7 myths about sustainable travel you should stop believing

Travelers who want to roam the globe more responsibly might feel overwhelmed by the growing list of buzzwords that companies use to get their attention: Eco-friendly, sustainable, and their new relative, regenerative travel—the concept of not just reducing consumption, but also leaving a place better than you found it. They’re all terms with good intentions, but often they’re used without a clear or consistent definition. In the face of all of this confusion, how can a traveler navigate whether an experience aligns with their values?

You’re not alone: even seasoned scientists who regularly scrutinize the travel industry agree that it’s a daunting world to navigate. But there’s a silver lining: the information age is making it easier than ever for people to do their own research and make more sustainable choices in travel, which is responsible for eight percent of the world’s carbon emissions. Still, the voice of an expert can go a long way to set us off on the right footing. To help dispel some common misconceptions, we’ve tapped a couple of seasoned pros. Greg Miller is the former CEO of Center for Responsible Travel, a non-profit watchdog organization based in D.C.; an ecologist by training, he spent 16 years at The Nature Conservancy. Shyla Raghav, the vice president of climate change for Conservation International, holds a master’s degree in environmental management at Yale University and has attended close to a decade’s worth of United Nations climate change negotiations. Their insights will help us ask the right questions that will make us better—and more empowered—travelers.

When it comes to responsible travel practices, it can feel like we’re at the mercy of the high-level decisions of airlines or resort chains, be it their waste management or ethical food sourcing practices. While that’s true on some levels, the traveler still has a lot of power to vote for a greener industry with their pocketbook, says Raghav. “Your travel decisions are a driver for change,” says Raghav. “The types of businesses that you support are going to be the ones that survive and recover from the pandemic.” Adds Miller: “Whether you’re backpacking across the world or renting a whole resort in the Maldives, it’s incumbent on the responsible traveler to look at things with a skeptical, critical eye.” When shopping for travel experiences, they advise that people start with the website of their hotel, tour operator, or airline and look for any disclosures of sustainability practices, and if that’s hard to navigate, hop on the phone and ask questions: Who owns the company or property? If they’re not locally owned, are they hiring mostly locally and paying a sustainable wage? Are they respectful to local communities that live in the area, and are they taking measures to protect the natural ecosystem? What are their energy efficiency and waste management policies? Do they have a carbon-offsetting program in place with third-party approval?

In an ideal world, there would be a clear and rigorously monitored set of global sustainability standards for hotels that factor in all of the unique elements of each destination. The third-party certifications that do exist can be hugely helpful to the traveler’s vetting process: for example, a hotel with the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) designation, ranked by a tiered points system ranging from Certified to Platinum, can be a good indicator that a hotel is implementing eco-friendly practices, and Preferred Hotel Group, with its collection of luxury hotels and resorts, now has its vetted Beyond Green portfolio of sustainably minded properties. But not every property with admirable practices comes with a sleek stamp of approval. “There’s a myth out there that accommodations or tour operators that are not certified through organizations like the Global Sustainable Tourism Council or Rainforest Alliance or something are not sustainable,” says Miller. That’s where the traveler can step in and review properties on a case-by-case basis, says Miller. For example, LEED-certified hotels in Alaska are few and far between, but the Kodiak Brown Bear Center, with its cozy cabin accommodations and close encounters with its namesake bear, is one of the rare examples of lodges in America that are owned by an indigenous people—in this case, the Alutiiq, who have lived on Kodiak Island for the last 7,000 years—which means profits go directly back to them instead of, say, an outside investment firm or hedge fund.

