How Green is your Holiday?
Despite the recession and everyone looking to tighten their belts, many folk naturally still want to get away from it all and have a break. Those of us with a green tinge to our lives will often aim for a low impact holiday - indeed there are now companies that specialise in a variety of different ‘eco' holiday packages. These look at reducing the impact of staying somewhere - sourcing locally produced food, using ecologically friendly cleaning materials, encouraging holidaymakers to engage in worthwhile and/or sustainable activities, etc. But one of the biggest factors in how ‘green' your holiday is is likely to be how far you need to go to get there and what mode of transport you use.
In this article we're going to look at ten potential holiday destinations and show how you can find out what carbon dioxide emissions are produced. We'll try to find a couple of different ways to get to some of the destinations, so that you can compare the effects of both the location of the holiday and the means to get there and back. We'll see that getting good estimates for the CO2 output is not always as easy as it seems, but that there are free resources that can help you.
Now, every journey has to start somewhere and all of ours are going to start (and finish) outside the front door of a house in Poole on the south coast of England. Why? Well first, why not? Second, it just happens to be the home of Judy, one of the BGI volunteers, who suggested this article in the first place. Third, Poole is nicely ‘average' as far as transport goes - it isn't in the middle of nowhere but it also isn't a major transport hub, and has both transport advantages and disadvantages. Fourth, it's just an example - every journey needs to have its CO2 output calculated on a case-by-case basis (although there are some rules of thumb we can apply for ‘guesstimating' as we'll see later).
So where are we going to send Judy on her travels?
We've aimed for a mixture of domestic holiday destinations, some popular European countries and a few places further abroad for comparison. We've tried to aim for a range of destinations that people would actually choose for their holiday (so no trips to the Antarctic, Iraq or Wolverhampton). Here's the list:
1. Swanage - a picturesque resort with plenty to poke around at just round the corner from Poole. It's the sort of place you might go for a day trip at a weekend or if you decide to holiday ‘at home'. This will also give some indication of the emission costs of local trips out if you want to explore the area when you go further away.
2. Hyde Park Corner, London - the capital is a popular destination for city breaks, as well as for day trips to the theatre, shopping, etc. We'll let Judy mooch round Oxford Street after seeing how much CO2 getting there and back is going to cost her.
3. Downham Market, Norfolk - the Norfolk Broads are a popular eastern UK holiday destination. London is ‘in the way' so we can see if having to traverse the capital helps or hinders different modes.
4. Crianlarich, Scotland - another popular holiday destination, especially amongst walkers and lovers of impressive scenery. It's also at the other end of the country from Poole so we can compare some longer UK journeys.
5. Malaga on the Costa del Sol, Spain - the package holiday destination for millions of Brits.
6. Athens, Greece - another package resort for those who want to sample culture as well as sun.
7. Bodrum, Turkey - Turkey was popular with UK tourists in 2009, as their money could go further than in many parts of Europe.
8. Las Vegas, USA - nipping over the ‘Pond' is still quite popular, so we'll send Judy over to the land of slot machines and crooners!
9. The Taj Mahal, India - for the holidaymaker who wants to experience some more diverse cultures, India is another popular choice. And it doesn't get much more cultural than a trip to the Taj (and I don't mean the curry house down the road!).
10. Wellington, New Zealand - it's on the other side of the world and there's more sheep than people! This should demonstrate what a really long haul trip would emit.
What we're not going to cover is the emission cost of what is done once the destination is reached. That's partly because I want to actually finish writing this article and partly because that is very much in the hands of the individual tourist. We also aren't looking too deeply at the time the different modes of travel take, or their relative financial costs (though we may mention the odd one here and there). Those are more variables to consider - think of it as an exercise for the reader!
The calculations
1. Swanage
We've a number of transport options for getting Judy from Poole to Swanage. The one many people will immediately opt for is the car - it's a short trip after all and the car is parked in the road outside the house. The journey is about 21 miles each way and we immediately hit the first issue for emissions calculations: how much CO2 does a car produce? There is a variety of answers this question, depending on how much information you have on the vehicle in question. A Department for Transport Summary Fact Sheet on Greenhouse Gas Emissions1 says that the average petrol car generates 207g of CO2 per vehicle km, whilst a diesel manages 197.9g CO2 per vehicle km. Or maybe we should look at the size of the car rather than fuel used? That's the option taken by the Transport Direct website (at www.transportdirect.info) in its travel planner's ‘Check CO2' option. If you know the make and model of the car being used you can be even more accurate, as there are websites such as www.whatgreencar.com which will tell you what CO2 output you can expect for a particular model.
