To make good sustainable travel choices, we need to be aware of the options we have. Our choices in travelling make up around 25% of our carbon footprint. The Energy Saving Trust has developed a Sustainable Travel Hierarchy, starting with the lowest carbon emission options at the top and to the most carbon emitting travel options towards the bottom. As you can see, electric cars are not at the top, which shows there are lots of ways to reduce your carbon footprint when you travel that do not involve spending huge amounts of money on an electric car.

The Hierarchy

There are seven options when it comes to considering if you need to travel and how to travel.

Digital communication: choosing to communicate digitally rather than meeting up

The reason why this option is at the top of the hierarchy is because choosing to have an online meeting rather than meeting up means you have avoided the need to travel from your home. This option creates zero carbon emissions and adds nothing to your carbon footprint. This is best choice if there is ever a need to be in contact with someone in a different place. If this is not possible, then the next best options are ‘active travelling’, which includes walking and wheeling; cycling and public and shared transport.

Walking and wheeling

The next best thing to do if you need to go from A to B is to walk (or go by wheelchair if disabled). The reason why it has slightly higher carbon emissions than a digital communication is that it requires your energy to travel. A factor that does impact on your carbon footprint when you walk or wheel is what you eat to get your energy. If you have been fuelled with a meat-heavy meal, this increases carbon emissions, whilst being fuelled by plants such as bananas would really be carbon-light. 

Cycling

You may be surprised that cycling has slightly higher carbon emissions than walking. But this is only because it requires and bike and a helmet which produces carbon emissions in the process of production. Cycling is a very good option for all sorts of reasons: it can save you hundreds of pounds a year and improve your health. Again, what you eat impacts on your carbon footprint when you cycle. Research by Professor Bernes-Lee shows if you have been ‘fuelled’ with beef burgers, you would be effectively producing carbon emissions to the same level as driving a car, whilst being ‘fuelled’ by plants such as bananas will be only 10% of the carbon emissions of a car.

Public and shared transport

The next rank in the hierarchy to choose from if digital communication, walking and cycling are not appealing options, is the use of public and shared transport. Public transport is funded and provided by the government for society, such as trains, buses and trams. Shared transport includes shared journeys, such as car-pooling, car clubs, lift sharing or bike-share schemes. These create more carbon emissions than the above options, but only a fraction compared to making a journey alone in a petrol diesel car. Whether you choose public transport or shared transport depends on your personal circumstances. Public transport is fine if you are travelling light, but shared transport will be necessary if you have heavy luggage.

Electric vehicles

Electric vehicles such as electric cars create more carbon emissions than public transport, walking and cycling. There are a lot of myths about electric cars which are untrue. It is not true that it takes more carbon emissions to make than they save over their lifetime. Electric cars are not necessarily an expensive option because about a third of second-hand electric cars cost less than £20,000 and will save up to 40% on servicing and maintenance costs. Also, there are 70,000 plugs in the UK and this set to rise to 100,000 by 2030. It is worth exploring whether getting an electric car is right for you.

ICE vehicles and car

Internal combustion engine (ICE) cars are petrol and diesel cars. Having an ICE car adds 2.4 tonnes to your carbon footprint a year. It may be more convenient for you to own an ICE car rather than an electric car, but there are many ways you can reduce carbon emissions even if you own one by substituting some of your car journeys with the options above. It is also estimated by the Energy Saving Trust that by swapping a quarter of your car journeys for walking, cycling or public and shared transport will save £379 a year in fuel costs.

Air

Travelling by airplane causes the most carbon emissions and contributes 8% to the UK’s carbon emissions. It is hard to resist the temptation of foreign travel and see family and friends abroad. But there are ways to reduce your carbon footprint of air travel. It is best to travel abroad within 6 hours from your home destination and avoid long-haul flights. Travelling economy class instead of business class or first class reduces the carbon footprint of your flight as well. Choosing eco-conscious hotels can massively reduce your carbon footprint daily on holidays. Finally, the easiest way to reduce the impact of you air travel is to contribute to tree planting. There is no need to plant a tree yourself or even pay money towards a tree planting project. Using apps such as Treeapp and Ecosia means you can plant trees whilst browsing your smartphone and watching adverts.