By Richard Hammond

The Green Traveller is a comprehensive, practical, and jargon-free guide to sustainable travel, responsible planning, and conscious adventure.

Travel is a part of many people’s lives. Today, we continue to become aware of the negative impact our travel can have on the environment. In order to make the shift to live more consciously and sustainably, many of us need to reassess our travel priorities.

With so many factors to consider, travellers need a knowledgeable guide to lead them through the environmental issues and inspire them with ideas and itineraries.

The green traveller: Conscious adventure that doesn’t cost the earth by Richard Hammond is a comprehensive, practical, and jargon-free guide to sustainable travel, responsible planning, and conscious adventure.

This guide tells you how to plan a green trip including low carbon travel in the UK and how to travel flight-free to Europe and elsewhere. The green traveler can teach how to find a green hotel and be a greener guest and traveler.

The book is coming out in May 2022, and will be available at the Greentraveller.co.uk website.

Here is a list of five ways to be a greener traveler:

1. Pack smarter

Replace battery-powered devices with portable solar-powered devices, such as stoves, lights and phone chargers, and pack reusable items to avoid using single-use plastic while you’re on the road.

2. Choose lower carbon travel

Coaches and trains can be as much as 10 times less carbon polluting than flying. If you do fly, book flights that have less-than-average CO₂ emissions using the ‘Greener Choices’ label on flight search engine Skyscanner (skyscanner.net). Skyscanner has recently expanded this label to cover car hire, so you’re now able to compare electric and hybrid options in the destination.

3. Stay green

Look for accommodation that has been externally certified by an accredited organization, such as the Global Sustainable Tourism Council. Booking.com and Google now flag up eco-certified hotels in their search results. The most reliable certification schemes send a trained professional technician out to the hotel to assess its environmental performance, both front-of-house and behind the scenes.

Some focus on technical aspects, while others grade the business based on a whole gamut of environmental and social responsibility, including waste management, biodiversity conservation and human rights of workers’ conditions.

4. Go local

Feasting on local, seasonal food washed down with the local tipple conveys a sense of place better than any travel brochure. It’s also one of the most effective ways to keep your holiday’s carbon emissions down. There can be a surprising number of hidden emissions embedded within the provenance of food and drink, especially when it is shipped, or worse, flown in from overseas.

From freshly baked bread for breakfast, salad from the kitchen garden for lunch, or the catch of the day for dinner – choosing local isn’t just good for the planet, it’s also enjoyable and a great way to put money into the local community.

5. Choose a greener holiday company

Draw on the knowledge, experience, and protection of booking through travel companies that specialize in holidays that are kinder to the planet, such as G Adventures (gadventures.com), Intrepid (intrepidtravel.com), and Much Better Adventures (muchbetteradventures.com) who all sell community-minded small group adventure holidays worldwide, and Earth Changers, for positive impact holidays worldwide (earth-changers.com).

Richard Hammond is a writer, filmmaker and founder of the award-winning travel website greentraveller.co.uk, which has been called ‘the leading British website for eco travel’ by The Times.