Take a ‘Staycation’ – help the economy, save money and reduce CO2.

Flying is one of the biggest contributors to the UK’s CO2 emissions; somewhere around 6% of the UK’s CO2 came from air travel in 2008 and this is predicted to rise to 10-16% if we don’t do anything to slow it down. As a nation we take 40 million holidays a year and the bare truth is that there is no such thing as a zero impact break, but a holiday with no flying can help to minimise your carbon footprint.

The latest trend is to take a staycation. A holiday based in your own home or locally in the UK. You take a few weeks off work and use your own home as your base or travel to a nearby place within the UK. You can hang out in the garden, visit local sites or Cities, visit the beach or the countryside, take day trips, go out for a meal, sleep until lunch time or do pretty much anything you like except fly to another country.

A few days somewhere like Dartmouth would save you money & CO2 and help the economy.

The upside is that it doesn’t add a lot of extra CO2 or other greenhouse gases to the environment unless you’re driving hundreds of miles a day; it’s cheaper and it supports the UK economy.  I checked out summer 2009 deals with some of the main online travel sites for price comparisons and found that typically a holiday for a family of four in August to destinations ranging from Majorca to Greece to Florida came in at around £3,500 per family. That’s without food and the cost of extra trips, all those pool side drinks and snacks or the slap-up breakfast in the airport before you fly.  A two week staycation in the UK, on the other hand, can cost from zero if you stay in your own home to a typical £1,500 for travel by car for a family of four staying in a hotel in August; again, without the cost of extra trips or food. That’s a saving of somewhere around £2,000 per family.

The main environmental benefit from a staycation is saving the CO2 and other greenhouse gases that flying causes. I visited one of the leading carbon offset websites and calculated a few trips. These are all based on a family of four. A flight to Disney in Florida would create nearly 8 tonnes of CO2, Rome would create 1.3 tonnes and Sharm El Sheikh 4.3 tonnes. This compares to 0.1 tonnes of CO2 from a 2 litre Ford Mondeo travelling 500 miles.  If you live in the South East, a family holiday in Cornwall will cost you about £1,500 and create less than 100kg of CO2 compared to £3,500 and 1.2 tonnes of CO2 if you go to Majorca. So, if you can survive without guaranteed sunny weather and are open to seeing more of our country you can save over a tonne of CO2 and a few thousand pounds AND help UK businesses (and the people whose jobs rely on them).

Simon Sear is Founder of Free Green Market

www.freegreenmarket.com

Free Green Market is an eco social shopping network that allows people to search through hundreds of green and ethical products from a range of retailers, compare prices, get advice and information, discover vouchers and read the views of celebrities and experts.

Hi there.

I’m Joel and I’m excited to be part of the Green Guys Global team. I usually blog over at Life Goggles where we also write about green stuff, but mix it up with music and videos.

For those that know me know that I have just recently (last week!) emigrated to the West coast of the US. On the way though I spent 2.5 weeks in New Zealand and a short while in Australia and thought I’d pass on some thoughts regarding our trip.

We travelled on a coach tour in order not to pollute more with our own vehicle. There were many optional excursions that were to organic farms, or eco tours, in fact a member of our group had just spent two weeks volunteering on community projects and there were others on offer. New Zealand feels very eco friendly, however I’m not always so sure it is. The huge number of tourists prevent it from being so in many ways. The numerous hotels we visited for just one night made be appreciate Charles’s tip of bringing your own sleeping bag, and whilst they were (quite rightfully in some ways) proud of their jetboat rides and helicopter trips that were offered almost every day, the environmental cost of these trips must be huge.

Lake Tekapo and The Church of the Good Shepherd – New Zealand © Joel Williams

I did find a lot of information about handling waste. There they seem to have the 5 R’s:
- Reduce,
- Re-use,
- Recycle,
- Recover and,
- Residual Management.

The Christchurch museum had an excellent section for children and adults alike on this topic, including an example cross section of landfill over the last 50 years.

Now, like Southern California, most of Australia has been undergoing a drought for many years. I therefore expected to find a lot of messages about water conservation, yet this wasn’t the case. I wasn’t actively looking for it of course, but I didn’t think I’d need to.

They do have Eco Tourism Australia which certifies accommodation and tours if they are “environmentally sustainable, economically viable, and socially and culturally responsible”, which is a great thing, however I expected to see more for some reason.

There are whole University degrees devoted to the subject of sustainable tourism (and Green Girls Global has a great article), and whilst I highly recommend New Zealand and Australia for some many reasons, sustainable tourism wouldn’t be one of them. Yet.