Tourism for Good (Part 2)
Curbing your Carbon Footprint

Scandinavian nations have a knack of coming up with the perfect neologism for a complicated emotional state, and 2019’s watchword “Flygskam” is certainly no exception.
The Swedish term, roughly translated into English as “flight shame”, neatly captures the cocktail of emotions most of us feel when we begrudgingly come to terms with the environmental impact of a flight that could potentially have been avoided. And as the world wakes up to a looming climate crisis, it’s clear to see why the word has gained such mass appeal.
But despite the power of Flygskam as a concept, it is perhaps a little too retrospective, too guilt-ridden, to serve as a useful traveling mantra.
Feeling shame about flying is a useful first step towards reviewing and reshaping our travel behaviors, but we live in a world where the alternatives aren’t always obvious, where measuring carbon footprints is a devilishly hard practice (even for experts), and where doing the right thing has a tendency to be more expensive, more inconvenient, or both. Even with the best intentions in the world, it can be hard to know what to do instead.
That’s why in this edition of ‘Tourism for Good’ we’ve decided to investigate the upsides and downsides of flying, explore some of the most viable alternatives and best offsetting schemes for those wanting to curb their carbon footprint, and offer a practical pre-trip checklist to help you banish Flygskam from your vocabulary for good.
The environmental context
If you fly a lot, you might take some small comfort from the fact that air travel remains a relatively small contributor to man-made climate change, adding an estimated 2.5% to global emissions each year. But just because it’s dwarfed by the harmful side-effects of industrial production, agriculture, and burning fossil fuels for electricity and heat generation, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be doing something about it. A 2017 comparison by academics from Sweden and Canada placed it third in the hierarchy of environmental impacts we can each have as individuals, below having one fewer child, and living car free.
The UN has warned that CO2 emissions must fall by 45% by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050 if we are to stop short of a catastrophic 1.5C increase to global temperatures, and we all have a responsibility to help society-at-large hit that goal; even if that means making dramatic changes to our behavior.
Commercial airlines already add around 160 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent greenhouse gasses into earth’s atmosphere each year, and that number is expected to take-off as flying becomes increasingly accessible for more of the world’s population. According to the International Air Transport Association, passenger numbers are predicted to double to 8.2 billion by 2037, while Airbus projects that there will be twice as many commercial aircraft in operation by 2038 to meet that demand.
That sort of increase over the next 20 years would be just about bearable if society could find a way to replicate the 50% reduction in emissions-per-passenger-kilometer achieved over the past three decades, but realizing those kinds of efficiency gains is easier said than done. Without the advent of commercially-viable electric flight, something which is still years away, there is only one thing that will move the emissions dial in the right direction, and that’s flying less.
Government and big business naturally have a responsibility to lead from the front, but they remain beholden to their constituents and customers, and every one of us has the power to vote with our feet. Next to reducing our individual energy consumption, reforming our personal eating habits, and buying sustainably produced products, making more responsible travel decisions is a small change we can all make that will add up to a big difference to the global emissions curve.
So, what are we to do? Grounding every plane in the world might not exactly be a workable solution, but we can all surely find a way to cut down our own air miles. If everyone took 50% fewer flights between now and 2030 we’d effectively freeze the growth in aviation emissions and buy valuable time while cleaner forms of technology play catch-up.
Weighing up the alternatives
The obvious question we can all ask ourselves before booking a trip, is “do I really need to go?” If a Skype call will suffice, or if this is the sixth overseas vacation you’re taking this year, then it’s going to be hard to justify flying at all, but for the purposes of this article we’ll assume that you’ve already asked yourself those questions, and decided that the trip is taking place. Our starting point is therefore how you travel; what’s the most efficient way to get from A to B? Let’s look at the evidence.
As a rule of thumb, traveling by bus or train is a lot more efficient than driving or flying. Swapping your airplane seat for other forms of public transport will on average decrease the carbon footprint of your journey by more than 10 times if you travel by bus, and 4 times if you travel by train, and while jumping in a car is hardly green, it’s still a lot better than taking to the skies. The table below should help you compare, but be careful not to treat it as gospel; with so many variables, no two trips are ever the same.

To calculate the precise environmental impact of your journey you’re going to need a calculator. The most detailed one we’ve come across can be found here. It allows you to input the seat class and airline, as well as the specific route and model of aircraft. For something a little more modern and polished, we’d suggest giving the LiveGreen app a try.

