Luxury Travel and Your Carbon Footprint

There has been much talk recently of individual’s carbon footprint, that is, the level of carbon emissions emitted into the atmosphere as a direct result of our lifestyles.

Many of our everyday actions play a big part in increasing the level of emissions, from the type of light bulb we use, the number of TV’s we have, the cars we drive to the distance we travel each year.

At the forefront of the row has been the extreme level of CO2 emissions from commercial jet planes each year. So exactly how much is our Caribbean holiday costing the environment. A flight to St. Lucia from London Heathrow covers 13,538 kilometres and will produce around 1.5 tonnes of CO2 per person.

It has been estimated by the Carbon Neutral Company that a return flight from London to Bangkok emits 2.1 tons of CO2 per passenger [source] and when you look at the number of passengers on a Boeing 747 [typically 416] this amounts to a total emission of 873.6 tonnes of CO2 on a single flight.

So what can we do to offset the CO2 emissions our lifestyles and yearly holidays are creating? In terms of lifestyle, there are many things we can do, from changing the way in which we drive our cars to turning our television sets off of stand-by when not in use.
In terms of offsetting the emissions caused by our long haul holidays, there are many initiatives in places. The Carbon Neutral Company has produced a carbon calculator with which you can specify your flight route. This then produces results based on the distance travelled and gives you an idea of the level of emissions per person this flight would produce. To make this flight carbon neutral, you are then given the opportunity to purchase a package which funds certain projects set up to produce new technologies that would save the CO2 equivalent to your flight.

This is of course good, but how many trees will you have to plant to offset the monumental levels of CO2 produced in a single commercial flight and how soon will you see the kind of results that will truly offset the kind of emissions that are currently being produced?