Greening your travels - Part 1

Posted by

A. Caleb Hartley on April 14th, 2008 filed in transportation

These days, just about anyone can travel just about anywhere (notwithstanding the bankruptcies and closures of several airlines recently - Skybus and ATA among them).

Because it is generally so affordable for people to travel nearly at their heart’s desire, it is important to know your impact on the environment when you do so. With that in mind, here are some (damn) statistics:

According to the United Nations:

Tourism accounts for more than 60% of air travel and is responsible for an estimated 7% of total carbon emitted globally
A single transatlantic return flight emits roughly half the CO2 emissions produced by all other sources (lighting, heating, car use, etc.) consumed by an average person yearly
Passenger jets are the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions

According to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC):

One tree offsets the carbon dioxide emitted by an airplane over 4,000 miles
Two more trees offset the greenhouse effect caused by nitrogen oxide and water vapor emitted by aircraft at altitude

In a future post, we’ll discuss how to offset the pollution created when you fly, but for now let’s focus on something a little more down-to-earth (pun intended): your rental car at the destination!

I recently saw ad for Avis’s “Cool Car Collection,” which was touting the fact that the company had recently added the Toyota Prius Hybrid vehicle to it’s list of available, “cool” vehicles. Upon further review, I found that most of the vehicles in the “Cool Car Collection” are not, in fact, cool as it relates to the climate - but cool as it relates to your ego size. Corvette and Hummer are included in the “Ultimate Rides,” as well as Mustang and FJ Cruiser in the “Joy Rides” list.

There were only three options in the “Eco Rides” list:

Toyota Prius Hybrid
Ford Escape Hybrid
Nissan Altima Hybrid

Piquing my interest, I decided to look for other rental car companies that offer hybrids or other alternative fuel vehicles.

Here’s what I found:

Budget offers the Prius and Altima hybrids, as well as having some suggestions on how to save gas in any car.
Enterprise offers a Carbon Offset program.
Hertz offers the Prius and some other hybrids, but only guarantees Prius availability.
Fox Rent-a-Car offers Prius, Civic, and Highlander (or Escape) Hybrids, depending on location
If you are visiting California or Arizona, you might be able to rent from EV Rental Cars, which offers the Prius, Honda’s Civic Hybrid, and Toyota’s Highlander Hybrid.
If you’re going to Maui, Hawaii, you can rent from Bio-Beetle, which offers “normal” vehicles that run on bio-diesel:
- VW Jetta
- VW Golf
- VW Beetle
- Jeep Liberty

I’m sure there are more, and there are most likely limitations as far as availability - hybrids not guaranteed, hybrids only available at certain locations, etc. At the “big name” rental car agencies, expect a small ($5-$10 per day) extra charge to rent a hybrid.

One last thing… even if you aren’t traveling - just using your own car to commute or to take a long-weekend trip - there’s a great way for you to green your life with little change to your daily process. If you are a member of AAA, be aware that the organization regularly campaigns against more strict environmental regulations for the auto industry.

Instead of AAA, join Better World Club! Better World Club is the only environmentally friendly auto club in the USA. If you join, your membership includes eco-travel services, discounts on hybrid car rental, insurance services, free maps, auto maintenance discounts and bicycle roadside assistance. They also donate 1% of annual revenues toward environmental cleanup and advocacy. What could be better? Their price is competitive with AAA as well!

Namaste,
A. Caleb Hartley

Have you rented a hybrid? Will you next time you travel? Do you know of other rental car agencies that offer hybrids or other alternative fuel vehicles? Let us know in the comments!

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20 Responses to “Greening your travels - Part 1”

Justin (Who am I?) Says:
April 14th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
Great post, this is a great reference page. I have recently been studying the effects Airlines/international flights have on our environment. The numbers are quite staggering, something must be done to offset this “necessary evil”. Actually, is it necessary? NO not really but it’s not going away so what’s the difference. Keep up the great work!
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A. Caleb Hartley (Who am I?) Says:
April 14th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
Thanks, Justin.

As an environmentalist and a pilot, I am very interested in the impact aviation has on the Earth - and always on the lookout for ways to reduce aviation’s impact!

Namaste,
A. Caleb
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Golf Club Rental (Who am I?) Says:
April 14th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
Awesome blog! I’ve been looking for something like this for a while. I’m really trying to make my golf club rental business as green as I can get it and am looking into certifications as well. I look forward to getting some good insight from your blog. Keep up the good work!
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A. Caleb Hartley (Who am I?) Says:
April 14th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
@GCR:

Thanks! I really try to make things applicable to people instead of “pie-in-the-sky” like so many other environmental sites.

Check out the blogroll for some other blogs you might find some good information from!

Namaste,
A. Caleb
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CyberCelt (Who am I?) Says:
April 14th, 2008 at 9:35 pm
I always look for alternative energy cars when I rent, but I have never found one. Of course, this is Texas…
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A. Caleb Hartley (Who am I?) Says:
April 15th, 2008 at 8:05 am
@CyberCelt:

Yeah - I can understand how it might be difficult to find “alternative fuel” vehicles in an Oil state like Texas (the only place it might be harder is in Alaska - or Saudi Arabia.

Here’s the only info I could find for you:

http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2008/03/28/082743.html
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Dan Fallon (Who am I?) Says:
April 15th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
How about joining a car club rather than even owning a car. They are springing up all over the UK such as http://www.whizzgo.com. The majority use green vehicles…I know WhizzGo use http://www.whatgreencar.com to evaluate them all & make sure they are as green as can be
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A. Caleb Hartley (Who am I?) Says:
April 15th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
@Dan:

I personally LOVE the idea of car sharing (and tool sharing, and pretty much anything-sharing)!

