Summer is the time for celebrations. And celebrate we do! We enjoy barbecue with friends; family get together parties; graduation celebration; weddings and many more. Great people, food and drink, music and dancing makes the party.
In our everyday life we try to minimise the size of our eco-backpacks, take the bus, save electricity and go for the seasonal food. How about the special days, do we forget environmental conscious choices then? Or is it even necessary to think about the environment on those special occasions? They say it is much more important what you do in your everyday life since you don’t have a party each day. But if you are the host you have a great opportunity to affect the eco-backpack of the occasion.
Few simple rules make it easy to lighten the eco-backpack of the party. First of all, transport. If you have 20 guests and they all travel 100 kilometres back and forth it makes total 2000 passenger kilometres. If you can, choose the venue so that travelling of the quests is minimised. In addition to travelled kilometres, it is important that people can use the public transport. If not possible would it be worth to arrange bus transportation for instance?
Another important thing is food. Remember that the eco-backpack of one kilogram of beef is about 46 kg and one kilo of apples carries a backpack of only 2 kilograms. Go easy on the meat and cheese and enjoy the delicious and fresh veggies, fruits and berries of the season. There is no need to turn your feast totally vegetarian or vegan but pay attention to the meat and cheese vs. veggie ratio.
What about the gifts? If you feel you have everything you need, let people know about it. Guests can be asked to bring some food or drink instead. If it is more formal event maybe you can ask people to donate some money for a charity you appreciate. The real eco-geeks could say that best present for them is that people take the bike, bus, train or shared ride to come to the party.
If you are not the host but the guest, what can you do then? Always respect the choices and wishes of the host. If a gift list is awailable it is good idea to stick with that to avoid giving stuff not needed. When it comes to dining, maybe you can ask in advance if a vegetarian choice will be available on the menu? Probably the best thing you can do to lighten your eco-backpack is to go for public transport or ask someone to share a ride with you.
True eco-warriors can find numerous ways to make their celebrations even more green. However, taking into account the few points mentioned here you are already doing significant actions to lighten the eco-backpack of your party. Have fun!
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Thursday, June 25, 2009
The travel paradox
Travelling is my passion and this is something I spend time thinking especially during the holiday season. I cut down my energy use, stick mainly to vegetarian and vegan diet and use bicycle to move around but when it’s about travelling I take a cheap flight to head to a far away destination every now and then (and complain about the poor energy efficiency and recycling facilities at the destination...). I hear these stories a lot. One of my friends even said that she moves around either by bike or takes a flight. This is true for many of my peers in their twenties or thirties. Cheap flights allow us to travel huge distances fast and at low cost.
Travelling contributes to your social status. You know the stories about how someone travelled to a place where no other traveller has ever been to. After that you may think your wonderful three day trip to the neighbouring town is not worth mentioning about. But should it be this way?
Travel also adds to our environmental burden. One long haul return flight may generate more greenhouse gas emissions than an average person in some developing country generates in five years or so. But it is not only about long haul travel. If you spend several hours in your car every weekend to travel away from home you will notice that on your ecological backpack too.
Many of us are passionate about travelling, what can we do then to make it more of an experience and less an environmental problem? The oh so trendy slow movement has introduced the concept of slow travel. That is a loose bundle of thoughts about how to get involved with real pace of the society you are staying at. Spending time and getting to know more than the hot spots. Sounds good? While I have been trying to figure out how to combine the passion to travel and explore without adding too much weight on my eco-backpack I came to the following simple guidelines I try to stick with:
- For short breaks, from one day to few weeks, explore places where it is reasonable to travel by bike, train or bus.
- Since I’m probably not voluntarily willing to give up long haul travel, I’d at
least love to take more time once on the road and travel less often. I hope I have
learned the patience to arrange enough time for a long trip when I decide to make one.
This summer I’m going to spend all of my summer holiday it in Finland. It will be some hiking in Lapland and exploring Helsinki and surroundings. I look forward to it all! I’ll get back to you about my first Finnish holiday experience at the end of this summer.
