For the conscientious nature lover, you want to travel well and do good at the same time, and you may be wondering how to make your next trip more sustainable. The concept of sustainable travel can be very confusing as there are many factors that affect the sustainability of travel. The fact of the matter though is that sustainable travel is not an all or nothing thing and every traveler can likely add some principles of sustainability into their next trip.
Here’s a breakdown of some basic principles of sustainability that you can use to evaluate a travel company, hotel, or really any business.
Environmentally friendly business practices
This is essentially looking at how the business runs its day-to-day operations. Are they recycling and taking measures to reduce their waste? Do they take measures to reduce their energy consumption by using renewable energy sources? Do they take measures to conserve water? For hotels, you may even want to look at their use of renewable resources for building materials.
Support for cultural heritage and cross-cultural understanding
This is exploring how to celebrate local cultures and cultural differences without exploitation. Does the company offer support and resources for local people by actively preventing commoditization and ensuring everyone has a voice? Are they identifying ways that tourism can be a vehicle for peace and actively advocating against any forms of violence?
Support for the protection of nature and biodiversity
Here, we are looking at how businesses are working to preserve the environments that they operate in. This can be through community-based patrols of preservation land, the protection of endangered species, or even reforestation efforts. One of the biggest impacts on the environment though is reducing mass tourism/cruises and opting to offer small, more intimate settings.
Support and economic well-being of local people
This is about actively working to improve the lives of the local people where they operate. This could be by supporting gender equality, hiring local people, or ensuring people have adequate access to clean drinking water, health care, and food.
This is just a brief introduction to the topic of sustainable travel. Each traveler will have their own list of priorities, so it’s important that you find a travel company that aligns with your values to ensure you’re doing the most good that you can while you travel.
If you need extra support deciding how to add some sustainability to your next trip, I have you covered! Tell me about your trip and let me help you take care of everything.
