According to Greatist.com, green travel refers to “… responsible travel practices that pay attention to environmental, social, and economic sustainability.”
There are many different ways to travel green, but for those who need a little help with their ‘green tourist’ status, here are the top five tips:
- Purchase an eco-friendly, reusable water bottle. While traveling, especially to tropical environments where you want to enjoy the heat and nature, people tend to drink a lot more liquids. While this is healthy for the body, the mounds of plastic waste this produces is very unhealthy for the environment. Purchase a durable water bottle or two and keep them with you to refill and reuse.
- Be conscious of saving water. Global awareness of the decrease in water has made green travel much more of a priority than it has been in the past. There are many tricks for saving water that are helpful while traveling (as well as for maintaining an eco-friendly home). Some of these are: shorten your showers, place a bucket in the shower to catch water and use that water for flushing the toilet, try to not flush the toilet every time (‘if it’s yellow let it mellow’), and use environmentally friendly cleaning products that require less water use.
- Green Hotels. If you are staying in a hotel while travelling. Do some research and select an establishment that has a green star rating. Enquire as to what type of green cleaning products these hotels are using to ensure that it truly is a green, chemical free, healthy environment.
- Walk and Cycle. Wherever possible try to travel by foot or on a bicycle to reduce your carbon footprint while traveling. If traveling far distances, try to utilise public transport systems or to rent eco-friendly cars.
- Go Local and Organic. You are not just visiting a destination, you are visiting a culture and a people as well. Be mindful and respectful and, wherever possible, support the local and organic stores.