Travelling contributes to your social status. You know the stories about how someone travelled to a place where no other traveller has ever been to. After that you may think your wonderful three day trip to the neighbouring town is not worth mentioning about. But should it be this way?
Travel also adds to our environmental burden. One long haul return flight may generate more greenhouse gas emissions than an average person in some developing country generates in five years or so. But it is not only about long haul travel. If you spend several hours in your car every weekend to travel away from home you will notice that on your ecological backpack too.
Many of us are passionate about travelling, what can we do then to make it more of an experience and less an environmental problem? The oh so trendy slow movement has introduced the concept of slow travel. That is a loose bundle of thoughts about how to get involved with real pace of the society you are staying at. Spending time and getting to know more than the hot spots. Sounds good? While I have been trying to figure out how to combine the passion to travel and explore without adding too much weight on my eco-backpack I came to the following simple guidelines I try to stick with:
- For short breaks, from one day to few weeks, explore places where it is reasonable to travel by bike, train or bus.
- Since I’m probably not voluntarily willing to give up long haul travel, I’d at
least love to take more time once on the road and travel less often. I hope I have
learned the patience to arrange enough time for a long trip when I decide to make one.
This summer I’m going to spend all of my summer holiday it in Finland. It will be some hiking in Lapland and exploring Helsinki and surroundings. I look forward to it all! I’ll get back to you about my first Finnish holiday experience at the end of this summer.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Future planning at team trip to Germany, Wuppertal
The onedidit.com ecological backpack test is based on calculations that use the material intensity data provided by i.e. the Wuppertal Institute in Germany. One did it team decided to travel to meet people in Wuppertal Institute and also UNEP/Wuppertal Institute Collaborating Centre on Sustainable Consumption and Production (CSCP).
The journey started from Helsinki-Vantaa airport at 5.30 am. in anticipating atmosphere, a few of us have slight fear of flying. We flew to Dusseldorf and took the train to Wuppertal straight to a meeting. The day was successful, One did it team got introduced and got more comprehensive view of Wuppertal Institute’s area of operation. We also discussed about the launch of the German version of the onedidit.com site by the summer 2009 and some other acts of collaborating.
The next day after refreshing night activities and delicious Turkish dinner, the team started a whole day internal workshop about next steps concerning the service itself. As the first version was launched at the end of the year 2008, we have already some great feedback from users. The near future plans are very clear, there will be eco-tips called Do’s for user to reduce their ecological backpack calculated with the test. This feature has been accepted by the Beta-version users and it has been developed further to provide better user experience. Among this launch there will be anticipated friend invite feature, a must function to compare and challenge friends to take the test to calculate their own eco-backpack.
One of the major outcomes of the workshop was to continue the planning of the Facebook application immediately. There has been an application launched with the Beta-version, but it never reached the actual users. The role of the applications generally in Facebook has changed decisively from the first version of One did it application, some changes to the approach have been made and the application should be in test among volunteer One did it Facebook group members during this spring.
It is also evident that the German version of the site will be launched right after the English release that includes the eco-tips and friend features. Time frame to that is April-June 2009. The workshop summarized a few more broad-minded plans for the second half of the year 2009 but the final path of future development depends much on user feedback that we hopefully get loads of.
On the last day there was a meeting with CSCP, which supports usage of creative tools in sustainability communication. Since the concept of One did it is both informational and entertaining there could be possibilities to work together to promote the theme of sustainability. This could be done i.e. with the means of photography or writing or some other user provided content on onedidit.com service.
The trip was a great way to get out of the office, sit together in the same table, have good conversation about the state of the service, make future decisions and meet people from collaborating instances while having a great time. Hope the near release reflects the productive times we had!
The journey started from Helsinki-Vantaa airport at 5.30 am. in anticipating atmosphere, a few of us have slight fear of flying. We flew to Dusseldorf and took the train to Wuppertal straight to a meeting. The day was successful, One did it team got introduced and got more comprehensive view of Wuppertal Institute’s area of operation. We also discussed about the launch of the German version of the onedidit.com site by the summer 2009 and some other acts of collaborating.
