Book an airline ticket, save the planet.
Re-use the towel in your hotel, stop global warming. Rent a hybrid car, reduce our dependence on fossil fuel.
Lofty promises made by airlines peddling gimmicky carbon offsets, resorts hawking convoluted green initiatives and companies with shiny new fleets of high-maintenance cars to rent.
And empty promises.
In fact, there’s no credible evidence that the greening of travel is saving the Earth. But here’s what we do know. A recent Deloitte survey found that nearly half of all travelers try to be “environmentally friendly” when they’re traveling, and almost a quarter of them are willing to pay more for green hotels, resorts and rental cars. Another poll by Travelocity found that almost three-quarters of active travelers were prepared to pony up more cash for a greener getaway.
In other words, travelers want to feel socially responsible — and the travel industry, true to character, is more than happy to take their money. Even if it’s doing nothing meaningful to help the environment. There’s a term for this clever repackaging of its polluting ways: greenwashing.
“Greenwashing is undeniably present in the travel business,” says Hugh Hough, president of Green Team, a company that specializes in working with sustainable travel destinations and travel-related companies. “But there are steps travelers can take to distinguish travel providers who are legitimately cleaning up their act from the more cynical providers who are just cashing in on an opportunity.”
Look at the planes — not the airline
There’s no deficit of green schemes in the airline business. The latest stunt is Virgin Atlantic’s test flight of an aircraft burning a mixture of standard jet fuel and biofuel. But Michael Miller of the Orlando-based aviation consulting firm Green Skies, says a real alternative to jet fuel is a decade or more away. For an airline to be “green” today it needs to make a top-to-bottom commitment to saving the environment (a handful of carriers, among them Virgin Atlantic, FlyBe and Continental Airlines, have, he says).
But most fall short. “We are at a stage right now where companies are trying to be environmentally responsible but also business responsible,” he says. “They want to have it both ways, and they’re having a hard time.” Until there’s a credible ratings system for green airlines — Miller is planning to unveil one soon — he recommends looking at the planes, not the airline. “If you have a choice, fly on a more fuel-efficient plane, like a newer Boeing 737, instead of an MD-80,” he says.
Find the stamp of approval
Don’t take a travel company’s word when it claims to be eco-friendly. If it says it’s green, check it out. “The key to differentiating sincere efforts from trend-hopping shams lies in the details,” says Raphael Bejar, chief executive of Airsavings SA, which develops airline carbon offset programs. “Which carbon offset program is partnered with an established environmental group, or which car rental company’s fleet has more fuel-efficient vehicles?”
For example, the U.S. Green Building Council certifies “green” buildings. Another group, the Green Building Initiative, markets a rating system called Green Globes to validate a resort’s commitment to everything from greenhouse gas emissions to land-use planning. But there is no internationally recognized group that certifies travel industry products based on their environmental practices — yet.
See the big picture
Hotels are figuratively falling all over themselves to out-green each other. Most of their efforts look sincere but have a negligible effect on the environment. So you’re washing fewer towels? Good for you. That’s not saving the planet — it’s saving you money. You’re recycling? Nice, but in many places, that’s just following the law. You installed water-saving showerheads? Great, now can you convince those Americans who insist on taking two showers a day to cut back? Being socially responsible, say experts, isn’t just about adopting one or even several “green” practices, but changing the way a resort and its guests think about the environment and their limited resources.
Alex Pettitt, host of the TV show “Mainstream Green,” says some eco-resorts have really “missed the boat” when it comes to being green. “They lower their water consumption, but don’t have a sustainable design,” he says. “Or they’ll offer eco-trips, but the facility itself is an ecological wart.” Pettitt and other experts in sustainable travel say you have to look at the proverbial forest as well as the trees when you consider a hotel’s environmental efforts. A laundry list of green initiatives does not make your hotel green. Instead, it’s something far more difficult to pinpoint — something ingrained in the corporate culture, almost to the point where it goes without saying that everything it does takes sustainability into consideration.
