Green Travel News and Carbon Offsetting

As we watch and hear grim news reports of the devastating effects of global warming on our planet it’s good to see more and more companies doing their bit to help.  Sorry to report that according to recent surveys Brits are among the least likely to pay to offset their holidays, although they are more likely to choose greener methods of travel. 

The car rental place, Holiday Autos, now offers carbon offsetting and hybrid cars for rent in the UK, France, Sweden and Ireland www.holidayautos.co.uk.  The company will be starting its carbon offsetting program soon whereby a carbon calculator will be available to tally up the emissions for each trip.  Holiday Autos operates under its parent company (www.lastminute.com) which has also launched a carbon offsetting scheme for flights. Several other car rental companies offer carbon offsetting schemes, including Enterprise, Alamo and National.

Virgin Atlantic is doing its part by introducing a scheme for passengers to offset their travel.  Basically, the airline will figure out how much carbon is produced per flight and divvy it up between passengers.  The offsets can be purchased onboard or via their website:  www.virginatlantic.com/offset.  The website also has the details of the projects it supports in India and Indonesia, and details of how you can become a member of its Gold Standard Mile High Offset Club!  (Does that resemble the old Mile High Club? Don’t think about it too much…).

If you want to help the planet while you travel, you could check out the directory of green locations and accommodations provided by ‘ecoescape’.  Their website/directory has a wealth of information about green travel options as well as opportunities for leaving comments and reviews, so have a look for yourself: www.ecoescape.org.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 26th, 2007 at 4:37 pm and is filed under Sustainable Tourism, Travel News .

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