8 Ways to Green Your Winter Travel
This story is part of Earth911’s “Green Eight” series, where we showcase eight ways to green your life in various areas.
Regardless of economic conditions, travel during November and December increases, often up to 23 percent during the Christmas and New Year’s breaks. Whether you’re visiting friends and family by plane, train or automobile, here’s eight ways to travel green this holiday season:
Got baggage? Packing light saves resources.
1. Ride the Rails . . . and Bus Routes
Wondering what’s the greenest form of travel? Actually, traveling by bus or train consumes the least amount of carbon per passenger. In the winter, travel by other means is subject to road closures and weather delays. Plus, trains and buses will usually drop you downtown for easier access to the city you’re visiting.
2. Enjoy Paperless Travel
No matter how you decide to travel, there is potential for lots of paper use. You’ve got tickets and boarding passes, baggage claim receipts and even directions to your lodging. But in this technological age, is all this paper necessary?
- Wait to print boarding passes at the airport, where less paper is used (and refuse the “ticket jacket” if offered).
- Enter important addresses into a portable GPS unit to take on your travel, so you won’t need to print directions.
- Ask if travel receipts can be emailed to you instead of printed (except luggage, of course).
3. Prepare Your Car
If you’re one of the 91 percent of people who opt for the holiday road trip, pre-trip car maintenance can optimize your gas mileage. This includes checking your motor oil and tire pressure, as well as removing unnecessary baggage that will weigh down your car. A 15-minute car preparation can help prevent a two-hour car breakdown in cold weather and more money spent on gas.
4. Reduce Airplane Waste
Think about how much waste you go through on an average flight. There’s peanut and food wrappers, aluminum soda and beer cans, disposable headphones, newspapers and magazines and the aforementioned paper travel documents. Other than the headphones and wrappers, it can all be recycled, and chances are your airport has recycling bins.
Keep this in mind before the flight attendant comes around asking for your trash. You can also bring your own headphones and packed lunch, or tuck your newspaper into the seat in front of you for the next passenger to read.
5. Monitor the Thermostat
News flash: winter weather is cold! Since you’re not footing the energy bill on vacation, it’s tempting to turn up the heat at a hotel or a friend’s house (which your buddy probably won’t appreciate). But over a year, two degrees of temperature increase equals 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions. Consider a reasonable room temperature and request an extra blanket for your bed if you need it.
6. Recycle in Your Hotel
You would think that spending $3.00 for a soda at the hotel mini-bar would entitle you to a recycling bin for the can or bottle. Since this is unlikely, bring along a separate bag for recyclables (paper, metal, plastic) that you’re bound to use in the hotel room. Then use Earth911 to find nearby recycling locations on-the-go, or ask the hotel to recycle them for you when you check out.
7. Refill Travel Containers
Security measures and space requirements may have you traveling with compact containers for shampoo, toothpaste and other toiletries. Instead of continually buying new travel sizes at the store, refill the same compacts from a larger container prior to travel. For most liquids this can be accomplished with a funnel, and you’ll also save money by buying larger sizes.
8. Shop and Ship Online
You’re likely exchanging gifts at your holiday destination, so travel raises the important issue of how the gifts will arrive. Packing them in the car will reduce your gas mileage, and packing them in your checked luggage reduces space for clothes. Plus, if you use an extra bag, that will probably cost extra with your airline. If you decide to shop at your destination, you’ll likely face last-minute lines, higher prices and limited availability.
Shopping online lets you avoid much of this hassle, and believe it or not retailers have adapted some pretty good green shipping ideas. Plus, if your flight gets grounded because of snow, little Timmy will still get to open that bicycle on Christmas morning.
- U.S. Department of Transportation(11/19/2008). "U.S. Holiday Travel" http://www.bts.gov/publications/america_on_the_go/us_holiday_travel/html/entire.html.
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The below comments are closed and are listed for historical purposes.
Daily Green Travel News (8 December 2008)
posted on December 8th, 2008 at 7:18 am
[...] Earth911.com lists 8 Ways to Green Your Winter Travel [...]
Matt D.
posted on December 8th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
Even if you aren’t going anywhere over the holiday season you can always go green by planning ahead before you drive anywhere to go shopping. Make sure you have a list of everything you need to buy so you don’t end up making multiple trips when one could accomplish all you need.
Dave M
posted on December 8th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
Hotels are up there with airlines for wasteful practices. Many hotels claim to be “green” with corporate policies encouraging saving water and energy by re-using towels. They say to leave towels on floor for replacement and towels on rack for re-use. However, the maid service is not in the loop on this practice and they replace all towels whether used or not. Also, they do not provide recycling containers for recycling cans or bottles or paper.
