5 Tips for Eco-Friendly Wedding Travel
Ecotourism is on the rise and we couldn’t be more thrilled to see continued progress in this direction. According to Skift.com, 90% of people looking to travel are concerned with their eco footprint and about 70% choose their destinations based on sustainability. Although we can’t exactly choose where our clients, friends, and family decide to get married, we can make the choice to travel more sustainably.
These days there are quite a few modes of travel to get you from home to a wedding and back, but what kind of carbon emissions and eco-impact will our travel have? Fortunately, we have the ability to estimate our carbon footprint through the use of apps and websites that allow us to input variables to determine the most sustainable methods. Science.howstuffworks.com notes, According to the EPA, “The key to reducing harmful emissions is a threefold approach: using lower carbon fuels, improving vehicle technology and simply traveling fewer miles.”
We’re here to talk about a few different ways we can travel sustainably to weddings this year, as well as a few bonus considerations to make your whole trip more eco-conscious.
1. Fly Smarter and Offset Your Emissions
One of the first methods of travel that comes to mind when people talk about traveling to weddings is air travel. Flying is a safe and reliable way to quickly travel long distances from Point A to Point B. However, 2% of global carbon emissions come directly from aviation, so it’s important to consider the eco-impact of each trip. (Insider.com)
Google Flights recently rolled out an amazing new feature to help track and compare sustainability of flights. Now you can estimate your carbon emissions and either find the most direct, planet-friendly flights and/or choose to purchase carbon offsets to fund the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (GGE) in a variety of ways. Carbon offset packages often include reforestation efforts like tree planting, carbon management, and environmental clean up projects to name a few. Check out Google Flights to learn more about reducing carbon emissions en route to your next wedding.
If you’re interested in purchasing additional carbon offsets to give back to the environment in a meaningful way, discover Pachama. This incredible company allows individuals to offset their carbon emissions by funding reforestation projects of their choosing. We’re also big fans of Terrapass since they make it really easy to offset your carbon usage whether you’re flying or driving to your destination. Their website also features a Carbon Calculator so you can more accurately determine how much carbon to offset.
2. Go As A Group
For many weddings, it might make more sense to hit the road than take to the skies. Keep in mind that the average light-duty vehicle built in 2021 or later emits around 348 grams of carbon per mile. While this is down almost 50% from vehicles built pre-1975, vehicles still have a long way to go in terms of truly being classified as eco-friendly. However, there are quite a few resources within this category that make sense and still help to reduce our travel footprint. (Energy.gov).
We all love a local wedding, when many of the guests are friends, family, neighbors, and colleagues, who all live nearby. In these scenarios, encourage clients and their guests to organize a group and carpool. Not only does carpooling make more sense from an environmental standpoint, it also eliminates the need for most guests to worry about getting home safely, since there will be a Designated Driver. Not to mention, this decreases the stress surrounding navigation, parking, and parking-related fees. Carpooling is a both fun way to travel, and easy way to save money, and the planet.
Speaking of Rideshares, we also love that Uber and Lyft both now offer Shared Rides for travelers. UberXShare allows passengers the option to save up to 20% on their ride while also being more climate-friendly. Typically, Uber estimates that opting to share your ride adds an average of 8 minutes to your trip, so plan a little time buffer, and you’ll remain worry-free! Arrive safely, eliminate the worries of navigation and parking entirely, and feel great about reducing your carbon emissions. Additionally, UberGreen offers riders the option to travel in a more eco-friendly manner in either a hybrid or fully electric vehicle. Learn more about UberGreen here.
Lyft also offers Shared Rides (up to 2 passengers, unless you choose Lyft XL rides) at a discounted rate that comes along with reduced emissions you can feel great about supporting. Check their sites for pricing and estimated wait times to your destination.
If you live in or around the Nashville, Tennessee area, you may want to consider Drover Rideshare, another alternative to other rideshare options. Drover’s vehicle fleet includes many electric and hybrid vehicles, and they also have features such as DroverCrowd and Drover GreenGiant to accompany more passengers and ensure your ride has an even lighter eco-impact. We also dig that they don’t engage in surge fare pricing during busier times and they allow passengers to choose to ride in electric vehicles to minimize their impact on the planet.
3. Organize a Guest Shuttle Bus
Perhaps your clients would like to offer guests the ability to share a ride to the wedding with a larger group of friends or family. If so, shuttle buses can be a great way to arrive safely and in style. Everyone will save money as well as reduce carbon emissions, plus no guests will have to worry about driving post-wedding. Canadian Craft Charters offers Vancouver Wedding Shuttle Service at a price couples can afford, plus the ride to and from the wedding destination will be so much more fun. Rates start at $39, vehicles can accompany up to 14 guests, and are equipped with seatbelts for all guests, unlike traditional limousines.
In the Portland, Oregon area, ecoShuttle gives wedding-goers yet another option to arrive sustainably in a group. ecoShuttle primarily uses Renewable Diesel, a mixture of animal fats, vegetable oils, and greases to fuel their buses. They also have a zero idle policy, which helps to cut down on carbon emissions during each ride. We love that they offer different sized vehicles based on the size of your group. They offer 25 passenger mini buses, as well as shuttles that can accommodate 56 passengers.
4. The Mode Less Traveled
If clients and guests prefer to employ an alternative to driving or flying, a train or ferry might be an option, and often make for a fun and more scenic route to take. BC Ferries offers routes to over 30 different destinations and couples will feel great about opting for a more sustainable method of transportation on their way to their wedding. BC Ferries uses six hybrid battery-electric Island Class ferries to make traveling between destinations both a beautiful and eco-friendly experience. More recently, they’ve been conducting trials to test out biofuel and renewable diesel for their fleet, which has collectively saved over 13,000 tons of GGE between 2021 and 2022. Their goal is to reduce their emissions by 27% in the next 7 years. Peep their routes, rates, and sustainability in the link above.
5. In Addition to the Journey, Think about the Destination with Eco-Friendly Stays
When considering more sustainable travel, accommodations are as important as transportation. If you’re travelling further afield, and to somewhere new, this is a great opportunity to maximise those travel miles (and dollars!) and make a longer vacation out of a wedding trip!
Google Flights also offers an Eco-Certified option when filtering for hotels in your destination location. Google’s Eco-Certification involves passing a four-point audit by a third-party certified sustainability expert to ensure that the hotel prioritizes conservation of energy, water, waste, and sources their products sustainably. Travelers can learn more at Google Flights.
Another great resource for ensuring your travel is as eco-friendly as possible is Staze. We love supporting their net zero mission, as they donate their profits to offset carbon, so you can rest assured you’re helping the planet with each stay you choose. Travelers can also enter their monthly drawing to win free hotel stays and the greener your hotel choices, the greater your chances of winning!
There are so many ways to travel more sustainably and we’re always on the lookout for new means of tracking and reducing our carbon footprint. It’s exciting to think of the positive impact we can have by planning a bit more in advance, thoroughly researching our options, and being more eco-conscious wedding planners, guests, and travelers.
What are your favourite methods of eco-friendly travel? Have some sustainable tourist tips of your own to share? Let us know in the comments below.