The Best Companies Are Consistently & Quietly Green
Written on February 4, 2009
An article on CNN Travel titled ‘The Fall of Green Travel‘ recently caught my eyes as I scanned through my Twitter news stream (thanks to @TravelBison for sharing). The story talks about ‘greenwashing’ – when a company that only recently lept onto the eco-bandwagon simultaneously begins advertising their green credentials in order to add clout to their marketing campaigns and satisfy the current trend.
‘Don’t allow a travel company to cash in on your conscience’ it says in reference to the practice of asking airline passengers to voluntarily pay a surcharge on top of their ticket price to offset the carbon emissions of their journey. ‘Travel companies should be offsetting their own carbon, not guilting you into paying yet another surcharge for it.’ This is the view we’ve taken on the topic for a while now. Our extended period of travel last year taught us exactly how it feels to be faced with this option when trying to travel on a budget with the environment in mind – read ‘Cost vs The Environment‘.
“No one is saying that being environmentally responsible is irrelevant when you travel. On the contrary, it’s that being green is so important that it shouldn’t become another marketing gimmick. It should be a part of what you do every day — part of every travel company’s DNA.”
3 tips offered for seeking out truly concerned companies
- Ask why they’re ‘green’ in the first place.
“Royal Caribbean, which has a fairly aggressive environmental program called ‘Save the Waves’ probably wouldn’t have taken such actions if it weren’t for a five-year investigation that led to the company pleading guilty in federal court to dumping thousands of gallons of oily bilge, dry-cleaning fluids and photo-developing chemicals into the ocean.”
- Pay attention to what they don’t say.
- Look at a company’s entire environmental record.
An example of a consistently & quietly green UK company
Alastair Sawday’s guidebooks are familiar to many of us but the fact that the environment has been a lifelong passion in all of Alastair Sawday’s work may not be quiet so well known. He stood for Parliament with the Green Party in 1992, was vice chairman for the Soil Association and in 2006 Alastair Sawday Publishing was awarded a Queen’s Award for Sustainable Development. Alastair Sawday’s convictions are manifest today in the way their books are produced, and the way the office is run. One of their company cars runs on recycled chip fat and they built their own award-winning eco-offices.
Toby Sawday is part of the next generation of Sawdays and is similarly committed to all that the family brand has grown to represent. He recently featured in BBC2 ‘It’s Not Easy Being Green’ (Series 3 Episode 3 @7.25 mins) doing his best to demonstrate that long distance train travel can indeed be a good alternative to flying.
The Alastair Sawday Ethical Collection is made up of accommodation owners who have worked hard to make sure their business has a positive impact on the environment, the community and has an appreciation of local, organic food. Alastair Sawday’s is a great example of a consistently and quietly green British company.
You Are Here: Home » Books, Environment, Featured, Projects » The Best Companies Are Consistently & Quietly Green
A combination of editor writings and carefully curated articles from around the web. Make Travel Fair was established in 2006 and has received multiple awards for its thoughtful approach towards travel and the way we experience the world... More
The Best Companies Are Consistently & Quietly Green
An article on CNN Travel titled ‘The Fall of Green Travel‘ recently caught my eyes as I scanned through my Twitter news stream (thanks to @TravelBison for sharing). The story talks about ‘greenwashing’ – when a company that only recently lept onto the eco-bandwagon simultaneously begins advertising their green credentials in order to add clout to their marketing campaigns and satisfy the current trend.
‘Don’t allow a travel company to cash in on your conscience’ it says in reference to the practice of asking airline passengers to voluntarily pay a surcharge on top of their ticket price to offset the carbon emissions of their journey. ‘Travel companies should be offsetting their own carbon, not guilting you into paying yet another surcharge for it.’ This is the view we’ve taken on the topic for a while now. Our extended period of travel last year taught us exactly how it feels to be faced with this option when trying to travel on a budget with the environment in mind – read ‘Cost vs The Environment‘.
3 tips offered for seeking out truly concerned companies
An example of a consistently & quietly green UK company
Alastair Sawday’s guidebooks are familiar to many of us but the fact that the environment has been a lifelong passion in all of Alastair Sawday’s work may not be quiet so well known. He stood for Parliament with the Green Party in 1992, was vice chairman for the Soil Association and in 2006 Alastair Sawday Publishing was awarded a Queen’s Award for Sustainable Development. Alastair Sawday’s convictions are manifest today in the way their books are produced, and the way the office is run. One of their company cars runs on recycled chip fat and they built their own award-winning eco-offices.
Toby Sawday is part of the next generation of Sawdays and is similarly committed to all that the family brand has grown to represent. He recently featured in BBC2 ‘It’s Not Easy Being Green’ (Series 3 Episode 3 @7.25 mins) doing his best to demonstrate that long distance train travel can indeed be a good alternative to flying.
The Alastair Sawday Ethical Collection is made up of accommodation owners who have worked hard to make sure their business has a positive impact on the environment, the community and has an appreciation of local, organic food. Alastair Sawday’s is a great example of a consistently and quietly green British company.
Copyright © 2012 Make Travel Fair UK