Sus­tainable travel – Organic shower gel and three scoops of ice cream

My daughter recently said that it would be best (i.e., most sus­tainable) not to travel at all. It could be as simple as that. But of course, it’s not, because firstly, Goethe already knew that “the best edu­cation … lies in tra­velling” and secondly, not tra­velling is not coll­ec­tively fea­sible. So, we need to think a bit more about what “sus­tainable travel” means — or rather, how we can and should design a trip to make it truly sus­tainable.

It is quite easy to agree on which type of travel is par­ti­cu­larly envi­ron­men­tally fri­endly: Tra­velling by train is better than flying and the car should also be used in a way that con­serves resources as much as pos­sible. Even more sus­tainable, of course, are cycling and hiking. But holidays are not only about getting there and back or mobility at the desti­nation, but also about the location. Apart from back­packing trips to distant countries perhaps, where you are on the move more than staying in one place. And when you con­sider how long the search for the most beau­tiful holiday home can take, it becomes clear how important the right holiday home is, even if dif­ferent cri­teria are important for everyone when choosing. In this regard the topic of sus­taina­bility is becoming incre­asingly important: Is the house built in an energy-effi­cient way? Has the importance of pol­lutant-free mate­rials been taken into con­side­ration?  In archi­tecture, these ques­tions have been inten­sively dis­cussed and imple­mented for many years: The holistic cer­ti­fi­cation system of the German Sus­tainable Building Council (DGNB), for example, eva­luates the entire building process and thus examines the com­plete project and not just indi­vidual mea­sures.

This approach would also be desi­rable for booking portals and land­lords, because unfort­u­nately this term is often used quite care­lessly. All too often, a closer look reveals that the mea­sures of accom­mo­dation that are described as sus­tainable refer — somewhat exag­ge­ra­tedly — to energy-saving heaters, organic shower gel or reusable straws, i.e., that partial aspects are sup­posed to determine the overall picture. This is com­monly referred to as green­wa­shing. The accom­mo­dation pro­viders make it just as easy for them­selves as the tra­vellers, who imme­diately feel a little better as soon as at least a small part of the trip seems to be sus­tainable.

In fact, envi­ron­men­tally con­scious travel is a very complex, con­tra­dictory, and some­times uncom­for­table topic. Who doesn’t know the dilemma of wanting to meet sus­tainable stan­dards while at the same time pur­suing exu­berant holiday plea­sures? At home, the flat is climate-neutral, you separate your rubbish and make sure your pack­aging is as plastic-free as pos­sible — but on holiday, you become careless with yourself and the envi­ronment, after all, you want to enjoy a carefree time, without con­stantly ques­tioning your actions. After all, when you are on holiday, you can make an exception, the children get three scoops of ice cream instead of just one.

The whole thing is made more dif­ficult by the fact that the question of what really is sus­tainable, is not so easy to answer. A cotton carrier bag is per se no more envi­ron­men­tally fri­endly than a plastic bag made of recy­clable plastic, unless you use the same cotton bag many, many times. And a trip is not auto­ma­ti­cally envi­ron­men­tally fri­endly just because you travel by train — or because you justify your flight with a donation to a carbon offset program. Of course, the shorter the trip, the more envi­ron­men­tally fri­endly it is, and of course flying is at least par­tially offset by planting a tree else­where. But in any case, you have to look closely in order to be able to judge what is being sold to you as sus­tainable.

But it is even more important to examine one’s own beha­viour and develop an attitude towards the topic of sus­taina­bility, to start with oneself — and also to live with the fact that there are no easy answers. It means weighing up for yourself what you can and want to take respon­si­bility for. Some do without air-travel, others at least make sure they have eco­lo­gical accom­mo­dation at their desti­nation and that they behave as envi­ron­men­tally con­sciously as pos­sible. Tra­velling and eco­lo­gical respon­si­bility are by no means mutually exclusive. The goal should be not to leave behind too large an eco­lo­gical foot­print — and for this it is often enough to think about what is important to you in terms of sus­taina­bility at home. And if you already pay attention to this in everyday life, it is hop­efully only half as dif­ficult to behave envi­ron­men­tally con­sciously on holiday. Of course, this is not the end of the subject of sus­tainable travel. “Soft tourism” means much more: for example, orga­nising your stay locally, treating nature with care and respecting the culture of the country visited. However, this dis­cussion is beyond the scope of this point. Maybe after my holiday — my flight leaves tonight.

Text: Tina Barankay, August 2021

About the author: Tina Barankay has been com­bining her passion for aes­thetics and design with her pro­fes­sional acti­vities for many years, among others as an editor for the archi­tecture magazine DETAIL. As a free­lance jour­nalist and con­sultant, she publishes articles, pro­duces publi­ca­tions and designs com­mu­ni­cation con­cepts in the fields of archi­tecture, interior design and design.

Posi­tions Untitled

Notice Sus­taina­bility aspects on HOLIDAY ARCHITECTURE

HOLIDAYARCHITECTURE lists sus­taina­bility aspects for the indi­vidual houses pre­sented, pro­vided that the buil­dings have been neu­trally tested according to estab­lished systems. Infor­mation is pro­vided on the eco­lo­gical con­s­truction method and on the acces­si­bility by public transport, and refe­rence is made to special social and cul­tural initia­tives. (Photo: Malcolm Lightbody via unsplash.com)

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