Green Travel

The ecological footprint is something almost everybody knows. Especially on long car drives or flights the feeling, that this ecological footprint is growing with every kilometre, is very strong. And quite rightly: a flight form Zurich to Cyprus for example produces one tonne of CO2. But even though this is bad, nobody wants to miss a vacation and most destination can only be reached by airplane or a long car drive.

The pleasure of traveling without the hassle of pollution

But there is a way to fight the guilty conscience against the environment: compensation payment. When you hear it for the first time, it might sound a little bit weird to you but actually it really does make sense. The way it works is really simple and logic: Users can calculate each flight or car drive with the correct distance and effect on the environment on a website. Then they can see what it costs to compensate for their emissions and have the chance to choose from different projects to support climate protection with their payments.

Where to compensate?

There is a variety of different companies, who offer compensations payment. One of them is called myclimate. The Swiss Non-Profit Organisation counts large, medium and small businesses, non-profit organisations and private individuals to it’s clients. Through its partner organisations myclimate is represented in nine countries: Germany, Austria, Sweden, Norway, Luxembourg, Greece, the United Arab Emirates, Japan, Turkey.

On other company with a meaningful name and very good intentions is called atmosfair. The organisation cooperates with the travel industry worldwide to make the climate protections stronger. To the organisation’s brand ambassadors count German bands like „Die toten Hosen“ or „Die Ärzte“.

Make it up to the environment every day!

Not only traveling is a field where compensation payment becomes popular. Some platforms offer compensation payments for almost everything: living, shopping, events, ect… Because CO2 emission is not only an issue when it comes to traveling. The production and use of a computer, for example, produces 800kg CO2.

So there is a way to moral purchase the bad conscience, how critics call it, for all kind of things. Maybe the critics are right and it’s an easy way to feel like a better person. But in the end of the day it’s better to buy a good feeling and also give something back to the environment, then to do nothing to make it up to the environment and the future generations.