I’ve experienced in at least 2 major hotel chains I’ve stayed at.
Recommendation: show hotel managers their corporate environmental policy and “green” promotional material and insist that they live up to it.
Winter and summer travels - blog » 8 Ways to Green Your Winter Travel
posted on December 8th, 2008 at 11:57 pm
[...] Shopping online lets you avoid much of this hassle, and believe it or not retailers have adapted some pretty good green shipping ideas. Plus, if your flight gets grounded because of snow, little Timmy will still get to open that bicycle on Christmas morning. Source [...]
Automobile Retailers » Blog Archive » Benz Dealers Present Ways to Travel Greener | Best Luxury Cars, Used Luxury Cars, Luxury Cars for Sale
posted on December 10th, 2008 at 10:18 am
[...] dressed up with festive decorations! But one gift that you can give back to the environment is greener traveling season. Here are some ways you can be a “green” traveler without seeing [...]
Guillaume
posted on December 16th, 2008 at 11:19 am
Good list, will spread the word!!
Responsible Travel and Tourism | WINTER-TRAVEL.org
posted on March 11th, 2009 at 6:02 pm
[...] To learn more about how you can make your winter travel more friendly on the environment, you can check out this excellent article on earth911.com: 8 Ways to Green Your Winter Travel. [...]
Journeys - a Best Places of the World » 8 Ways to Green Your Winter Travel
posted on March 26th, 2009 at 2:28 am
[...] Shopping online lets you avoid much of this hassle, and believe it or not retailers have adapted some pretty good green shipping ideas. Plus, if your flight gets grounded because of snow, little Timmy will still get to open that bicycle on Christmas morning. Source [...]
WordPress Blog » 8 Ways to Green Your Winter Travel
posted on April 2nd, 2009 at 11:24 pm
[...] Shopping online lets you avoid much of this hassle, and believe it or not retailers have adapted some pretty good green shipping ideas. Plus, if your flight gets grounded because of snow, little Timmy will still get to open that bicycle on Christmas morning. Source [...]
All latest world articles blog » Blog Archive » 8 Ways to Green Your Winter Travel
posted on June 20th, 2009 at 11:02 pm
[...] Shopping online lets you avoid much of this hassle, and believe it or not retailers have adapted some pretty good green shipping ideas. Plus, if your flight gets grounded because of snow, little Timmy will still get to open that bicycle on Christmas morning. Source [...]
8 Ways to Green Your Winter Travel | Pop News Site!
posted on June 30th, 2009 at 5:05 am
[...] Shopping online lets you avoid much of this hassle, and believe it or not retailers have adapted some pretty good green shipping ideas. Plus, if your flight gets grounded because of snow, little Timmy will still get to open that bicycle on Christmas morning. Source [...]
Blogger - My Life Here » Blog Archive » 8 Ways to Green Your Winter Travel
posted on July 15th, 2009 at 7:43 am
[...] Shopping online lets you avoid much of this hassle, and believe it or not retailers have adapted some pretty good green shipping ideas. Plus, if your flight gets grounded because of snow, little Timmy will still get to open that bicycle on Christmas morning. Source [...]
8 Ways to Green Your Winter Travel | TROPICAL SITE
posted on July 20th, 2009 at 7:24 am
[...] Shopping online lets you avoid much of this hassle, and believe it or not retailers have adapted some pretty good green shipping ideas. Plus, if your flight gets grounded because of snow, little Timmy will still get to open that bicycle on Christmas morning. Source [...]
8 Ways to Green Your Winter Travel | WW Tour!
posted on July 26th, 2009 at 10:08 pm
[...] Shopping online lets you avoid much of this hassle, and believe it or not retailers have adapted some pretty good green shipping ideas. Plus, if your flight gets grounded because of snow, little Timmy will still get to open that bicycle on Christmas morning. Source [...]
8 Ways to Green Your Winter Travel | News and events blogs
posted on August 6th, 2009 at 11:22 pm
[...] Shopping online lets you avoid much of this hassle, and believe it or not retailers have adapted some pretty good green shipping ideas. Plus, if your flight gets grounded because of snow, little Timmy will still get to open that bicycle on Christmas morning. Source [...]
Maria
posted on October 20th, 2009 at 4:57 pm
Hello Trey.
thank you for your post. You present very interesting tips. At Fox Rent A Car Blog we wrote a similar post on traveling green. We also believe it is important to remind travelers to keep their recycling habits while away from home. We try to give travel advice on our blog, but also inform readers about the importance to change habits toward a greener life.
thanks again for sharing.
Offset Your Holiday Travel…For Free - Earth911.com
posted on December 8th, 2009 at 1:49 pm
[...] travel increases by 23 percent during the Christmas and New Year holiday period, according to the Bureau [...]