a weekend getaway or a month-long trip, chances are you are putting a lot of thought in your outfits! We all want to look good in our pictures, and we all want to be comfortable. Going to a cheap fast-fashion store can be very tempting, but if you do, you most probably will end up with a low-quality piece of clothing, which you will use for this travel and dismiss later. And to make matters worse, your carbon footprint will be a lot higher.
We started going to second-hand stores a few months back to fix this! We knew that this way, we wouldn’t be making our carbon footprint higher. What we didn’t know is how cheap and cute the clothes would be!! Only on our first visit to a Humana shop (you can find them all across the EU) we bought coats, boots, sweaters and dresses, and I recall we only spent 60 euros. 60 euros for 3 outfits!
And even if you can’t find clothes that you like in a second-hand stores, you can always borrow. I (Mon) have 4 sisters and I can’t begin to tell you how amazing it is to have 4 wardrobes available! You can switch, borrow and lend between the people you know, and this way you save money and help keep the Earth happy.
3. Cooking in a hostel
This was a complete game-changer for us. Being vegan, it is not always easy to find good, affordable places to eat in our travels! We always try to book places that have kitchens. This way, we buy the food we would normally eat at home, don’t worry too much about money, and know exactly what is being put on our food. While doing this, you can also recycle everything you are using, and you can make sure the food is fair trade certified! You can also choose to visit sustainable restaurants. Nowadays there are lots of certified sustainable restaurants, that are not necessarily more expensive than not certified ones. A certified sustainable restaurant recycles, does composting, and basically, uses its resources in a green manner!
4. Public transportation
This is a hard one, specially if you are tired after traveling by bus or airplane. You can easily find yourself thinking LETS TAKE A TAXI OR RENT A CAR but that will be very expensive and less green than taking the bus! Our recommendation is that you do your research before arriving to a place. Try to travel like a local! See in which ways they move themselves around the city, and this way you will be saving your money, reducing your carbon footprint, and disrupting as little as possible the lives of the locals. It is hard living in a popular city!!
5. Offsetting (Ok, this will not make your travels cheaper, but it is important to talk about!)
This is a very tricky subject. Many people wonder if offsetting is actually a viable choice to reduce your carbon emissions. But, what is offsetting?
Offsetting is basically paying some organization for the calculation of the carbon footprint of certain activities (such as flying), and the “reduction” of these carbon emissions through actions like: planting trees, funding clean-energy projects, purification and saving of water, among others.
Some may argue that it is just paying someone else to take care of the mess we are making, instead of taking responsibility ourselves, and that offsetting is a way to clean our conscience. But I think that is only true if by offsetting, you are not taking any other steps towards being more carbon neutral. Hey, if you eat meat and for a week try to eat only fish and tofu, while offsetting a flight to New York, good for you!!! As many say, we don’t need a few people doing these things perfectly, we need a lot doing it imperfectly :D
Offsetting is a great way to make your life a more carbon neutral one, it will make you feel better about yourself and it will motivate you to take more green steps! Who knows, maybe you will recycle more consciously or eat a more vegetarian diet, for the planet.
You can offset your entire year if you can! Not only your flights. I think that offsetting it is not a perfect solution to the huge problem climate change is, but it is a start!
What do you think about making your travels more sustainable? Do you already do one or more of these things? Tell us your experience!!
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