Find out if it works
One question you must ask yourself when booking a green vacation is: How sustainable is each component? It’s easy to write off a plane running on biofuel as unworkable, at least for now. But what about the golf resort that bills itself as green but then irrigates the desert in order to offer guests a lush lawn to play on? How about the full-service hotel that practically scolds you for not reusing your towels, but then stocks its minibars with overpriced water bottled in landfill-clogging plastic? And don’t even get me started on cruise ships …
Not all unsustainable green efforts are so obvious, says Tim Gohmann, the senior vice president of travel and leisure at the market research firm TNS North America. For example, several car rental companies now offer the option of renting a hybrid vehicle. “But these offers are few and far between because the cost of maintenance for these hybrid cars are higher and the car company then loses the revenues made from traditional gas-powered cars,” he told me. “There is no immediate payoff for the car companies so they are more reluctant to put this practice into place, and it’s not widely offered.”
Be a skeptic
Don’t believe everything you read. After seeing a recent announcement that Universal Studios in Orlando had gone “green” with an initiative called “Green is Universal,” you might be forgiven for thinking the only theme park a socially responsible traveler could visit was Universal Studios. Among the initiatives: Universal would recycle more, use energy-efficient lights and switch to alternative fuels on its service vehicles.
But as I reviewed these steps, which are meant to turn it into “the greenest resort possible” I found myself chuckling at Universal’s creativity. I mean why wouldn’t a theme park want to recycle and use alternative fuels? Do they mean to tell me they weren’t doing this before they announced this program? Besides, if Universal wanted to be the greenest resort possible, it would level Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure to the ground and plant trees. I’m happy the park cares about the environment, but show me a resort that doesn’t recycle or use fluorescent lights. Brian Mullis, president of Sustainable Travel International, suggests that press releases are not necessarily the best place for environmental initiatives, anyway. “First and foremost,” he told me, “their commitment to sustainability should be obvious.”
Ask hard questions
If you’re really concerned with saving the planet, and not just interested in feeling good about your travel purchase, you’ll need to do some research of your own. “You should ask tour operators and hotels questions about their impacts,” says Ronald Sanabria, director of sustainable tourism at the Rainforest Alliance, which also offers green certifications to the travel industry. “Ask about their environmental policy, the percentage of their employees that are local residents, whether or not they support any projects that benefit the local community and if they are certified.” Also, find out how they support conservation, what kinds of policies they’ve put into place to conserve energy or water or manage waste, how they educate their visitors about conservation and local culture, and how they monitor their practices.
You probably won’t read the answers to these questions in a tourism brochure, and if a resort or tour operator’s sustainable tourism plan is half-baked, they certainly won’t volunteer a response, even when you ask politely. But if you really care about the environment, you need to ask.
Traveling “green” is not impossible. As long as you pay attention to what other people are saying about a travel company’s sustainability efforts, have a critical eye of your own and ask the right questions, you can avoid being scammed by the travel industry’s greenwashers. And above all, don’t believe everything the companies say when they claim to be green.
“At this point,” says Thomas Basile, managing director of the marketing firm Middleberg Sustainability Group, “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”
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I’m being driven to distraction by these hotels and their green mania – its gotten to the point where they are now replacing 40 and 60 watt light bulbs with their equivalent wattage CFL’s, which do NOT put out as many lumens [the real test of light] so that the rooms are so dark you need to use a flashlight to see if you are wearing 2 black or 1 black and 1 nacy sock.
Look, I want and NEED adequate lighting. I promise to turn the darn lights off when I leave – do I have to start bringing my own light bulbs on trips now too?
Gents, It is all a question of money and public relations. The only reason airlines are going green is that the cost of fuel is very high. The US airlines in particular, where fuel was always cheap have very aging fleets compare to EU airlines for instance. Now that they are paying full price (no currency break like in the case of EU airlines), there is a new consciousness about the environment on the part of the airlines.