Traveling by Train
Now, if you’re traveling a long way, or need to get there in a hurry, flying might well be your only option, but it’s amazing how far you can travel over land in a day when you look closely at the options. We absolutely love this isochrone map from EmptyPipes.org, revealing exactly how far you can travel in a day by train, starting from various cities around Europe.
Traveling by Road
If traveling by road, 500 miles is broadly considered to be a do-able drive in a day (or a walk if you’re one of The Proclaimers). And if you don’t fancy eight hours behind the wheel, then taking a bus will take the same amount of time and emit around a fifth as much CO2 as going by car.
For maximum smug points, you could even opt for an overnight bus with large and comfortable reclining seats. You’ll barely notice the journey time, and save on a night’s accommodation while you’re at it. When calculating travel times, make sure you calculate the full journey. Yes it’s true that an eight hour road journey will ‘fly by’ in just an hour by plane, but once you’ve factored in two airport transfers, check-in, security and boarding queues, as well as that all important buffer for delays, you’re only looking at a four hour difference between plane and car for a 500 mile trip.
While we’re on the subject of smug points, the Swedish have a term for that too. “Tagskryt”, or ‘train-bragging’, which describes the overwhelming urge to broadcast your carbon-conscious travel decisions to anyone who will listen, and might just be our best weapon against the obligatory airport photos that seem to pepper our news feeds these days.
If You Must Fly
Of course not all flights can be avoided. It’s simply not practical for everyone to follow in the footsteps of the young climate protester Greta Thunberg who recently chose to sail to the United Nations Climate Action Summit rather than jump on a transatlantic flight. But if you do have to fly, don’t fret. It’s increasingly possible to offset the carbon footprint of your trip by donating to carbon-cutting initiatives that otherwise simply wouldn’t exist without your money.
Carbon Offsetting
Programs that encourage the use of renewables, or improve energy efficiency are widely accepted as the best form of official offset, as they directly address the central structural issue that is causing climate change: our reliance on using fossil fuels for energy. Tree planting schemes however should generally be avoided, as many have proven to be guilty of displacing native flora and fauna, and only capture carbon if the tree is never cut down once it reaches maturity.
Carbon offsetting is by no means going to solve aviation’s emissions problem, and should never be seen as a get-out-of-jail-free card by those making no effort to fly less, but as the world races to decarbonize it’s a worthy way to counter the environmental impact of an unavoidable flight.
If you’re choosing to offset independently, we recommend picking a program endorsed by the Gold Standard. However, most airlines now either have their own internal process for offsetting the carbon emissions of their flights, or, increasingly, offer passengers the opportunity to do so themselves. The following airlines all offer discretionary programs as part of the booking process.

Pre-booking Checklist
Why not bookmark this page, and next time you sit down to book a flight, come back and ask yourself the following questions:
1. Why there?
Business trips and family visits are typically location specific, but vacations are not. Exotic trips might call for a far-flung flight, but if all you’re seeking is a little escapism and R&R, then perhaps a ‘staycation’ would do the job.
2. Why now?
Nothing beats a face-to-face meeting, but if a Skype call will do, why fly? It can also pay to see if there’s a big conference happening near the business you’re visiting. Big conferences and summits like this are a great way to see many different people from one industry in one trip
3. How are you going to get there?
Are you sure you need to fly? Check the train routes, try staggering your journey, or turning your vacation into a road trip.
4. If you must fly, do it right
Take-off and landings create the most emissions, so try to fly direct wherever possible. And always think about offsetting the emissions from your flight. It’s not nearly as expensive as you might think
Before You Go
We’re on this mission because we believe in travel. We believe in its ability to create harmony, to lift many of the poorest in society out of hardship through job creation, and to help people break from routine, put down the small screens in favor of big experiences, and find new meaning and purpose in life.
The last thing we want to do is discourage people from traveling, but we believe that traveling with a conscience, being mindful of the footprint we leave behind and giving back to the communities we visit, is not just our responsibility as travelers, but actually enhances the experiences themselves.
We’re in search of people and organizations that agree. People that want to join our mission of making travel more rewarding, while also tackling some of the big societal and environmental issues around the world. We’re building a social good platform for the change-makers, for the people that want to have a positive social impact wherever they travel in the world. If you’re an organization that is working in this space, working on implementing the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, get in touch! We love collaborating.
Contact details on our website: keyocoin.com/social-good-platform

