Business Travel

» danflorio - Share your eco tips here

I've started a series of blogs and articles on how the business traveler can try to be ecologically aware. This is a issue ALL persons, not just those in the business community, should think about.

Let's share how we, as responsible travelers, can help make less environmental impacts on the road.

I'll start with one that's hard to deal with - recycling. I really don't like carrying garbage around when traveling. But I don't like throwing recyclables away.

At least most airports have recycle bins but in general this one is a real toughy. What do you do?

-- posted by danflorio

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» danflorio - Share your eco tips here

In response to Share your eco tips here posted by danflorio:

Just saw that Delta is advertising they recycle their beverage cans for flights. I mention this in my Busines Travel blog about Delta's free commuter hop booze policy.

At least they are recycling! I bet all planes have to deal with hundreds of cans daily, between the sodas, mixers, juices and beers people drink. I'm in a hotel room right now and am having a tough time trying to recycle.

-- posted by danflorio

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» Michelle Snow - Share your eco tips here

In response to Share your eco tips here posted by danflorio:

Most hotels I've stayed in have some kind of recycle program. Since most hotels have a trash can in the bed area and one in the bath, I usually leave them separated in 1 can with a note that says "recycle these if possible, please" and then use the other can for everything else.

But there's only so much you can do without businesses providing the proper tools. And you're right, I don't want to carry my garbage around with me. I mean, I'll do it so I don't have to litter, but first trash can I see, it's history. I know some other nations (Europe and such) are a little more forward-thinking on the recycling topic and you'll find more opportunities to do so while on the road traveling.

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» Kelby Carr - Share your eco tips here

In response to Share your eco tips here posted by danflorio:

You can't lug trash around, but I do try to reuse things... like bottles of shampoo I bring, or water bottles.

Also, most hotels now have a sign or note that states you can reuse towels by hanging them on the rack. That way, it's a signal for them not to wash them.

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» desertblue - Use green body care

I'd like to add that tucking eco-friendly body care toiletries into your travel kit are a good and easy way to do something good for the planet.

I went in and indexed this section's Lush articles here but would love to see people's opinions on other company products too, like the Body Shop, Burt's Bees, etc.

How do these products 1. work for you/kids/dogs/granny and 2. how well do they travel? Also, 3. is the packaging recycleable or overpackaged?

-- posted by desertblue

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» desertblue - sheets and towels

In response to Share your eco tips here posted by kelbycarr:

Yeah, like Kelby said above, I have noticed that hotels are now giving people a choice on clean linens. I don't find a need a new sheet every day - I don't change sheets that often at home! Why waste the water and energy? Same for towels. I'm pretty clean after my shower anyway, it's not like I am making my bath towel filthy...

-- posted by desertblue

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» stephen_cataldo - Green Meeting Industry Council, green hotels, rideshares, roomsh

I got back from the Green Meeting Industry Council a few weeks ago... They have a forum at http://www.greenmeetings.info/forum/ though it's oriented towards planners. The conference was held at the Portland Double Tree. They had a towel reuse program, and refillable shampoo bottles attached to the shower wall, plus great public transit.

The three big environmental impacts are likely to be travel, room and food.

* It's hard to do much other than carbon-offset flights, for everything else, share... SpaceShare [disclosure: my project] http://www.spaceshare.com sets up both carpooling and taxi-sharing for conferences, though you have to ask the organizers. Another trick for conferences is to carry recognizeable/colorful conference materials as you pick up your luggage hoping to share a taxi - use the travel time to network and you wind up being green, and vice-versa... compare the events you show up alone to those where you merely share a 15 minute taxi ride to see how deep your connections are.

+ At the hotel I saw people waiting around for taxis when public transportation wsa door-to-door and very fast on Portland's lightrail.

+ Green car rental companies are starting to pop up. A great thing to do is simply to ask for the most fuel-efficient car they have -- it doesn't take too many comments to get companies to change.

* Rooms: sharing a room of course makes a big difference. I listen to feedback from our roomshare program at SpaceShare: from comments you're about 10 times more likely to make a friend/contact/client than to have an annoying time such as with someone who snores. Staying as close as possible to the conference is likely to be worthwhile both for your time and for being green.

+ Again, ASKING makes a huge difference, encourage/thank every hotel about greening.

+ The Green Hotels Association has a nice basic guide for green travel, from "Don't throw anyting out your car window!" to some nice detailed ideas I hadn't thought of before: http://www.greenhotels.com/grntrav.htm

* Food. The more of organic, local, vegetarian, and a green establishment (recycle, compost, local) the better. Local- like sharing a hotel room, trying out random restaurants instead of chains may occassionally get you a not-so-great meal, but on average life will be more interesting and probably better. For vegetarian restaurants (low-on-the-foodchain generally uses much less resources, but also those restaurants are often green in other ways) I use http://www.happycow.org

+ I haven't yet found good green restaurant guides; google will get you some, in San Francisco hundreds have made good changes without advertising.

-- posted by stephen_cataldo

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