Staying in hostels can sometimes be a grim experience, and a non eco-friendly one too. However, high quality and eco backpacking will soon be possible when
Barcelona Urbany Hostel opens its doors in the Catalan capital in June this year. It promises beautiful design mixed with environmentally friendly technologies to lessen the backpacker’s impact when travelling the world. A noise absorbing façade, a rain water harvesting system and a recycling water system that is meant to reuse 50% of the water used are what make this hostel greener than others. Energy efficient light bulbs and ‘more environmentally friendly and less aggressive materials’ also form part of the plan. ...
“You've travelled the world. Now change it.” says
We Are What We Do, the global social movement. They have been changing the world (
for a Fiver and
9 to 5) for three years now and thought it was high time to raise their sights about … 35,000 feet! We Are What We Do has launched their new campaign to tackle
Action 95: Earn Fewer Air Miles, and are proud to announce their on-board, in-flight '
Change the World at 35,000 Feet' booklet with
Virgin Atlantic. The book aims to inspire passengers to make small changes and lists simple holiday actions to reduce their carbon footprint; from travelling smarter and packing leaner to addressing the steward with a friendly demeanor. WAWWD believes in “small changes that, times lots of people, add up to a big change”. But they also admit that reducing air miles is a tough one:
...
As of October 2007, Costa Rica lead Latin America in certified sustainable tourism operations with 68 businesses certified by Certification for Sustainable Tourism, up from 51 in 2006. In all, Latin America now has 167 businesses certified by independent sustainable tourism certification programs. All are listed in the
Rainforest Alliance’s SmartGuide to Sustainable Travel in the Americas.
“Now that travelers, tour operators and agencies have become savvier about what it means to be green, it’s no longer enough for businesses simply to make claims about their responsible practices,” said Ronald Sanabria, director of the
Rainforest Alliance’s sustainable tourism program. “Independent third-party certification ensures that businesses are meeting a set of environmental and social standards and can also help businesses identify areas where they can improve.”...
Even if you offset the CO2 from your holiday caravan to Grandmas or flight to the islands, this report probably represents a guilt-threat level yellow. But if you want to be amazed at human tenacity and draw inspiration for what remains after peak oil, read on.
TreeHugger shared the idea behind
warm showers in November: sign up to offer an overnight stay and take mutual advantage of this bicycling hospitality organization when you launch your own tour. Since joining
warm showers last fall, with little expectation of seeing any bike tourists before the end of Germany's brisk and icy winter season, three hard-core winter bike tourists have knocked on our door: interesting people with adventurous stories gracing our dinner table before pushing on their fossil-fuel free journey over the horizon....
Today came the possibly "too little, too late" news that airlines are to be included in the EU's system of CO2 permits trading...but not until 2012. Waiting four more years to add airlines to a possibly-flawed Euro system is hard to see as brilliant news (Swedish greenies favor a simple CO2 tax), but we'll try anyway. Just the thought of impending trading may convince airlines to implement some of the engine-efficiency and fuel-changing measures that will bring down their CO2 emissions profiles.
In the meantime, airlines seems are getting in on selling carbon offsets to customers faster than you can say "direct flight." Cathay Pacific, Continental, Delta Air Canada, British Airways and Scandinavian (SAS) all offer offsets through partners, as does easyJet. We're skeptical about offsets, as you can read
here and
here, but offer the basic primer on greening offsets
here. The quality of what the airlines offer varies widely. Possibly a trip to any of three highly regarded offset providers -
Sustainable Travel International,
myclimate, or
Atmosfair, might be the best course. Because in spite of the drawbacks, offsets are what we as consumers have got now. If you have to travel by plane, might as well try to find the best-quality offsets.
Via ::Wall Street Journal...
As more hotels and tourism outfits realize the marketing potential of the eco brand, it's become harder to know what really constitutes bonafide eco-tourism. Fortunately the Rainforest Alliance has launched an
Eco-Index Sustainable Tourism, which features businesses in Latin America and the Caribbean that have been deemed environmentally and socially friendly by reputable environmental organizations and/or ecotourism certification programs.
