The Green Edit | Living more sustainably in 2021
Read
Wondering what the most sustainable countries in the world might be and why? Read this. Is it more sustainable to wash up by hand or use the dishwasher? For expert tips and eco dos and don'ts in day-to-day living, consult Georgina Wilson-Powell's new book: Is It Really Green? Everyday Eco Dilemmas Answered out now. Have this Eco Checklist to hand to assess how green a hotel is before you next book (you may need to register as it’s behind The Telegraph’s paywall). The first dedicated Sustainability Issue of Condé Nast Traveller is now out — grab a copy at your nearest newsagent.
Watch
2040 is an easy-to-watch movie by an Australian environmentalist who imagines a better world while laying down some sobering facts along the way. An audience with Zita Cobb, founder of Fogo Island Inn is always rewarding — this interview, part of Traveller’s How to Travel Better series, is a must-watch for hoteliers, with fascinating observations on how to run a positive-impact business. If you haven't yet seen David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet, you're missing a masterpiece spanning an incomparable career of more than 60 years; this is a biopic with a powerful message about the environmental threats to our planet. While kids are stuck indoors, get them up close with nature at its most heart-stopping in the BBC's A Perfect Planet — geography and science lessons aren’t usually this entertaining. Just wait until they meet the flamingo chicks.
Win
Send us your boutique eco-hotel tips for Bouteco Best — our edit of the very best positive-impact high-end hotels and eco retreats for aesthetes around the world launching soon. Tell us why you'd like to celebrate a #BoutecoBest-worthy hotel and you could win a pair of positive-impact Pala sunglasses. (On which note, we encourage everyone to look at hotels through a sustainability lens.) One lucky reader has already bagged a pair and we're only too happy to keep spreading the love for this B Corp-certified eyewear brand, which promotes long-term eye-care solutions in Africa through eye tests — sales of their sunnies help more people get access to education and employment.
Follow
For heart-stirring tales from Singapore to Seychelles, Norway to New Zealand and Papua New Guinea to Panama, via our #BoutecoWorldStories series on Instagram, join us and let's maintain vital connections globally in these travel-disrupted times. Personal ‘postcards’ from hosts, writers, agents and operators reveal what life's like where they are right now — thought-stoking reminders of the world beyond our own bubbles. Browse all dispatches in this blog post.
Buy
The Green Edit: Travel — Easy Tips for the Eco-Friendly Traveller — Juliet Kinsman’s easy-on-the-wallet, pocket-perfect guide to positive-impact travel published by Ebury — has been recommended by publications from Forbes to Food & Travel Magazine. Order a copy or download as an ebook for advice that will open your mind not just to holidaying better, but to all things sustainability-related. It's an indispensable resource, too, a handbook for travel businesses looking to increase their sustainability. When we begin travelling again — let’s do it better.
Browse
Very few of us can travel right now but there are reasons to be cheerful. More precisely, there are Six Reasons Why Now's a Good Time to Book. Take a look for great deals, book that special stay before everyone else does — basically give yourself something wonderful to look forward to Bouteco recommends these friends and partners.
Calculate
Tackling our environmental footprint has never been more important — use WWF's carbon calculator to work out how to reduce your emissions. It’s been five years since the Paris Agreement treaty was drawn up — so how is the tourism sector working to reduce CO2 emissions? Read this. As signatories of Tourism Declares, we’re currently working on our own Climate Action Plan.
Listen
Podcasts are helping us stay connected — tune into JPR’s Priority Statusseries for the episode aired at the end of 2020 on The Future of Sustainable Travel. It explores how COVID is affecting the hospitality world as we know it and what lies ahead for ethical and responsible travel. We’d love to hear about any specific sustainability-focused episodes of podcasts you’re enjoying.
Give
We’re happy to have discovered the charity Carefree — a start-up converting vacant rooms into mini vacations for full-time unpaid carers. With millions of carers in the UK (half of whom haven't had a break in five years), it would be fantastic if more hotels — big and small chains — could donate accommodationso that they can host more holidays for those who deserve them most!
Act
Help clean rivers! Support efforts to develop zero-impact, self-powered devices that extract plastic pollution from waterways before trash reaches the sea.