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Editor’s note: Got a trip to the UK coming up? If so, Life Goggles notes that it will soon be easier to find eco-friendly accommodations, as the British Tourism Board has launched a new program for certifying “green” hotels. This post was originally published on Tuesday, April 29, 2008.
VisitBritain, Britain’s National Tourist Board has launched a new program to help accommodation providers and visitor attractions in England take the first steps toward becoming sustainable businesses.
The Green Start project aims to encourage a “rapid, widespread and significant increase in the adoption of sustainable tourism principles” by offering a validated sustainable accreditation scheme.
Jason Freezer, VisitBritain’s sustainable tourism project manager, said: “VisitBritain is committed to encouraging sustainable businesses. However, nearly two-thirds tell us they need more guidance on developing their business in that way.”
By Mark Seall •
March 25, 2008
Today I have returned home having travelled via London’s infamous Heathrow Airport - known disaffectionately by many frequent flyers as Hellrow. I can fully appreciate this sentiment among travellers and can safely say that by just about any measure, Heathrow is the world’s worst airport. And it’s about to get a whole lot worse..
Having had a minor makeover in the form of a new terminal building which brings some aspects of travel via Heathrow into the 21st century, most travellers are still subjected to an experience which does more to discourage flying than any environmental campaign could ever hope to achieve.
However, the real controversy at Heathrow right now concerns the proposal to build a third runway in response to ever increasing demands for capacity. This proposal has a significant environmental footprint; carbon emissions from additional flights alone will be equal to the those of the entire nation of Kenya, up to 4,000 houses may be bulldozed, including the entire village of Sipson, a graveyard and several historically relevant buildings.
By Mark Seall •
March 20, 2008
Last week I wrote about the lamentable state of British rail services, pointing out that railways in general will need to raise their game if they are to encourage significant numbers of people to abandon the car and go for green rail instead.
So who are the world’s most railway friendly countries, and what can we learn from them about implementing practical rail services that people will actually want to use?
Data provided by The International Union of Railways shows Japan as the world leader among major economies in rail kilometres per inhabitant, followed by Europe lead by the Swiss. The United Kingdom comes, unsurprisingly, near the bottom, with the USA coming last - US citizens traveling one thirteenth the distance of the Japanese by rail.
By Lisa Kivirist •
February 21, 2008
A Tufts senior e-mailed me the other day, attaching her resume and asking for career advice. While that play of events seems typical, her ambitions probably didn’t fit the cookie-cutter mold of most of her class peers. She wanted to run her own eco-retreat center one day, felt passion for the green movement and embraced her ecopreneurial passions.
In short, she blew away the goals and mindset I had back in my twenty-something days, when the only “green” in my world came out of an ATM machine. And frankly, as I’ve been off the mainstream career path for nearly two decades now, I don’t typically have seniors knocking on my e-mail door for advice. So I felt compelled to launch a dash of the unconventional her way — a dose of out-of-the-box career advice for someone heading down ecopreneurial career paths at a young age. Here’s what I sent to her:
By Mark Seall •
February 6, 2008
The Sahara desert is a truly vast environment - with sand dunes reaching 180 meters high, scorching temperatures and fierce sand storms it provides a real test for any method of transportation.
So how, does the eco-option for crossing this massive and barren landscape stack up against more modern technologies? This is a question posed regularly at EcoWorldly and I recently had the opportunity to put it to the test during a journey which took me from the ‘Gateway to the Sahara’ in Douz, Southern Tunisia, to Matmata, a desert village of cave dwellings famous for providing the location for Luke Skywalker’s home in the Star Wars movies.
(Note: the author only discovered this fact after arriving - this was not a pilgrimage.)
Our local guides presented us with two options: The camel - trusty ship of the desert, as used for centuries by desert dwellers, and the equally ubiquitous Toyota Land Cruiser 4×4 – the motor vehicle of choice for those needing to travel across challenging terrain.
We gave both modes of transport a thorough workout in an attempt to compare our eco camel against it’s more modern counterpart, making assessments on comfort, emissions, speed, reliability, off-road capability and fuel consumption. The testing process consisted of two days of travel across the desert by camel, camping overnight in the dunes, followed by a further day’s journey in the Land Cruiser.
By John Ivanko •
February 2, 2008
After the mighty industrial military complex (the companies behind the missiles and the satellites to guide them), tourism is the world’s largest industry, according to the World Tourism Organization.
