In case you didn’t know, Jack and Ferdi takes great pride in not only preserving the mental and physical wellbeing of business travelers, we care greatly about preserving the environment with every trip they take. By supporting and promoting initiatives like COP26 and The Sustainable Development Goals (aka Global Goals), we’re making a positive impact.
When it comes to sustainable travel goals, we’ve joined the United Nations Member States in a universal call to action to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all. Jack and Ferdi is proud to make an impact on four of their specific goals:
- Good Health & Well-Being: by improving the health and wellbeing of remote workers.
- Quality Education: by providing resources for travelers to learn about communities and develop cultural awareness.
- Decent Work and Economic Growth: through our support of local businesses and communities.
- Sustainable Cities and Communities: through our promotion of sustainable travel.
Business Travelers Preserving the Environment
So where do you stand when it comes to sustainable travel? If you think it's important, you’re far from alone. A recent study showed that 83% of travelers believe that sustainable travel is important worldwide.
Choosing flights based on emissions vs time and cost is a big way traveling workers are making eco-friendly decisions. Consider selecting a CO2 friendly fair, many booking sites now show you which travel option is most efficient, environmentally. And some airlines like Delta and Air France have strong green initiatives resulting in cleaner travel for their patrons.
Many of these eco-friendly airlines allow you to support their initiatives. Donating frequent flyer miles to environment preservation organizations is another way remote workers are making a difference. While reducing emissions is thinking big, consider smaller choices as well.
- Skip printing your boarding pass
- Maintain digital receipts instead of printing
- House your itinerary on a phone or in an app
- Hanging your towels for reuse at a hotel to save water
And when you’re not in the air and are working from hotel, take advantage of the opportunity to reduce plastic. By purchasing less processed food at your travel destination, you reduce the amount of plastic you dispose of when compared to buying processed foods or buying food to eat on the go where it's hard to avoid disposable cups and plastic cutlery.
How to Join the Sustainable Travel Movement
Small changes in our daily habits are great ways to reduce our carbon footprint and help preserve the environment. Whether it’s minimizing plastic use and waste or reducing emissions by flying less, we’ve compiled a few tips to get you on track to being an eco-minded traveler:
- Eliminate unnecessary business travel or consider combining 2 business travel opportunities into 1 — ever consider combining a business trip with a vacation? Bleisure travel, the combination of business and leisure, allows you to work during the day and explore in the evening. Or dedicate the first part of your trip to work while tagging on a vacation to the end. Vacationing where your work travels take you will lead to skipping an entire round of flights when compared to flying home and heading to a new destination. Also consider how necessary your work travel is. Can multiple in-person meetings be reduced to one annual event? If you travel several times per year, consider combining trips for destinations that are near each other to reduce the number of flights you book. You can also look into swapping short flights for train rides. And when driving, always carpool when you’re able.
- Reducing your carbon footprint can look like choosing the train, renting an electric car, walking to lunch, or biking where you can. The stats may surprise you. Traveling by the Eurostar train from London to Paris produces 91% less CO2 emissions per passenger when compared to flying. By the time you drive to an airport, park a car, and arrive hours ahead of your flight — consider comparing the length of your flight to a train ride. It may be greener and faster.
- Environmentalists are also limiting their red meat consumption — this is both a heart-healthy and environmentally friendly decision. Forests are often destroyed to create pastures for cattle ranches, causing loss of trees and natural habitats for other wild animals. If more of the population adapted a plant-based diet, the amount of necessary farmland would be drastically reduced.
Seek Out Environmentally Conscious Merchants and Non-profits
Beyond your travel decisions, think about what you're supporting while on a trip. You will likely need to eat out, shop, or want to buy a souvenir. And as you learn about a new community and culture, consider contributing to a local non-profit that supports the environment. You can think of it as a small way to offset some of the harm our travels do to the environment.
In the Jack and Ferdi app, you’ll find a ‘Remember your trip’ section which regularly features eco-friendly merchants.
In the same fashion, we feature environment-conscious non-profits around the world in the ‘Help amazing charities’ section of our app. These organizations are set up to maximize each dollar they receive to accelerate their mission in preserving the environment. Here are a few examples:
- Blue Water Baltimore — Their mission is to restore the quality of Baltimore’s rivers, streams, and Harbor to foster a healthy environment and help their community thrive.
- Surfrider in Biarritz, France — This non-profit works to protect the ocean and marine life in their local beach town to keep the city beautiful and healthy for future generations.
