Responsible Tourism Tips
To keep in mind while you’re on the road or in the air
To keep in mind while you’re on the road or in the air
Traveling mindfully can go beyond bringing our own reusable utensils along: that said, we will showcase a few brands that offer innovative, reusable cutlery and containers in this post, but will mostly be sharing other less-discussed ways to reduce your impact while traveling. Let’s jump in.
one - Ask Questions
If you’re at a hotel and you plan on drinking coffee in your room in the morning, use your own travel mug or ask the hotel for a ceramic mug if they don’t already have them available. Further: you can ask for a pitcher of filtered water for your room to avoid using and/or purchasing plastic water bottles. Hotels are obviously looking to set you up with convenience so that they’re able to be as hands-off as possible, but you might as well ask for these things and encourage better practices. This also helps the hotel guage what guests really want and they may consider moving toward more sustainable offerings if enough people are asking.
Use What You Need and Not What You Don’t
When staying at a hotel or an airbnb, opt out of having your towels and linens washed on a daily basis. We don’t do this at home, so we likely don’t need this service while away from home. Most hotels have cards that you can leave on the bed, informing staff that you don’t need fresh sheets. If this isn’t available, you can generally leave a note. Over time, this really saves a tremendous amount of water and it’s easy enough to opt out.
Consider your take-out
In Portland and San Francisco, we have GoBox which is an amazing initiative that seems to be on the way to solving unnecessary single-use food-packaging waste. While this may not be available everywhere you go, you can still try to bring your own containers for leftovers or ask the restaurant to use their most sustainable container option when packaging your food. In advance of a trip, scope out restaurants with good practices surrounding recycling, food waste and natural ingredients if possible. Voting with your dollars is one of the most impactful ways to reshape industries and encourage mindful businesses to keep doing what they’re doing. You could also email your favorite restaurants and begin a conversation around why sustainable packaging is important.
Offset
Consider offsetting your carbon emissions with an investment into clean energy each time you travel. At Reformation, your climate credit purchase goes directly to support Gold Standard verified projects through NativeEnergy. Basically you are investing in clean energy and carbon-reducing projects around the globe. You can also use other offsetting programs, or plant a tree starting at $1 to contribute to reforestation in light of travel.
Trade-Off
If you eat meat regularly, consider going vegan or vegetarian for a few days of your trip, or later that month if you want to get a sense of the local food wherever you’re visiting. Make simple switches like alternate milk in your coffee or tea, get a vegan pizza instead, or be mindful of trading veggies for animal products here and there.
Consider your plastic and food waste
Consider your plastic waste, food waste and where it’s going: act as though you’re a local and prioritize your recycling and the way you treat the city in general. This is, of course, a good practice to keep in mind anywhere you go!
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