… going somewhere?

1

26 February, 2009 by Beth

We know that how we get around affects the environment but how much is often a hazy topic…

To get you started on finding out more about this and how you can make your travel arrangements more environmentally friendly, I’ve found a few websites and figures which should make things more clear.

The following data is taken from cambridgecarbonfootprint.org which also has some helpful tips about calculating your travel carbon footprint and practical tips about changing your travel habits.

Mode 1.	Grams CO2 per mile	Grams CO2 per kilometre
Walking/Cycling	2.
Long-distance bus	80	50
Rail	100	62.5
Local bus/underground	170	106
Small car (under 1.4 litres)	280	175
Medium car	360	225
Large car	430	270
Air Flights 3.
	Return Flight to	Tonnes of CO2
	W. Europe	0.7 tonnes
	East coast USA	4.2 tonnes
	W. Coast USA	5.7 tonnes
	East Asia	6.4 tonnes
	Australia	11.0 tonnes

1.The train, coach and bus figures are for average occupancy; the car figures for single occupancy.
2. Small amounts of CO2 used in making shoes, bicycle, waterproof gear etc
3. It’s not possible to give a figure per mile because of the differing amounts of fuel used in take-off and in cruising. The examples given below are from the Carbon Gym and take into account the greater effect of CO2 emissions at high level.

There are lots of other estimates available (these ones made the most sense to me but that may not be the case for you) and a lot of the other sites contain lots of helpful advice. You can also find out the values for boats if you’re interested enough to search the web (I assumed the vast majority wouldn’t be) and the exact values for your car make and model at eta.com and for a specific flight at atmosfair.de.

In the UK the local bus services are acceptable and usually a plausible option, especially if you live in a town or city. National bus services are a good alternative to trains (and are often cheaper especailly if you’re booking late), check out the National Express and MegaBus services to find your nearest stop. And the trains are cheap when you book in advance (often cheaper and less hassle than driving the same distance), if you don’t believe me try thetrainline.com!

Another thing to consider when travelling to Europe is the EuroStar. It’s not as expensive as it may be made out to be (find tickets at thetrainline.com) and, as you can see from above, the benefits to the environment are a price worth paying for.