A number of you were discussing travel sustainability on our BCorp Announcement, and to keep things on topic, we’ve set up this discussion post for you so that you can share your thoughts, tips, and feedback in a dedicated place.
How do you incorporate sustainability into your travel plans, with or without pets? Whether it’s eco-friendly products, reducing waste, or choosing greener options for transport and lodging, share your thoughts in this thread!
To start with, pet ownership itself has an environmental impact. An Ecosia (search engine where each search helps fund the planting of trees) search for environmental impact of pets will bring up so many articles about this. However, we all know the emotional benefits of pets and we each make our own decisions to balance this.
As mentioned in another thread, I am beginning to wonder about factoring the HO choice of travel (mode, destination and duration) into my decisions on which sits to take, in order to avoid being party to facilitating a travel based environmental impact. I am torn though - I have flown a lot in the past and know how enriching I’ve found exploring other cultures to be, and I wouldn’t want to deny others this experience. Maybe I’m making up for damage done. Also, when looking at the carbon footprint of different forms of travel (Ecosia is your friend!), as a solo traveller sometimes driving is worse than flying - the figures are surprising.
For folks who have a significant travel footprint and are concerned about that, it might be worth buying carbon credits, also known as carbon offset credits.
Companies also can buy them. For instance, if THS genuinely wants to work on the environmental front, it could do that. It seems disingenuous to say that THS is environmentally friendly. It actually helps create net additional travel.
Unacceptable! This post has had 74 views so far and only 2 replied. I think that speaks volumes! I think some, like us, thought this post was simply created to help ‘justify’ the BCorp announcement on THS’s behalf, that most of us on the forum seemed to think was not deserving for a business who actively promotes jet setting all over the world to ALL of it’s CUSTOMERS on it’s main platform, and in its marketing.
I also think it is a terrible timing to post something like this. Given the response and amazement by others to the other post.
The reason I started this post was because a number of people started discussing sustainable travel in more detail, and it would have derailed the BCorp announcement post.
I didn’t want to stop anyone from talking about sustainable travel, so the better option was to give everyone a place to discuss it, as it wouldn’t be fair to stop people talking about it.
BCorp is about much more than sustainable travel, and I’m passing everyone’s feedback from that discussion over to the team.
That’s interesting; I mainly see posts and discussions about border control and cancellations in here, but both are, of course, in theory relevant to sustainability…
After all, there’s no environmental impact in the given place or country if you’re denied entry at the border or if you’ve been stood up two days before your flight departs.
In general, one’s carbon/environmental footprint is approximately proportional to how much money one spends. So there petsitting is environmentally friendly because it offers the sitter an affordable way of travel. Also no new hotels need to be built, there is much less laundry, and less food gets wasted.
Petsitting often involves longer stays, and that is then often compatible with slower modes of travel.
It may entice people to retire a bit earlier. Then they stop producing things, which also reduces their environmental footprint.
The sharing economy is a way to adapt to degrowth. Instead of consumtion and items, one’s wealth is time and relations and trust.
Most carbon footprint related to travel is created by transportation. That’s because normally, even if we stayed home, we’d be consuming daily.
With THS, people are taking more trips than they would otherwise, because the cost of shelter is lowered. And they still have to use some form of transport that’s additional.
That’s true for couch surfing and other sharing platforms as well. And full-time nomading is probably the biggest footprint travel wise.
On the topic of sustainable travel, I would like to point you to the TH Book Club selection from this past August, The Housesitter’s Guide to the Galaxy: A Guide to Housesitting and Achieving Sustainable, Eco-Friendly Travel, by Jessica Holmes. Conscientious travel is the theme of the book! It’s full of useful information. Jess has provided resources, tips and suggestions for traveling responsibly. If you care about this topic, the book is definitely worth checking out.
Just the usual, I’m afraid : No plastics or non-reuseables (carry my own bags, utensils, cups, plates, etc.), carry my own products (minimal) so that I don’t have to purchase or open HO’s, absolute minimal on carry-out food due to abhorrent watse created, walk or public transport as much as possible.
Plus, I operate from a “want vs. need” perspective. Minimise the “wants” which is easily done after the novelty wears off.
TBH this is pretty much how I live at home. So, except for the awful environmental impact of travelling itself (admittedly one of the “wants” though I can justify it as a “need” !) I travel no differently than I live.
Perhaps THS could incentivize both Pet Parents and House Sitters to use public transportation through membership benefits. For example, membership could include a discount off annual UK train railcards (or equivalent in other countries).
I know that there is at least one former member who cycled to their sits (@pietkuip) which is definitely travelling sustainably (although not a practical option for all members)
There are many other sitters who solely use public transport ( train, coach bus etc ) to travel within a country to a sit . Although they may have taken a flight to arrive in the country.
In our case, by far the majority of the sits that we have chosen to do have been in rural locations and not accessible by public transport , so a car was necessary.
There again there are hosts on the forum who have complained when sitters charged their electric vehicles at the home .
Thanks for sharing your thoughts so far - I’m passing your feedback over to the team - there’s been some really interesting points and suggestions made.
Could THS do some blog articles about sustainable sitting? Jess Holmes
( @hitchedandhiking I think?) would be a great sitter to interview, and @pietkuip coukd tell you about his housesitting tour of England using his recumbent bike.
A very helpful platform to help decide which products and services to buy is Ethical Consumer - there are some surprises there, including turning over some of the recommendations in Jess’s book, which demonstrates that this arena is constantly changing.
Ich stimme Ihnen absolut zu, @pietkuip und finde den Aspekt des Zeitwohlstandes im Kontext der Sharing Economy sehr interessant.
TrustedHousesitters - Mitglieder haben oftmals ein bestimmtes Mindset. Eines, welches auf dem Reichtum eines Menschen aus Zeit, Beziehungen und Vertrauen basiert, wie Sie @pietkuip treffend geschrieben haben.
I absolutely agree with you, @pietkuip and find the aspect of time wealth in the context of the sharing economy very interesting.
TrustedHousesitters - Members often have a certain mindset. One that is based on a person’s wealth of time, relationships and trust, as you aptly wrote @pietkuip.
TH Book Club selection from this past August, The Housesitter’s Guide to the Galaxy: A Guide to Housesitting and Achieving Sustainable, Eco-Friendly Travel, by Jessica Holmes. Conscientious travel is the theme of the book! It’s full of useful information. Jess has provided resources, tips and suggestions for traveling responsibly. If you care about this topic, the book is definitely worth checking out.
I’ll speak to the team!