Dear Eartha,
I love to travel, but I know it’s not the most sustainable activity. Do you have any tips for decreasing the carbon footprint of my adventures?
— Jessie, Frisco
Jessie, thanks for your question. I love to travel, too, and there’s tons of research that shows that exploring new places is good for our mental and physical health. Not only can traveling increase empathy, it can also boost creativity, de-stress your body and mind, and improve satisfaction and happiness. Just writing that makes me even more excited for my next vacation!
But you’re right. Traveling also comes with a pretty hefty carbon footprint. So, what’s the eco-conscious adventurer to do? Here are a few suggestions for two common transportation options:
Road Trips
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For many of us in Summit County, a road trip to Moab is the perfect antidote to long winters. But every gallon of gas burned creates about 20 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions. In both Summit County and the U.S., transportation emissions represent roughly a third of total greenhouse emissions. Getting your car tuned up is a great way to improve efficiency whenever you hit the open road. A dirty air filter can reduce your car’s efficiency by up to 20 percent and bad spark plugs another 12 percent. Make sure your tires are fully inflated, too!
Of course, once you’re ready to swap in your current ride, upgrading to an all-electric vehicle or plug-in hybrid will dramatically reduce your carbon footprint. Even though our current electric grid is 30 percent renewable, driving an electric car in Summit County is like driving a gas-powered car that gets 47 miles-per-gallon. By 2025, Xcel Energy’s grid mix will be 55 percent renewable, which will boost the miles-per-gallon equivalency to 75 miles. And with Xcel’s new carbon-free electricity goal, the carbon savings from electric vehicles will keep increasing.
Worried about cost? Transportation experts report that battery costs are decreasing faster than anticipated. Pretty soon, purchasing an electric car will be no more expensive than a gas-powered car. The state also has big plans for expanding charging infrastructure, so within the next few years powering up should be stress-free.
Air Travel
For wanderlusty environmentalists, air travel is the big elephant in the room. One coast-to-coast roundtrip flight produces about a ton of greenhouse gases. According to the World Bank, the average American’s carbon footprint is 16 tons per year. However, the average global footprint is just 5 tons. That flight may not seem like a big deal but racking up the extra tonnage isn’t very responsible in terms of our global climate.
What to do? Fly less, for one. Resist the temptation of artificially low airline prices and thoughtfully consider whether you need that surf weekend in Sayulita or if you could find a good substitute closer to home. After all, we live in Colorado — this is America’s playground. Have you been to all the state’s national parks? Is there an off-the-beaten track mountain you could climb? Heck, have you ever done the Tenmile Traverse or hiked to Vail? We are at the crossroads of world-renowned biking and hiking routes including the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, the Trans America Trail and the Colorado Trail. And we’ve got multiple backcountry huts almost literally in our backyards.
If you absolutely have to fly, offset the carbon emissions of your trip. What are offsets? When you buy offsets, you exchange greenhouse gases created through your activities with greenhouse gases removed from the atmosphere through activities such as renewable energy development.
Some airlines like JetBlue and United make things easy by offering offsets when you purchase a ticket. When that’s not the case, look for companies that are transparent about projects and their locations. High quality offsets meet standards outlined by organizations including Gold Standard, Verified Carbon Standard, the Climate Action Reserve and the American Carbon Registry. These standards provide a framework for developing, measuring, and confirming the impacts of an offset project.
When I travel, I purchase offsets from TerraPass. TerraPass has one of the most user-friendly websites I’ve found and all projects are verified by multiple standards. With TerraPass, you can offset your entire carbon footprint or the emissions you generate through specific activities, like driving or flying. TerraPass also includes a handy calculator, so you can figure out exactly how many tons of carbon that roundtrip flight to Europe generated.
Because travel is important to so many people, it’s easy to ignore its impacts. But unless you’re planning to ride your bike across the country or through-hike the Continental Divide Trail, traveling has a carbon footprint. While I believe that traveling will be less carbon-intensive in the future (hello, planes that run on biofuels), our global and local communities will benefit if we start exploring closer to home.
Ask Eartha Steward is written by the staff at the High Country Conservation Center, a nonprofit organization dedicated to waste reduction and resource conservation. Submit questions to Eartha at info@highcountryconservation.org.