Whole Travel Blog

Horses love the outdoors, so why not give them sustainable homes? That’s exactly what Blackburn Architects, a full-service architectural planning and design firm based in San Francisco and Washington DC, is doing. Their Greenbarns use passive lighting and ventilation, specify low-VOC materials for construction, and even offer additional solar panels and rainwater harvesting to take them almost competely off the grid.

Greenbarns - Let Your Horse Be Green

While the US Green Building Council (USGBC) does not yet have LEED certification for agricultural buildings, simply putting solar panels on the roofs of these barns could have a significant impact on the environmental footprint of ranches and farms around the world. A single barn roof of solar panels can often power an entire farm in the Midwest, and most farms have 2-3 barns.

Eat Green, Live Green?

If you’re in Long Beach, California, check out the M/V Auriga Leader. It’s docked at the Port of Long Beach and hosts an amazing 328 solar panels that provide up to 10% of the ship’s power.

Auriga Leader: powered by the sun

The ship is part of a demonstration by Toyota and Japan’s NYK Line, and it directs solar power into the ship’s main electrical grid, helping to power the thrusters, hydraulics and steering, and provide 10% of the ship’s electricity. While 10% may seem nominal, supertankers can require enough energy to power 5,500 homes while at port, so even small percentage improvements are huge savings for the earth.

Thursday, Continental Airlines announced the results of its January 7 biofuel demonstration flight. Not only was the flight successful, the biofuel showed approximately 1.1% greater fuel efficiency over traditional jet fuel. So, not only was the fuel made from renewable sources, it actually beat traditional fuel outright. This type of fuel is estimated to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 60-80% as well.

Flying the greener skies

“We look forward to working with our partners as biofuels go through the certification process, and we hope to see these fuels proceed into commercial quantities in the near future,” said Leah Raney, Continental’s managing director of global environmental affairs. Hopefully it’s not long until we see all jet fuel from sustainable sources.

The United States House of Representatives Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection held a hearing titled “It’s Too Easy Being Green: Defining Fair Green Marketing Practices” yesterday. Subcommittee leaders suggested that rules and enforcement practices be put in place over the next few years for green marketing initiatives. This is great news for all consumers, because it will be the government’s first attempt to curb greenwashing and hold companies accountable for their actual environmental and socioeconomic performance when they want to call themselves green.

Is this green?

In his opening remarks, the subcommittee chairman, Bobby Rush, expressed his interest in “…taking up the truthfulness of ‘green’ advertiser claims, consumer perception of ‘green’ claims and the respective roles the Federal Trade Commission and privately run certification and labeling programs in regulating and validating these proliferating claims.” We think this is a great idea, as there are so many certification programs in travel alone it’s difficult to navigate all the information. Whole Travel is looking forward to being part of the solution. Send us your comments and we’ll be sure to pass them along: sustainability@wholetravel.com.

Each year, from May through October, you’re bound to find a few brave souls heading out to India for some spectacular trekking. Darjeeling is a region in the far east of India with amazing natural beauty. At an altitude of 8,500 m (28,000 ft), the Darjeelings are the highest mountains in India. Buddhist monasteries and tea plantations dot the landscape as you hike through dense alpine trees, beautiful orchids, natural lakes, and remote trails. A day’s hike up Tiger Hill provides a panoramic view of Mt Everest.

Sunrise at Tiger Hill, Darjeeling

If you’re looking for a softer adventure, you can visit the Kalmatia Sangam Himalaya Resort, a year-round tourism destination that offers low-altitude trekking in the winter and higher-level excursions during the spring, summer and autumn months.

Telefonica, the largest company in Spain, is constructing a 12-building complex to bring 40,000 employees to one main campus in Madrid. The buildings are using a special type of glass to reflect the hot Spanish sun, and panels stick out from the building to act as sun visors. Each of the buildings is to be connected by a covered walkway that will be the world’s largest rooftop photovoltaic installation with 15,000 solar panels capable of producing 4 million kWh annually. Landscaping will be native vegetation which requires minimal water, and that amount of water will be provided by rooftop rainwater collectors.

Distrito C - Telefonica's New Madrid Headquarters

The City of San Francisco launched a revolutionary online mapping project last week, Urban EcoMap. The site tracks the amount of carbon emissions by zip code, and even breaks down the information to the source of the greenhouse gases: transportation, energy use or waste. It was announced by Mayor Gavin Newsom on Earth Day, and it’s finally up and running. We’re excited by the many tools this site has to empower you to evaluate and reduce your carbon footprint.

Which San Francisco neighborhood is greenest?

The overall goal of this project is to reveal San Francisco residents’ bad habits and lower the City’s emissions back to 20% below their 1990 levels (as per the Kyoto Protocol). If this takes off, it could provide a great case study for local action providing a global impact. We’re keeping our fingers crossed.

On Monday, Richard Daley, mayor of Chicago, spoke to an audience in New York and said he aims to make Chigago the “most environmentally friendly city in the world.” Much of his plan involves “green roofs”, which usually entails putting plants and even a few trees on top of buildings. Aside from giving nearby skyscrapers a nice view, these roofs help keep the building cool and filter stormwater.

Green Roof

The biggest hurdle for green roofs to overcome is their cost. New York City’s sustainability office found that street trees are more effective than green roofs. Over time, many groups hope to be able to offset the cost by adding bee hives and other sustainable aspects to green roofs, making them more economically viable and broadening their positive impact on urban life. You can read more about Chicago’s campaign for sustainability here.

I spend a ton of time driving to and from climbing spots, and flying to and from climbing spots. There are a few simple practices that I have adopted in my travels to help my traveling become a bit greener.

1. Keep my own coffee mug in the car. That way when I stop at Starbucks to get coffee, they can use my mug, and not use their paper cups.

2. Use Google Maps on my cell phone. Almost every cell phone has the ability to either download a Google Maps app or connect to Google Maps. Use your phone to get Google Maps directions to your destination rather that printing out all the directions and maps. It saves a ton of paper!

3. Bring an empty reusable water bottle to the airport. You can’t bring water through security, but you can bring an empty bottle! That way when you get into the terminal, you can fill your bottle up at the water fountain and save having to buy and use a plastic bottle of water at one of the airport stores!

Nothing fancy about it, but every little bit counts!

Happy Adventuring!

Brandon Hensinger

Ascent Adventure Consultants- Bringing Adventure to Life