The goal of this site is to help responsible travelers and tour agencies choose destinations that are not only beautiful, but also benefit the communities, flora and fauna they will be visiting. Funded by the Multilateral Investment Fund of the
Inter-American Development Bank, the site lists hundreds of ecotourism options throughout the region, searchable by country, activity, certification program, and accommodation. It also boasts a news page called
Sustainable Tourism Connections with updates from the region....
With China's tourism
booming ahead of the 2008 Olympics, its ecosystem in need of smart, ground-up solutions, and its rural areas eager to build their GDP,
ecotourism seems like a no-brainer. The
Wenhai Ecolodge in stunning Yunnan province is one famous example. But as usual, attempts at sound ecological approaches are rarely supported by local or central governments, and are even stymied by government policies and a strong emphasis on quick profits. Making matters more complicated of course is the
loose definition of ecotourism, which, in places like scenic Yunnan and Sichuan provinces, can sometimes mean nothing more than a resort near some trees. Meanwhile, the tense dance of tourism and development means that even the sincerest ecotourism sites face the threat of their own success.
Julie Perng
reports at China Development Brief (the Beijing office of which was
shut down by authorities last summer) on eco-tourism at four sites in Yunnan:
None of the sites has seen much government investment in eco-tourism, nor do they have much control over their own land or landmarks.... [And] as a result of government interventions and the drive to maximise profits, the villages described here may never be able to sustain a true “eco-tourist” label. Nevertheless, individuals and groups in all of these sites are working to realise their own notion of eco-tourism.
...
If you own a
bike, a spare bed or couch (with access to a warm shower) and you don't see a balloon on your hometown, you are in the perfect position to make a good thing better. Log in today to
warm showers. It's easy: sign up, drop a few hints about yourself and a friendly invitation to bicyclists worldwide and you can be part of a growing community of people sharing their stories as they travel by human powered vehicle around the globe. Even if you'll have to borrow a bike, or you found more than one host already in your neck of the woods, join in to benefit from the "hospitality for touring cyclists".
Anyone who has pulled in from a hard
ride knows that a warm shower is the most welcoming thought beckoning at the end of the road. Hosts benefit, of course, when their guests are re-invigorated and fresh-smelling as they join in for a meal or a drink. An inspired symbol for a web site which is extremely user friendly, for both hosts and travellers....
Ring the bells! Pop the (organic) champagne! TreeHugger’s 2007 Gift Guide is here!
We've made this guide the most comprehensive yet, with 180+ gift ideas in three shades of green, making it a perfect reference while shopping for everyone on your gift list. In addition, we'll be adding organizations to support and useful tips for making your holidays more efficient.
Go to Part II here and
Part III here.
For more great ideas, don’t forget to visit our past guides from 2006 and 2005.
...
I recently spent several valuable minutes of my life trying to coerce, force (plead) up a zipper without a handle. The zipper is one of now two broken zippers attached to my suitcase, which happens to be...Olympia.
As the zipper and I battled to the death (and the time to my flight ticked away) I came to the realization that some ominous rips around the seams made the zipper the least of my worries. Yes, I could actually plunge my whole hand through the suitcase and out the other side.
Granted, it has been tossed around several countries, but this suitcase is six months old.
Is Globe-Trotter's new hard case, Onehundred&ten (110) designed by
Ross Lovegrove the answer to all my problems? ...
The snow came awfully late last winter, and people are worried about how climate change is going to affect the tourism industry in general. Last month the United Nations World Tourism Organization met at at an international conference on climate change in Davos.
