Top tips on how to reduce your carbon footprint

Fly direct, fly less, choose vegetarian meals over meat – these were some of the tips shared during a panel discussion on responsible tourism.

Guest speakers Sonalie Figueiras, founder and editor-in-chief of Green Queen; Impact Travel Alliance Vincie Ho, and author and wildlife photographer Jan Latta explored practical ways to enjoy travel without the guilt of increasing your carbon footprint.

While some solutions appeared obvious, the panel members agreed that much more needed to be done by each of us in order to minimize the impact on our environment.

All panelists highlighted useful resources to help us understand and monitor how we can be greener when we travel. Sky Scanner, for example, now shows your potential carbon footprint when you search flights through its website. The Global Sustainable Tourism Council establishes and manages global sustainable standards and awards accreditation to hotels/accommodations, tour operators, and destinations as having sustainable policies and practices in place.

Another site, Choose.Today offers a subscription that allows you to support effective C02 reduction on a monthly basis. The money goes directly to C02-reducing projects in developing countries that are verified by the United Nations.

A further useful resource highlighted by the panel was the blogging site, In Locamotion, which offers a comprehensive guide to sustainable tourism.

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