The next day after refreshing night activities and delicious Turkish dinner, the team started a whole day internal workshop about next steps concerning the service itself. As the first version was launched at the end of the year 2008, we have already some great feedback from users. The near future plans are very clear, there will be eco-tips called Do’s for user to reduce their ecological backpack calculated with the test. This feature has been accepted by the Beta-version users and it has been developed further to provide better user experience. Among this launch there will be anticipated friend invite feature, a must function to compare and challenge friends to take the test to calculate their own eco-backpack.
One of the major outcomes of the workshop was to continue the planning of the Facebook application immediately. There has been an application launched with the Beta-version, but it never reached the actual users. The role of the applications generally in Facebook has changed decisively from the first version of One did it application, some changes to the approach have been made and the application should be in test among volunteer One did it Facebook group members during this spring.
It is also evident that the German version of the site will be launched right after the English release that includes the eco-tips and friend features. Time frame to that is April-June 2009. The workshop summarized a few more broad-minded plans for the second half of the year 2009 but the final path of future development depends much on user feedback that we hopefully get loads of.
On the last day there was a meeting with CSCP, which supports usage of creative tools in sustainability communication. Since the concept of One did it is both informational and entertaining there could be possibilities to work together to promote the theme of sustainability. This could be done i.e. with the means of photography or writing or some other user provided content on onedidit.com service.
The trip was a great way to get out of the office, sit together in the same table, have good conversation about the state of the service, make future decisions and meet people from collaborating instances while having a great time. Hope the near release reflects the productive times we had!
Monday, October 27, 2008
Did it in Helsinki – experiences of a stay at home holiday
About two weeks ago I was attending an interesting seminar organised by the Finnish Environment Institute about the preliminary results of the ENVIMAT research project concentrating on environmental impacts of material flows in the Finnish economy. The program was interesting and I was feeling light since I knew that the next Monday I would start my one week autumn holiday. While focusing on the last presentation I got an SMS from my spouse. “My passport is still stuck at the embassy because of the visa application. Seems like we can’t travel anywhere next week”.
Last time we had holiday, we took a trip through parts of Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. I must admit that travelling is one of my passions and I take every chance to travel to faraway places. I’m not sure if that is anything to proud of these days, but still. Well, to get back to the point, this time we had planned to take a short trip from Helsinki to Tallinn. I was feeling good about our choice to this time only take a short boat trip over the Gulf of Finland, no long haul flights or extensive road trips needed. But after receiving the SMS I was disappointed, no travelling at all? What can you do with a stay at home holiday?
At the end of the week I was glad how things turned out. I had enjoyed a slow paced delicious breakfast at the Cafe Ekberg (I must admit that I couldn’t strictly stick to the vegan diet...), wandered around a park covered with yellow and red autumn leaves, walked along some narrow streets in Kaivopuisto with fancy embassy buildings next to the sidewalks. One evening, I was glad I didn’t have to feel guilty about having a Nepalese meal without being in Kathmandu. When travelling abroad I consider it almost a crime to skip the local dishes but since I was at home I could eat whatever I wanted! Another night I had a chance to listen one of my favourite artists Jukka Poika singing his stories about the down to earth life in reggae style. It’s not that often you can enjoy listening to him on the beaches of Thailand.
When travelling abroad I always spend some time shopping, now that I knew all the same shopping facilities are available when actually needed I chose do something else instead. It might sound naive but it is true that instead of shopping I spend some time in the library, museum, enjoying live music and helping a friend with her garden work. Last but not least I went to check the cows grazing on the fields of the agricultural department of the Helsinki University. I was laughing at myself since apparently I had to move to the capital city of Finland before I actually had a chance to get so close with those lovely creatures.
In addition to the fact that I had cycled more than 200 kilometres around Helsinki during my week off, I was very much surprised how relaxing time I had. I won’t make a promise not to ever again to make a long haul trip but what I learned is that spending a holiday at home eases the pressure to do too many things during your days off. Last time I needed few days to actually recover from our holiday trip before getting back to work! This time it was easy to take it slow with the activities, if I won’t have the time to visit the National museum today I can (in theory at least) do it next weekend.