While tourism is big business, much of the industry can be just as destructive as the other extractive industries (mining, lumber, agriculture), sometimes operating in the same places around the world, places like the spectacular Alaskan Wilderness or rainforests of Indonesia. Oceans containing fish or oil hidden deep below the surface in certain parts of the world, provide the setting for the popular love affair by many people, of living on floating cities called cruise ships, turning port stops into Mall of America-type shopping sprees.
Not all tourism, however, thrives on the consumptive value of mass tourism that burns through resources or exploits people for the benefit of pleasure seekers. A small, but rapidly growing segment of the tourism industry, “ecotourism” has emerged which now accounts for as much as 4 to 7 percent of the industry, depending on definitional terms. While the academics debate these definitions ad nauseum, the industry and number of ecotravelers are growing at double digit rates according to The International Ecotourism Society.
By Gavin Hudson •
February 2, 2008
While Mark’s Green Team blazes its way through Europe by high-speed rail, I start my public transportation journey through South Korea in a slightly more humble place: in front of a dried squid.
The squid is between a pair of tongs, which an elderly Korean woman holds over an indoor propane stove. As the squid crisps, I look around. I’m standing in front of one of the dozens of shops and small restaurants lining the spacious hallway of the main bus terminal of Gangneung, a city on the Sea of Japan, where my trip begins.
Already, we’ve come the first advantage of car-free travel: outside of a car, you see things that you probably would never see inside a car. BBQ squid, for example.
By Gavin Hudson •
January 24, 2008
Laos sits at #1 on the New York Time’s list of places to go in 2008. According to the Times, it’s a country where “ancient sites like the Wat Phou temple complex and the capital city of Vientiane are drawing culture seekers.”
Loas also offers exciting opportunities for seekers of eco-adventure. If your travels bring you this way, seek out The Gibbon Experience.
The Gibbon Experience is trying to bring sustainable self-sufficiency to local people in the Bokeo Nature Reserve. The vision is “to transform their economy from one based on slash-and-burn farming, logging and poaching, to one based on long term, conservation focused activity.”
By Jason Phillip •
December 9, 2007
When trying to make your lifestyle more sustainable, there are lots of smart choices you can make around the house to lighten your ecological footprint. But what about when you’re away from home? When traveling for work or pleasure, you can’t be certain that the same eco-smart choices you make at home will be made in your hotel room. Is the cotton in your sheets is grown organically and washed in an way that conserves water? Is your garbage being recycled? Are the lights you turn off before going to sleep utilizing the energy efficient CFL bulbs you have in the lamp on your nightstand at home? The fact is, when you check into a hotel, you may be signing up for temporarily increasing your personal impact on the environment in a way you would never choose otherwise.
The good news is that more and more hotel chains are taking up the challenge of incorporating the values of sustainability into their operations. One example is the Hotel Intercontinental in Chicago, which last week announced plans to begin supporting renewable energy in a big way.
The agreement between Intercontinental Chicago Hotel and electricity supplier Constellation NewEnergy is a good thing for the environment, but it takes a little bit of explanation to understand why. That’s because the hotel won’t actually be using wind, solar, or hydroelectric power in its golden domed building on Michigan Avenue. Instead, it will support the operation of power plants that create green energy by purchasing renewable energy certificates (RECs) equal to 50% of its total electricity use. Not every business is able to change its operations to run on green electricity, but any company can buy RECs. For every certificate purchased, a unit of renewable energy is produced and fed into the power grid. The more renewable energy placed onto the grid, the less nonrenewable energy (such as coal, nuclear, oil, and gas) is required to fill the country’s energy needs.
By Tom Nguyen •
October 29, 2007
Originally commissioned painting for a friend’s masters’ thesis on Cosmopolitanism, 100 limited edition prints are available for sale. All profits will go to starting a website to promote fair trade stores, green traveling and green events. Prints measure 16×20 and are 12 color print on canvas. This highly detailed painting shows many symbols to represent peace.
I, like many other people in the United States, am not fortunate enough to live close enough to work that I can walk or bike. When possible, my co-workers and I attempt to car pool but with differing schedules, this is not possible 100% of the time. 
One day at lunch I was looking around my office at the many, many people eating and talking, and it dawned on me: most (if not all)
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