Sometimes the sustainability messages we see can be deceptive: Towel reuse policies and the elimination of single-use plastics are all good steps, but they’re not enough on their own, according to Miller. “It’s more holistic than that,” he says. “It includes the people, the place, and the planet, where you're protecting and enhancing the conditions and systems at the destination that benefits both the residents and the traveler.” Same goes with the phrase “carbon neutral,” according to Raghav. “Anything being branded or being sold as carbon neutral needs to be examined carefully,” she says. “What exactly is their definition of carbon neutral? How was it calculated? And what does that balance actually look like? How big is their reliance on offsets?” Raghav adds that in an ideal world, hotels should maximize the elimination of consumption and waste before any offsets come into play. “Offsets are not a substitute for action,” she says. “There's so much low-hanging fruit, and there's so much that can be done cost effectively and efficiently.”

The rise of flygskam (flight shame), the anti-flying movement born in Sweden in 2017, is well-intentioned but misused, according to both Miller and Raghav. “It’s good to cut down on unnecessary travel, and Covid has really demonstrated the amount of work you can do without traveling,” says Raghav. “But there's no substitute for the value spending time with people and connecting with other communities and places around the world. It’s not a matter of completely cutting it out; it's a matter of trying to reduce and find alternatives where possible.” Tourism is a central component of the economies of more than 125 countries, and it’s the main foreign exchange earner for 83 percent of developing nations, according to the UN World Tourism Organization. And those developing nations are where a lot of the world’s cultural richness and biodiversity can be found, according to Miller. “Through sustainable travel, you're contributing to the livelihoods of local people who are sustaining their own existence through an experience-based economy, rather than slash-and-burn agriculture, overfishing, or bushmeat poaching,” says Miller, who recommends taking fewer, longer trips, and also taking nonstop flights where possible and opting to fly coach—both of which help to reduce fuel consumption.

On the contrary, according to Raghav, carbon offsets can be hugely effective—but offset programs aren’t all created equal. Many major American airline carriers such as Delta, United, and JetBlue have committed to offsetting any growth in emissions after 2020 in partnership with the International Civil Aviation Organization. In addition to that, they’re now offering an offset option for customers. Raghav advises that before booking, make sure your airline’s consumer offsetting plan is verified by a third party, such as the Verified Carbon Standard or Gold Standard. The other option, she says, is to find another provider that offsets your carbon footprint across all parts of your life, from commuting and what you eat to air travel; you often can offset everything for the year. Conservation International has a carbon footprint calculator and an offset plan that supports forests, local communities, and biodiversity; Cool Effect does the same, and sends more than 90 percent of each dollar to scientifically verified carbon projects. But again, Raghav underscores the fact that eliminating excess waste and emissions should be the top priority, and both travel companies and consumers should “only use those offsets if that consumption is unavoidable,” she says.

When people picture sustainable travel, many think of the vast savannas of East Africa or the tropical jungles of Costa Rica or Brazil. “Sustainable tourism is not just about getting out into backcountry or wilderness places,” says Miller. “Sustainable tourism is everywhere you go. In cities, there's less biodiversity, but that doesn't mean you can't have a sustainable tourism operation.” According to Raghav, cities such as Copenhagen and Bogota, Colombia that have good public transit systems, greening building practices, and plenty of green spaces can be especially easy to explore with a sustainable travel mindset. “Having the ability to walk or use public transit really enhances your experience,” she says. “Cities that give you access to nature are also my favorite places to go, where you can get a sense of the human imprint of that culture but also be in tune with the surrounding natural environment that shaped it.”

“So often sustainable tourism is only viewed as being about the physical or biological or natural environment,” says Miller. “Biodiversity and ecosystem services like clean water and healthy forests are fundamental to a sustainable future, but it's equally important for the responsible traveler to think about how any company, resort, or destination they’re supporting is working to recognize and protect the cultural heritage of that place and the economic wellbeing of the local community.” One example she cites is the community-run Sarara Camp in northern Kenya’s Samburu National Park; all employees are local and all operations go to a trust fund that is autonomously managed by those communities. “It gives local communities self-determination and ownership over how that funding gets allocated, and then also they're able to share their culture in a way that they're comfortable with rather than being put on displays” she says. “And that shift in power dynamic really helps to deliver a more authentic experience for the traveler.”

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