Last time we had holiday, we took a trip through parts of Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. I must admit that travelling is one of my passions and I take every chance to travel to faraway places. I’m not sure if that is anything to proud of these days, but still. Well, to get back to the point, this time we had planned to take a short trip from Helsinki to Tallinn. I was feeling good about our choice to this time only take a short boat trip over the Gulf of Finland, no long haul flights or extensive road trips needed. But after receiving the SMS I was disappointed, no travelling at all? What can you do with a stay at home holiday?
At the end of the week I was glad how things turned out. I had enjoyed a slow paced delicious breakfast at the Cafe Ekberg (I must admit that I couldn’t strictly stick to the vegan diet...), wandered around a park covered with yellow and red autumn leaves, walked along some narrow streets in Kaivopuisto with fancy embassy buildings next to the sidewalks. One evening, I was glad I didn’t have to feel guilty about having a Nepalese meal without being in Kathmandu. When travelling abroad I consider it almost a crime to skip the local dishes but since I was at home I could eat whatever I wanted! Another night I had a chance to listen one of my favourite artists Jukka Poika singing his stories about the down to earth life in reggae style. It’s not that often you can enjoy listening to him on the beaches of Thailand.
When travelling abroad I always spend some time shopping, now that I knew all the same shopping facilities are available when actually needed I chose do something else instead. It might sound naive but it is true that instead of shopping I spend some time in the library, museum, enjoying live music and helping a friend with her garden work. Last but not least I went to check the cows grazing on the fields of the agricultural department of the Helsinki University. I was laughing at myself since apparently I had to move to the capital city of Finland before I actually had a chance to get so close with those lovely creatures.
In addition to the fact that I had cycled more than 200 kilometres around Helsinki during my week off, I was very much surprised how relaxing time I had. I won’t make a promise not to ever again to make a long haul trip but what I learned is that spending a holiday at home eases the pressure to do too many things during your days off. Last time I needed few days to actually recover from our holiday trip before getting back to work! This time it was easy to take it slow with the activities, if I won’t have the time to visit the National museum today I can (in theory at least) do it next weekend.
Monday, July 21, 2008
Average European consumer about to join the One did it community
June is the time for of holiday trips and this inspired the writer to pick up some facts about European mobility. Did you know that according to EUROSTAT average European Union citizen travels almost 10 000 kilometres by car, about 1 000 kilometres by bus and almost 1 000 kilometres by rail transport every year? This is altogether 12 000 kilometres and the figure does not even include air travel. To illustrate the travelled distance, 12 000 kilometres is approximately the distance as the crow flies from the northernmost point of Finland to Cape Town, the southernmost point of the African continent. Speaking about statistics, mobility is not the only issue that has kept us busy. We have also checked for example composition of average European diet, household energy use and also how strong is the desire for coffee and tea among Europeans.
At the end of summer we will provide test result of a fictitious average European consumer based on statistical data concerning consumers and households in European Union member states. This will enable users to compare their One did it test results with average European figures. At the time being we have consulted a wide range of reports and statistics and compiled a profile of this average consumer.
There will be another addition forthcoming to the test result page. The total result will be visualised so that it is possible to see what the most important sectors of your personal consumption are. We are sure this split of the total result into sections of housing, mobility etc. together with the reference of average consumer data makes it easier to get the whole picture of one’s own consumption behaviour.In the meantime One did it team wishes you a nice holiday season. We look forward to see you in One did it community in the autumn at the latest.
At the end of summer we will provide test result of a fictitious average European consumer based on statistical data concerning consumers and households in European Union member states. This will enable users to compare their One did it test results with average European figures. At the time being we have consulted a wide range of reports and statistics and compiled a profile of this average consumer.
There will be another addition forthcoming to the test result page. The total result will be visualised so that it is possible to see what the most important sectors of your personal consumption are. We are sure this split of the total result into sections of housing, mobility etc. together with the reference of average consumer data makes it easier to get the whole picture of one’s own consumption behaviour.In the meantime One did it team wishes you a nice holiday season. We look forward to see you in One did it community in the autumn at the latest.
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