For our purposes we'll use Transport Direct's suggestions for CO2 emissions, and we'll give Judy a medium-sized petrol car to use. For this journey Transport Direct tells us that such a car produces 8.8kg CO2.
So what about public transport? Judy could walk to the nearest bus stop and catch a bus or two to Swanage (depending on when she wanted to go). Again Transport Direct tell us that the round trip by bus emits somewhere between 5.3 and 5.5kg of CO2. That's a fair saving in CO2 output even for a relatively local trip.
2. Hyde Park Corner, London
OK, let's try a longer trip to the capital. We'll let Judy try driving there first. Transport Direct's planner tells us this generates 40kg of CO2 for the round trip. Interestingly a small car would be worse for CO2 output than the medium-sized car - it would generate 45kg of CO2 per vehicle km.
Public transport offers more options. Poole has a direct rail link to London and Transport Direct offers a couple of trips using this. The difference between them is whether Judy chooses to use the national rail network within London, or switch to the underground at Clapham Junction. There's not much in it - 21.3kg for a pure ‘big' railway journey versus 21.6kg of CO2 if the underground is used. This seems sensible as South West Trains tell us that their services use 0.06kg of CO2 per passenger km2 whilst London Underground uses 0.093kg of CO2 per passenger km.3
There's also the option of a coach instead of train. This is quite a good option as far as CO2 output goes - it only produces 17.2kg of CO2. A good option if you don't mind coach travel!
So rail and coaches are looking good - around half the CO2 emissions of the car. However there's a little gotcha to note here. The train (and bus and aeroplane and boat) figures are based on measurements of kilograms of CO2 per passenger km. This is because the service is scheduled and will be using a lot of fuel to move the vehicle before it is loaded with passengers - it will produce quite a bit of CO2 even if no passengers are on board. The figures given are based on an average loading of passengers for that mode of transport. If more folk travel with Judy, their combined CO2 output is simply the sum of the public transport outputs for each of them (so three people would generate around 64kg of CO2 together for this return journey). As the car isn't a scheduled service, it won't be making the journey unless we want it to. The car's figures we've used so far are kilogram of CO2 per vehicle. We can actually improve its performance by getting some chums to travel with Judy. They each add a little to the mass of the vehicle but overall the CO2 per passenger is reduced. Having three or more people in the car with Judy would bring the CO2 output for the car below 20kg of CO2 per passenger - easily beating the train. This demonstrates the benefit of car sharing! It also demonstrates why you should look at public transport where possible if you are travelling alone or as a couple.
3. Downham Market, Norfolk
This journey is a fair bit longer than the trip to London but Transport Direct still offers us the same choice of rail or car. The respective CO2 emission figures are 37.7kg and 76.6kg. There is another option of using a coach for part of the journey and a train for the rest, but that has a roughly similar CO2 output to the train alone (37.0kg CO2 per passenger). Once again the car user can improve their figures by car sharing - two or more people travelling by car will produce less CO2 output combined than any of the public transport options.
4. Crianlarich, Scotland
Crianlarich is right up in the Highlands of Scotland, so this is a pretty long journey within the UK from Poole. We get several journey options for this trip. First, we could let Judy catch a bus to Poole railway station, then a train to London and finally doze on the way up by using the overnight sleeper that stops at Crianlarich the next morning. This would emit 100.7kg of CO2 per passenger.
Instead of snoozing on the train, we could force her to concentrate on the road and drive up to Scotland. That would produce 186.9 kg of CO2 for Judy by herself. She'd need two other chums in the car with her to reduce its per passenger CO2 output to lower than that of the train. So once again, for individuals and couples the train makes more sense, but the car gets better when shared by larger groups of people.
