2020 Sustainable Travel Guide
From hotels, resorts, and accessories to airlines and cruises, better design is making a world of difference for travelers
There’s a case to be made for less travel. There’s also an argument, perhaps a more realistic one, for more conscientious travel. “Taking people and showing them the world that is disappearing right in front of us—that’s pretty much the only way we’re going to get them to understand there’s a significant problem,” says Jeremy Lindblad, global business development director for Lindblad Expeditions. The company’s clients return from polar cruises with indelible memories of calving icebergs and struggling polar bears—and that’s the point. Lindblad also chose 2019 as the year to go carbon-neutral.
Travel companies like these are the ones that deserve your business, advocates argue. “I look at whether a brand has done something once, with a flagship product, or whether that environmental do-goodness is baked into its DNA,” says Dune Ives, executive director of Lonely Whale, a nonprofit that has helped multinationals like Dell and Herman Miller reduce single-use plastic in their supply chains. “Greenland is gushing," adds Ives. "We need companies to stop thinking about how to get consumers to do something and to start doing it themselves.”
The most exciting developments in eco-travel are those that reflect not just the usual search for improved efficiency and design, but a mentality shift that is appropriate to the precarious era we live in—one that promises to make a commitment to sustainability the new normal. Consider planning your next trips with the following rundown of the latest and greatest advances in mind. They represent just a tip of the (melting) iceberg, but they’re a start.
Hotels
As the push against single-use plastic intensifies, hoteliers have taken notice. Expect bulk-size toiletries to replace disposable minis at hotels large and small; IHG, owner of InterContinental and Kimpton, plans to transition fully by 2021. Hilton is an example of a hotel chain that has gone further with its green policies, by incentivizing Rewards members to turn off lights and air-conditioning when they’re out of the room, and is also ahead of the pack when it comes to monitoring energy use and hitting science-based conservation targets at the corporate level. “They’re walking the walk with these commitments, even if the size of their organization makes it challenging,” says James Thornton, CEO of Australia-based Intrepid Group, the world’s largest travel B corporation.
Airlines
Let’s be honest: Environmentally speaking, the friendly skies are anything but. “If airlines were a country, they would be the seventh-largest emitter of carbon in the world,” Intrepid’s Thornton notes. It’s why climate activist Greta Thunberg refuses to fly on principle and a shift of norms is gaining traction in northern Europe, where flygskam (“flight shame”) has young Swedes embracing long-distance train travel. KLM is even urging customers to think twice before booking with them.
