“Sustainable travel” might seem like a contradiction in terms, but it doesn’t have to be—especially when your business travel takes you to a conference centered around sustainability, like the Sustainable Packaging Coalition’s (SPC) events.
At SPC events, we gather stakeholders from the entire packaging value chain to advance scalable, meaningful action on sustainability. Of course, any conference convening international experts will come with a carbon emissions impact, but before you head out to SPC Advance, SPC Impact, or any other work trip, consider using these nine sustainable travel tips.
From local waste bins to sustainable lodging habits, let’s look at ways we can make work travel more sustainable together.
Nine Ways to Make Work Travel More Sustainable
1. Bring Reusable Beverage Containers
Some research shows that the average single-use plastic water bottle has a carbon footprint of 3 ounces of carbon dioxide. Packing a reusable water bottle and coffee mug is an easy way to reduce your packaging impact and emissions when you’re traveling. At SPC events, we’ve even eliminated single-use cups, encouraging attendees to use their own or the venue’s reusable cups for drinks and coffee.
2. Pack a Reusable Shopping Bag
You’ve eaten before your flight, you’ve made it through security, you’ve arrived at your gate and then, “Delayed” flashes on the screen. We’ve all been trapped in the terminal, and if (or when) that happens, a reusable bag can make sure that the snacks, magazines, or meals you buy at the airport don’t come with a single-use bag. Beyond the terminal, a reusable tote or bag can also come in handy for carrying swag from events or souvenirs for your loved ones.
3. Pay Attention to Local Waste Bins
Across the country, more airports are providing access to trash, recycling, and composting bins. The trend isn’t limited to airports either, as more restaurants are providing access to these three streams, too. During your travel, you can divert waste by sorting your trash, recyclables, and organics and disposing of them in the appropriate bins whenever they’re offered.
4. Reduce Travel Emissions
To reduce emissions on the actual trip to your destination, you can opt to take the train when possible. In the U.S., Amtrak is 46% more energy efficient than car travel and 34% more energy efficient than domestic air travel. Of course sometimes flying is your best bet—but did you know that takeoff and landing account for half of the carbon emissions during a single flight? If you’re flying to your destination, you can look for non-stop flights (if they’re available) or trips with fewer connections to reduce emissions.
5. Consider Walking, Biking, or Taking Public Transit
Once you’ve arrived at the city where you’re traveling for work, you can make the trip more sustainable by walking, biking (in cities with bike share systems), or taking public transportation to any meetings, conferences, or meals during your stay. If you’re attending a conference like SPC Advance or SPC Impact, you can even stay on-site at the venue to make sure that your commute is a simple elevator ride down instead of a car trip across town.
6. Make Your Stay Sustainable
Once you’ve reached your lodging, you can cut down on single-use packaging waste, reduce energy consumption, and save water by using your own shampoo, conditioner, and other toiletries from home and reusing your hotel towels. Travel-sized reusable toiletry containers are great for quick work trips, but even if you forget to bring them, you can always use and take hotel toiletries home with you to reuse on future work trips. Then, when you reuse your hotel towels by hanging them up, you can help save an average of 2.5 kg of carbon emissions and 25 gallons of hot water.
7. Make Your Room a Home-Away-From-Home
When you leave the house, you probably adjust the thermostat, turn the lights or TV off, and unplug unused electronics to conserve energy. Why not do the same at your hotel? When you’re out attending meetings, sitting in sessions, or participating in workshops all day, you can treat your hotel room like your home and reduce emissions by doing things like turning the temperature up in the summer or down in the winter to conserve energy.
8. Opt for Vegetarian or Vegan Meals
Try something new when you’re traveling—eating vegetarian or vegan meals can be an important way to reduce your emissions, and plant-forward meals during work trips are no exception. Right now, the average takeout meal results in about 2.48 kg of carbon emissions. Opting for food that’s vegetarian or vegan and locally or sustainably sourced, plus dining in a restaurant instead of getting takeout can help reduce any emissions. At SPC events, we make sure we only serve vegetarian or vegan meals to reduce our emissions impact.
9. Try to Reduce Food Waste
Conferences often come with buffet-style food, so when you’re traveling for work, you can reduce your food waste by starting with small portions. The beauty of a buffet, of course, is that you can always go back for more if you want it, but starting small helps prevent food waste. You can also compost leftovers where collection programs are available, and at all SPC events, you can rest assured that we’ll be diverting food waste to our hotel’s venue partners.
Ready to Reduce Your Carbon Impact on Your Next Work Trip?
When it seems like work travel is always around the corner, you can use any combination of these sustainable travel tips to reduce carbon emissions on your trips. And if you’re interested in learning more about the carbon emissions impact at SPC events specifically, you can check out our first SPC Impact 2024 Event Sustainability and Carbon Emissions Report and stay tuned for future reporting by following us on LinkedIn.