Christopher Jones and Daniel Scott write in the Globe and Mail that "tourism has been both a victim and a vector of global climate change. Iconic tourist destinations such as the Great Barrier Reef, the countries bordering on the Mediterranean Sea, the European Alps, the island states of the Seychelles, the Maldives and Mauritius, and the majestic glaciated mountain landscapes from the Rockies to the Andes have all become victims of the rise in global mean temperature of the past 150 years. But the tourism sector has also become a non-negligible contributor to climate change through greenhouse-gas emissions largely from the transport and accommodation of tourists — as much as 5 per cent of all carbon dioxide emissions from human activities."...
Italy, birth place of Slow Food and
Slow Cities, is also the most popular destination for a new Scandinavian trend - charter trips...by slow train.
Charter travel - with the image of a gaggle of tourists sporting matching flight bags and following a harried trip leader - is ingrained in popular culture here. But as Europe's climate conscience grows, charter trips have also been criticized for their contribution to carbon dioxide emissions.
At the beginning of this summer season one of Sweden's largest charter companies, Fritidsresor, tentatively offered a total of 80 charter spaces by train to Lake Garda in Italy - the spots were sold out in hours!
Gearing up for the 2008 summer season, two Swedish companies will offer a total of about 8,000 different charter train trips - where the travel, lodging and most meals are all included. While charter train trips can be a little bit cheaper - perhaps $150 U.S. out of a total $800 - $1,000 price tag - they are also a lot slower....
The Los Angeles Times recently had a rare piece on a Panamanian eco-activist committed to saving the sea turtles, whose numbers dwindled to 80 last year, from hundreds in the 1980s. Arcelio Fuentes raises sea turtles in a beach-side incubator that he built himself on the Pacific Coast, supported by environmental donors.
According to the Times, Fuentes' crusade is one of dozens of grass-roots rescue operations in communities in Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean. The threatened sea creatures have become an increasingly important way for people to connect to their heritage, environment and economic opportunities through eco-tourism. The main threats to the turtles are poachers who sell the eggs for 25 cents a pop in Panama, as well as dogs, birds and other predators.
There are now community-based turtle preservation projects in 40 nations, said Karen Eckert, a Duke University marine biologist and director of the Wider Caribbean Sea Turtle Conservation Network in Beaufort, N.C.
The Panamanian government has declared several beach communities special marine reserves, making them off-limits to fishing, shrimping and development. Costa Rica and El Salvador have similar community-based initiatives to save turtles and other endangered species. However, Fuentes and other activists are up against strong pressures to develop the coastline, and it's not clear yet who will win.:: Via
Los Angeles Times ...
It was a big catch for Chad Campbell of Washington and Bo Warren of Virginia, even though the fish weren't biting. The bored fishermen were a mile and a half (2.4 km) offshore when they went to investigate what they thought was a seal. Fortunately for the deer, these fishermen were real cowboys. The deer was released into the wild after its rescue. File this one under eco-travel: deer on holiday? More pics and the full story over the fold.
...
Zanziibar, an island off the coast of Tanzania known for its history as a key spice trading port, is still far off the beaten path of American tourists, but is increasingly on the radar of British, Italian and Spanish globetrotters. The tourism dollars are welcome on the poor island but the impact on the environment of the newcomers has not gone unnoticed.
Eco+Culture Tours Zanzibar is a young eco-tourism company developing strategies to mitigate negative ecological, cultural, social and economic impacts of tourism. "Our aim is to encourage local micro entrepreneurs to enter into environmentally and culturally friendly income-generating activities that cater for the growing tourism industry on the isle," the company says.
As a tourism operator, Eco+Culture Tours Zanzibar offers a variety of specifically designed day tours with an environmental and cultural focus. The tours include visits to spice farms, a sea turtle protection project, swimming with dolphins in Kizimkazi and the nature walks among endemic red collobus monkeysin the Jozani Forest. A portion of the tour fees supports community projects in health care, childrens' nurseries and education on the island.
...