We could also let Judy fly part of the way up to Scotland. She'd need to get a car/taxi or public transport for the ten miles between home and the nearest airport (Bournemouth International Airport), and then a similar journey between the airport in Scotland (Edinburgh from BIA) and Crianlarich. Her car would produce 3.3kg of CO2 to get her to BIA and then a similar vehicle would take 21.6kg of CO2 to get her from Edinburgh to her final desination. She could also get three buses to get to BIA and shave her carbon output down to 2.6kg, with a bus and coach at the other end producing 4.9 kg of CO2. On top of this the flight would output 108.9kg of CO2 in each direction.
Let's assume she picks the public transport options at either end, giving us a round trip total for the flight option of 232.8kg CO2. So unsurprisingly flying up north is really going to pile on the carbon, although it can drastically cut the journey time (especially if you use a car at either end rather than waiting for buses and coaches, although that option makes the CO2 output even worse).
5. Costa del Sol, Spain
Time for Judy to leave our green and pleasant isle and head over to Europe. The Costa del Sol is a popular holiday destination, so we'll pack her off to soak up the rays in Malaga. We can give Judy a few options for getting there:
a) by car and ferry
b) by car using the Channel Tunnel
c) by train using the Channel Tunnel
d) flying.
Unfortunately we don't have Transport Direct's website to help us with the whole journey as it only covers the UK. Still, Judy's car will be producing the same CO2 output whether it's in the UK or Europe. Unlike her trip to London on South West Trains' electric inter-urban services, much of the rail use around Europe and through the Channel Tunnel will involve high speed rail. There is much discussion about the correct figure for high speed rail and it depends on the types of trains being used and their average loadings. We can guesstimate when we can't find a more accurate figure. The UK rail CO2 output for high speed trains varies between 0.0529 and 0.1375 kg CO2 per passenger km.4 We'll assume an average figure between those of 0.095 kg CO2 per passenger km and use that for European rail as well. It might undercount some very high speed services such as Eurostar, but it will overcount services such as South West Trains electrics, so hopefully it should roughly even itself out.
The ferry journey is a bit tricky to work out the CO2 output for, as ferry companies don't seem to go out of their way to let us know what the carbon output is. Brittany Ferries' website tells us that the Normandie Vitesse vessel that plies between Poole and Europe has a power output of 28,320kW and a similar Condor express ferry consumes 212g of fuel per kWh5 (excluding the fuel used for electrical power - another 460KW). Being a high-speed ferry it consumes a high grade of fuel and produces more CO2 than a normal ferry. The latter manage the run between Dover and Calais for less than 10kg of CO2 per passenger (34km, so about 0.29kg CO2 per passenger km), so let's be generous and assume it manages to be 50% worse, or in other words 0.44kg CO2 per passenger km. Finger in the air territory but it will have to do I'm afraid.
To calculate the CO2 output for option d) we can use BIA's own carbon offset calculator6 to find the CO2 tonnage for the flights from and to BIA.
The answers are:
a) 1.4 kg of CO2 to drive to the ferry terminal in Poole, then 52.36kg of CO2 for the 119km Brittany Ferries crossing to Cherbourg, followed by 319.14kg of CO2 for the 1924km drive to Malaga. Double this for the return journey to give a total CO2 output for the trip of 745.8kg.
b) 45.5kg of CO2 between Poole and Folkestone, then 47.8kg for 50.5km on the car-carrying shuttle train to Calais, then another 347kg of CO2 for the long drive from Calais to Malaga (based on the CO2 output per km for the earlier run to Folkestone). Double this to give a return journey CO2 production of 880.6kg of CO2.
c) For the UK part of the rail journey between Poole and London St Pancras International, Transport Direct's website tells us Judy will use 20.6kg of CO2 for a return journey. The Eurostar return journey to/from Paris then produces 22kg of CO2,7 followed by around 1600km of high-speed rail to get to Malaga via Madrid at a return journey cost of 304kg CO2. The total is thus 346kg CO2.
d) 910kg CO2 for the return flight to Malaga, plus bus/coach transfers from Judy's house in Poole (and probably similar to a hotel in Malaga) giving a total of around 915kg of CO2.
This shows that long distance rail is a clear winner purely in terms of CO2 output. Of course the rail journey will take a couple of days whereas the flight will take a couple of hours - whether that is a compromise you are prepared to make will depend on how much you like rail travel (or hate flying) and whether you want to take in any sightseeing in London, Paris or Madrid on the way.
