The Standard podcast — Sustainable travel series from the Evening Standard

What is sustainable travel? — The Standard podcast 

In this first episode of six-part series, as part of The Standard Sustainable Travel, our dedicated campaign across print and digital, The Standard podcast looks into what it means to be a more climate-friendly traveller.

Google searches for “sustainable travel” are spiking all the time, and exploring in a more eco-conscious way is no longer a nice idea, or a niche trend — sustainability has hit the mainstream. 

Sustainable travel expert Juliet Kinsman chats to Jon Weeks, the upsides of international travelling as well as how to weigh up the trade-offs. 

In this episode, The Standard meets climate expert UCL’s Mark Maslin, The Professor of Earth System Science and author of 'How To Save Our Planet: The Facts’ to discuss why spending money on travel experiences can be better than just buying more stuff — for you, and for the wider world. Get his advice on the thing we can all do to make our travels more sustainable.

We absolutely have to consider our carbon footprints, but there’s more to travelling more responsibly than electing to never get on a plane. Flying is part of the global-warming problem, of course, due to the greenhouse gases from the combustion of aviation fuel. It’s clear those trips need to make the emissions count for something. 

There’s a clear need to better navigate those who are definitely in the market for a foreign holiday to the lower-carbon trips. How to choose more wisely when it comes to where your money is going? One of the best ways to be a more sustainable traveller is to ensure our traveller spend ends up in communities off the beaten track in less-well-off destinations.