But, why look at the airlines. They consume about 2.5% of the oil energy. What kind of vehicle are people driving. Gas guzzlers pick up trucks or 2 ton four wheel drive cars for city driving. No public transport system in many US cities. Instead of developing public transport systems, governments just build more highways. Look at Los Angeles. It is only when the cost of fuel doubles from what it is now that people will start paying attention. BTW, the cost of fuel in Europe is twice what it is in America. This is the reason Europeans drive in most cases smaller cars.
No point having a volunteer system to make one feel good; just double the price of fuel by increasing taxes and let the big users pay for the pollution.
Greenwashing is closley linked to “lip-service” sustainability. The points you raise are valid and offer an insight into the pitfalls of green issues.
There has been a lot written about Sustainability, mainly in the context of Climate Change. This writing ranges from advocating a return to a pre-literate Stone Age hunter gather society to a ‘hair-shirt’ return to the Middle Ages and on to a Panglossian view that there is absolutely nothing to worry about. The debate is clouded by whether one is a climate change believer or a climate change sceptic.
Lip Service Sustainability-This is where many businesses are currently placed.
This is the hotel chain that places the ‘lip service’ card in the bathroom. The card suggests that you can help lessen the load on the environment by hanging up towels to be used a second time. When you do this, the housekeeping staff replaces them anyway because there are no systems in place to ensure staff compliance with the ‘policy’.
This is the business that has a general purpose paper recycling bin but no systems to ensure the paper is picked up and sent to the recycler.
Or the business that has a policy to recycle toner cartridges and then has no system to make it easy and wonders why empty toner cartridges end up in the waste bin.
We all can do better!
I’m not a fan of carbon offsets. It seems more like a green protection racket, “If you pay us, we’ll give you a ‘green’ certificate.” Maybe a better analogy would be the Catholic church selling indulgences in Luther’s day.
Much better to show me reasonable ways to conserve energy and be more efficient.
(Some) golf courses are horrible environmental examples. They dye the grass and the water to achieve those picture perfect looks.
What a great article and some great comments.
Greenswashing is found in every aspect of sustainability. Any time you have companies evaluating sustainability for profit you are going to get greenwashing, spin, and lies in the name of PR.
The key is get evaluations from Non profit organizations. a Great example is USO14001 manufacturing. It cost $200,000 usd to get certification. This is a multi-billion dollar business.
Bio- Fuels are a nother badly misunderstood notion. People rave about the fuels made from Corn, but all we are doing is using more fossil fuel.
How much gas and oil do the tractors use to cut the corn? How about the trucks used to drive the corn to market? How about the machinese use to process the corn?
Sadly the use of corn causes serious problems with our agricultural business in our country. Farms stop producing unprofitable vegatables in place of corn which they sell for oil consumption…….
i am sick of you greenies; there is no such thing as global warming period. when i go to a 4 or 5 star hotel i demand fresh linens and towels daily; that is what iam paying for. i use plastic bags and use them for garbage rather than buying those stupid green supermarket bags; grow up greeniesthe average American will not pay extra for greenies 60percent say no . grow up.
A good point about Universal Studios going Green — if they really cared, they’d level the park and plant trees.
To me, the bottom line is using the term “Green” now implies an entire political agenda, which in the end may do more harm than good. As opposed to pitching “conservation” “leave no trace” or even “eco-friendly travel”, Green proponents ultimate goal is to reduce/eliminate long distance travel altogether. Ask one. They’ll tell you airplanes are THE #1 cause of C02 emissions (see the movie “The Age of Stupid”). Don’t fly. Cars, buses, cruise ships — all massive C02 emitters. So, stay home, don’t travel. Save the Earth. It ends up that Green marketing for travel is almost all “greenwashing” – the middle ground of “conservation” (which is what most resorts are practicing and should be anyway) will never be enough. Instead of jumping on the current political/marketing bandwagon, why don’t we look at what good travel can do for the global community and support conservation practices while supporting scientific advances that might make future travel less “environmentally impactive.” Otherwise, stay home, ride a horse (or hike) and enjoy the silence of a plane-free sky.