Do you ever feel like walking out the front door and not stopping? Seeing the world for yourself, helping people along the way see that the world can be lived at a human-powered speed? On 6 October, Jason Lewis, the first man ever to circumnavigate the globe entirely by muscle power ended his journey of 13 years. He hopes to use
Expedition 360 to raise money for humanitarian causes and to draw attention to environmental issues. After centuries of increasing technology, from wind power through nuclear ships and jet planes, will this achievement start a new era of environmentally and socially sound living?...
Beijing parents who belong to the urban migration in China have found an opportunity to bring their children back to the land. On 17 hectares east of Beijing Capital International Airport, the
Agrilandia Italian Farm opens its doors to visitors who want to sprawl in the grass, eat an authentic Italian meal or self-pick around twenty varieties each of apricots, cherries, plums, peaches, apples, grapes and pears. Claudio Bonfatti, and his wife Lu Hongwei, started the farm as a family retreat and to grow vegetables and herbs for authentic Italian dishes at their Beijing restaurant, Peter Pan. Their empire has since grown to include a second restaurant in town and a restaurant at the farm. The farm sells cuttings from the imported fruit trees and proselytizes the virtues of organic farming.
However, expansion of the Beijing airport to accommodate the 2008 Olympic games will force Agrilandia off of the land which the Bonfattis currently lease at a pre-boom price of $633 per hectare per year. Negotiations are underway for a new location, but the move will force the small organic farm to grow or die. ...
Paolo Soleri has started building Arcosanti in 1970 and is still at it. However, after 37 years the utopian vision of Soleri, so radical at the time, has proven truly prescient. According to Chris Colin of the New York Times,
With its radical conservation techniques and a brilliantly scrunched-together layout, Arcosanti was intended to reinvent not just the city, but also man's relationship to the planet: picture a 60s vision of a Mars colony, but with a cutting-edge, eco-friendly design. Evaporative cooling pools release moisture into the air. In winter, heat from the foundry furnace is collected by a hood and sent through the apartments above.
Soleri has never had the money to keep the project moving, and Colin calls it
"a stalled revolution in urban planning or a moldering relic of impractical idealism, depending on whom you ask." but perhaps this is a revolution whose time has come. Soleri's visions of sustainability and environmental sensitivity are mainstream now, perhaps Arcosanti's time has come.
::New York Times...
The southern Mexican state of Oaxaca recently launched its first annual eco-tourism fair to promote the state's burgeoning array of eco-tourism options. Fourteen communities participated in the fair, showcasing projects that include eco-tourism, adventure tourism and rural tourism.
To date the state boasts 19 collectives, 30 private companies, seven sustainable agriculture farms and five coffee farms involved in eco-tourism. The state's tourism secretary, Beatriz Rodríguez Casasnovas, noted that the sector has thus far generated $1.7 million (19 million pesos), much of it benefiting small communities in need of economic opportunities. Eco-tourism, according to the
Center on Ecotourism and Sustainable Development, can be an excellent tool for poverty alleviation and biodiversity conservation. This is particularly relevant for Oaxaca, one of Mexico's poorest states.
Among Oaxaca's ecological jewels is the Northern Sierra. It is rich in fauna biodiversity, with more than 400 species of birds and 350 species of butterflies.
Via
El Universal (Spanish link)...
A lot of travellers wake up early and hit the pavement, whether out of excitement, habit or jet lag. But where to go? Here is a terrific idea: Guided running tours.
"Ideal for the business traveler who is tired of on the hotel treadmill, the marathon runner who is training for a race and is looking to continue or spice up their regular routine, or the recreational runner who wants to explore new and interesting routes, City Runners Tours offers both set tours as well as customized runs to accommodate any athletic ability, style, training regimen or specific landmarks."
Founded by Michael Gazaleh in Washington DC: "A health, sports and exercise enthusiast his entire life and an avid runner for over 10 years, he wanted to bring his love of running and his passion for his native home to visitors." It has now expanded to New York, San Diego and Chicago with more cities coming soon.
::City Running Tours via
::Springwise...
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