Carbon Offsets for Family Travel: Something to Consider

Each person on a flight from JFK to Heathrow is responsible for the output of .95 tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

That’s equivalent to burning more than 1 thousand pounds of coal, or driving 2323 miles with an average car, or the carbon sequestered by 1.1 acres of US forests in a year.

And if you’re in first class, that number jumps to 4.77 tons.

We’ve all heard that air travel is a major contributor to the climate crisis, but travel is something that many of us refuse to give up. Whether you travel for work, for a break from the everyday, or to give your kids the benefits of experiencing other cultures, you are contributing to the problem. (And so am I.)

Is it possible to undo the harm that you cause the planet every time that you fly?

Let’s talk about carbon offsetting for family travel.

What are carbon offsets?

The concept of carbon offsetting is basically this: you can compensate for the damage your carbon footprint is doing by contributing money to projects that help reduce CO2 emissions elsewhere. If you “use” 1 ton of carbon dioxide, you can pay to reduce 1 ton of carbon dioxide in a different way.

The projects that you can contribute to generally fall into two types: investing in renewable energy sources, and reducing carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere. Some popular examples include distributing clean burning cooking stoves in developing nations, capturing methane at dairy farms, building wind farms, and planting trees (which is actually the most controversial, for several reasons).

Who uses carbon offsets?

There are two types of buyers for carbon offsets: corporations, and individuals.

Offsets started to become popular back in the late 2000’s, and really caught on with individuals traveling by air. For a time, airlines and booking sites like Expedia started to offer them as an optional “add-on” – you could pay your carbon offset right along with your airfare!

However, carbon offsets for individuals never really became “mainstream”, and a lot of airlines decided to purchase carbon offsets on behalf of their customers, eliminating the option for flyers to do it themselves through the airline. (This certainly wasn’t for altruistic reasons – thanks to a UN agreement, any airline that flies internationally will have to offset their extra emissions by 2021).

So, in a sense, your airline is already taking care of your carbon offsetting for you. Does that mean that you’re off the hook? That’s up to you, of course. While the airline is offsetting for the carbon you use, you are still choosing to contribute to the demand for air travel.

Want airline-specific information about carbon offset programs? Check out this fantastic piece from The Points Guy.

Are individual carbon offsets for travel really effective?

This depends on how you look at things. In the grand scheme of things, the small number of individuals who buy carbon offsets every time they fly aren’t exactly making a dent in the carbon crisis. Carbon offsets are incredibly important in the corporate realm, where the volume of contributions to projects are large-scale and influence greater change. But the hundred bucks that you chip in for your two weeks in Europe? Every little bit helps, but it’s hard to say that it’s making a huge difference.

But carbon offsets are effective in a different way. Just having the conversation – just reading this post – will make you more aware of your carbon footprint, and you might start to change some of your own behaviors to be a bit more carbon-friendly.

If more and more travelers become aware of their carbon impact and decide to do something about it, whether by buying carbon offsets or making changes at home or while traveling, everyone wins. If this conversation becomes commonplace enough, society will slowly shift to more awareness of the impacts of travel on the climate. (And, hopefully, the many other potential negative impacts of tourism. We must realize that tourism has both a good and a bad side.)

Think of how quickly LED lightbulbs have replaced incandescent bulbs. LED bulbs didn’t really become a thing until 2012. But by 2020, they are projected to make up 69% of the lightbulbs in homes worldwide. [Source: thinkprogress.org] Sometimes it takes a bit of societal momentum to make large, sweeping changes.

What are the downsides?

There are a few potential downsides. Opponents of carbon offsetting argue that by giving people a chance to pay off their carbon debt, we’re essentially giving them a free pass to continue using carbon at will, as opposed to incentivizing them to change their behavior. While offsetting carbon is better than nothing, this system does nothing to change the attitude toward carbon use in the first place.

Another potential problem is that many of the carbon offset providers out there are unvetted, meaning that people might feel good about buying carbon offsets, when in reality their money is not actually contributing to anything meaningful – or anything that would not be built already, regardless of their contribution. The solution to this is to make sure that you choose a carbon offset provider that has been certified, either through Gold Standard, Green-e, or Climate Action Reserve.

One further thing to think about? Carbon offsets are not exactly equitable. That family that’s been saving up for 2 years to finally take their first family trip? Buying a carbon offset is going to hurt a lot more than it is for the wealthy business traveler. It makes it unfairly easy for those with a higher socio-economic status to “undo” their carbon footprints, placing a higher burden on the poor who wish to contribute.

Are there any alternatives?

If carbon offsetting is not for you, but you’d still like to atone for your carbon sins, there are many ways to do so. You can make up for the carbon used in your travels by making small but impactful changes at home and on the road. Here are just a few examples to consider:

• Use a programmable thermostat to only heat or cool your living space when you are home.
• .Keep Tupperware and utensils in your car, so that you can avoid Styrofoam take-home boxes and plastic utensils when eating out.
• Reuse the towels at your hotel throughout your stay. Request linen changes less often.
• Shift to a more heavily plant-based diet.
• Consider supporting a local environmental action group.
• Grow your own food.
• Commute on public transportation or bike to work.
• Shop local when possible, and support local vendors when you travel.
• Compost and try to waste less food.
• Invest in solar panels for your home.
• Replace incandescent bulbs with LEDs.

The bottom line.

Climate change is a massive threat to the future of our planet, and we make decisions every day that add to the problem. Air travel is one of those decisions, and one that is getting a lot of attention as a potential area to reduce the carbon footprint.

The small, individual actions of a handful of eco-conscious flyers are not going to turn the tide in the fight against climate change. But the emergence of carbon offsetting options, and their growing popularity, points to a small shift in mindset. How much water has been saved by hotel guests who keep their towels an extra day? This is a relatively new mindset, and one that has helped in the global water crisis.

Ultimately, it is up to you and your family if you’d like to budget part of your vacation fund to help offset the carbon footprint of your travels. Even if you decide not to use an official carbon offset program, perhaps you’ll begin to look for other ways to reduce your carbon footprint – and that’s a good place to start.

Have you used carbon offsets? Have any more ideas for great ways to cut down on carbon emissions? Let me know in the comments!

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