Unfortunately it is not common in the USA just yet. Some of the larger cities have Flexcar and Zipcar, and in Columbus, Ohio - where I live - I think Ohio State University was starting a small Zipcar program, but that’s about it.

Mass-transit would be wonderful, but Columbus has one of (if not THE) largest land-mass cities in the US (12th or 15th in population, but spread out over a large metro area).

Namaste,
A. Caleb
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Anne Florenzano (Who am I?) Says:
April 17th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
We’re flying to Charlotte N.C. (from Minneapolis) tomorrow for a short visit with some good friends of ours. Now I feel guilty! I bought my Prius in 2004, so I’ve saved a lot of gas and emissions in that time, but still…Are new planes more fuel-efficient than old ones?
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A. Caleb Hartley (Who am I?) Says:
April 17th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
@Anne:

As a general rule, new planes are more efficient than older ones, yes. However, that isn’t always the case - and it only really works if you’re comparing apples to apples. A new Boeing 737 is more efficient than an old Boeing 737, but an old 737 is most likely more efficient than a huge Boeing 777.

Additionally, statistically (and we all know about statistics), you can break aircraft efficiency down in innumerable ways: Seat-Mile, Passenger Seat-Mile, total fuel burn, etc. etc. Depending on how you look at it, you can make almost any plane look “greener” than another.

Don’t feel guilty about your trip. Plant 3 trees for each round trip you fly and you’ll be just about carbon neutral.

Namaste,
A. Caleb
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Compost Tumblers (Who am I?) Says:
April 17th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
Thanks for this post. I had never previously heard of Better World Club, but it certainly sounds much more attractive to me knowing the cost for it is competitive. Who wouldn’t want to go with the the better alternative? Joining car clubs is something I will look into as well.
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wilson (Who am I?) Says:
April 18th, 2008 at 12:13 am
way to go, A.Caleb.

BTW, did you have prepared any article for the upcoming 22nd Earth Day yet?

Wilson.
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A. Caleb Hartley (Who am I?) Says:
April 18th, 2008 at 8:02 am
@Compost Tumblers:

I’ve been a member of Better World Club for about a year, and I love it! They are as good or better than AAA ever was. Very responsive and they also follow up to make sure everything worked out! Don’t know a whole lot about the “car sharing” clubs, but I’ll be researching them more soon for a post!

@Wilson:

Thanks! I’m working on a poast for Earth Day… sneaks up on me every year!

Namaste,
A. Caleb
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Josh Spoehr (Who am I?) Says:
April 18th, 2008 at 6:10 pm
What a great post. Would you mind me being able to put a partial post of this on my new website that I’m creating? Or create a page and link to your site for part 2?

I definatly hope to dedicate pages to “Green Travel” on the new site.

Keep up the great work and let me know what you think.

Thanks
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A. Caleb Hartley (Who am I?) Says:
April 19th, 2008 at 7:49 am
@Josh:

I’m perfectly fine with you putting a partial post of this on your new site, so long as you link back to this post!

Keep an eye out for part two - not really sure when it will come out (no plans just yet), but I’ll get to it!

Namaste,
A. Caleb
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Josh Spoehr (Who am I?) Says:
April 21st, 2008 at 1:31 pm
Ok I am going to do that on this page. I Created an Ecofriendly Vacation Page and added a Ecofriendly Forum. I will add the partial post to the forum and your link will be added to the page aswell.

http://www.vacationranking.com/ecofriendlyvacation.html
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Car Buff47 (Who am I?) Says:
April 22nd, 2008 at 8:52 am
Great tips, it’s really interesting to see that major rental car companies are starting to offer hybrid cars. This shows that these corporations are starting to realize that many consumers are very eco-friendly and concerned about the sad state of the environment. On that note, HAPPY EARTH DAY! Hope you can keep us up to date on more eco-friendly practices taken by major corporations.
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A. Caleb Hartley (Who am I?) Says:
April 22nd, 2008 at 9:02 am
@Car Buff:

Yes - many corporations are recognizing that eco-conscious consumers are willing to pay a little more for greener choices - but for the most part it’s just profit motive, not any overriding sense of eco-responsibility.

Don’t get me wrong… I’ll take what I can get. There’s nothing wrong with profit motive, so long as it isn’t at the expense of everything else. The Holy Grail, IMO, however, is the business that considers all STAKEHOLDERS in it’s decisions, not just STOCKHOLDERS.

There are a few businesses that try to do this; however, business in the US is required by legislation to consider stockholders only, not all stakeholders. US law will have to change significantly before it will get easy for all businesses to consider their impact on the Earth as much as their impact on their owners’ pocketbooks. Most don’t yet recognize that those things often go hand-in-hand.

Namaste,
A. Caleb
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Car Buff47 (Who am I?) Says:
April 22nd, 2008 at 9:25 am
Very good points A.Caleb, you pretty much nailed it on the head.

Most of these corporations are putting on their “eco-friendly” hats solely as a PR-move to appease eco-obsessed customers. They aren’t actually trying to incorporate any environment-friendly strategies into their operations. It always comes down to the bottom line, and unfortunately these companies rather continue polluting the environment then spend some dough to improve their operations or product line.

However, I truly do believe that the automotive industry is a leader in trying to improve their detrimental effects on the environment. Even though they killed the electric car for no good reason they are unleashing hybrid cars at an increasing rate. Even better is that some manufacturers are even releasing hybrid versions of famous models. Personally, I predict great success for hybrid technology, as the prices continue to drop more people will surely switch over to this cleaner technology. Let’s hope it happens sooner than later!
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A. Caleb Hartley (Who am I?) Says:
April 22nd, 2008 at 12:40 pm
@Car Buff:

I think you’re right… I think that the auto industry is finally recognizing that they can’t win fighting against Mother Nature… change, however, is painfully slow.

Namaste,
A. Caleb
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