6. Athens, Greece
Another popular European holiday destination combining sun and culture; this time we'll just look at flights and rail. For air travel the carbon offset calculator6 tells us that Judy will be pumping out 1.43 tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere for the return journey - plus of course a few kilos either side for public transport to/from the airports.
Rail is the same as for Malaga from Poole to Paris (so 20.6kg to/from London and 22kg for the return between St Pancras International and Paris). Paris to Athens is then a four-day journey via Munich, Vienna, Budapest, Transylvania and Bucharest,8 which is roughly 4500km each way. Using our average rail CO2 output of 0.095kg CO2 per passenger km, the return journey is 855kg CO2, giving a grand total of 897.6kg CO2 for the whole return trip. Better for the planet than flying, but much, much longer (and quite a bit more expensive!).
7. Bodrum, Turkey
Turkey is becoming an increasingly popular destination for UK tourists. Whilst we could get combinations of cars, ferries, trains and buses to get there, most folk are realistically going to be flying from now on, as evidenced by the length of the rail journey to Athens. The BIA carbon offseting calculator tells us that this return trip generates 1.6 tonnes of CO2. So just a bit worse than flying to Athens.
8. Las Vegas, USA
Many people think nothing of flying to North America from the UK and Europe, so this is a typical journey used by both holidaymakers and businessmen. The carbon offset calculator tells us that this return journey produces 5.52 tonnes of CO2. That just goes to show how much worse holidaying outside of the UK and Europe is for your carbon footprint.
9. The Taj Mahal, India
Getting to Dehli's Ghandi International Airport from the UK actually produces less CO2 than the trip to Las Vegas, but it's still a hefty 4.51 tonnes. You've then got another 214km each way to cover to get to and from the Taj Mahal for your photo opportunity - let's assume that you do it by a decent modern coach that produces 0.03kg per passenger km. That's an additional 12.84kg. Of course in the third world you might not get a fuel-efficient modern coach...
10. Wellington, New Zealand
Finally the longest trip. Let's see what the long haul carbon cost of this one is... 12.50 tonnes! Ouch! New Zealand might be a green and pleasant land but if folk keep putting that much carbon dioxide into the skies one has to wonder how long it will stay that way!
Well, I hope this article hasn't been too boring and will give you some idea of the relative costs of different modes of transport over different distances. It's fairly clear that long haul flights are to be avoided if at all possible. Rail gives a reasonably good account for itself, especially for one or two people travelling reasonably long distances. Cars with single occupants are pretty poor, but car sharing with three or more people soon reduces the per passenger CO2 output to something approaching the rail figures. Finally, the figures for buses and coaches demonstrate that they should definitely be considered as part of a low carbon output transport plan.
Of course we have missed out the lowest carbon output transport mechanisms in all of these - walking and cycling. So if you really want to reduce your carbon footprint for your next holiday start slipping on those walking boots and oiling up that bike chain!
Summary: CO2 emissions in kilogrammes by destination and travel mode
| Car | Bus |
Rail | Coach | Air | |
| Swanage | 8.8 | 5.4 | |||
| Hyde Park Corner, London |
40 | 21.3/21.6 | 17.2 | ||
| Downham Market, Norfolk | 76.6 | 37.7 | |||
| Crianlarich, Scotland | 186.9 | 100.7 | 232.8 | ||
| Malaga, Spain |
745.8 (ferry) 880.6 (Chunnel) |
346 | 915 | ||
| Athens, Greece |
897.6 | 1430 | |||
| Bodrum, Turkey | 1600 | ||||
| Las Vegas, USA |
5520 | ||||
| Taj Mahal, India |
4523 | ||||
| Wellington, New Zealand | 12500 |
Notes
1. Department for Transport, Factsheet 2 ROAD TRANSPORT: Carbon dioxide emissions
2. SWT environmental statement
3. London Underground's Carbon Footprint 2008
4. Transport Watch, Rail versus Air Fuel Consumptions across the UK
5. Condor Express Catamaran Passenger Ferry Ship Technology
6. Carbon Clear carbon offset calculator
7. CO2 Emissions: Train versus plane
8. How to travel by train from London to Athens & Greece
Jimll
Photos (c) Stocklibrary.com
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18 Dec 09
