Bowen Humphreys, Grizzlies Abroad marketing intern, writes:
Since so many of the courses offered by AUIP involve sustainability, many students and program alumni seek sustainable ideas and products for traveling abroad. These are my ideas to help you reduce your impact while traveling.
BYOB: Bring Your Own Bottles
Instead of using up all sorts of travel shampoo bottles and bottled water bottles, find a reusable bottles for shampoo, conditioner, soap and your drinking water that you can bring with you. Humangear has a squeezable container that comes individually or in sets from 1.25 to 3 ounces. Nalgene also has bottles of various sizes for water, medicine, shampoo or just about anything else.
For additional ideas on drinking water bottles, read this previous blog. Reusable bottles not only reduce the amount of waste you create but also make it much easier for you to find everything in your suitcase!
Select The Soap That Suits Your Style
Stay fresh with biodegradable and organic soaps that are good for the environment. Sea to Summit offers a range of environmentally-friendly soaps, body washes, laundry detergents and shaving creams that aren’t harsh on your body either. Of course, you don’t have to get separate bottles of soap and shampoo, as many organic, biodegradable and fair trade soaps are multipurpose.
Dr. Bronner’s sells a range of scented and unscented soaps—peppermint, tea tree, lavender or rose to name a few—that you can use for every purpose imaginable- washing hands, clothes, dishes, your face or your hair. They can even (if you’re really brave) be used as toothpaste. Either way with these soaps, you can travel abroad while keeping yourself and your conscience clean.
Bag Your Bags
Photo provided by ECOBAGS.com
It’s surprising, but a simple reusable bag and some Ziploc bags can go a long way while you’re abroad. The reusable bag, such as a canvas shoulder bag, is useful for shopping and keeping important items close by while traveling by bus. ECOBAGS makes a variety of suitable bags, all environmentally-friendly. The Ziploc bags can keep your lunches and snacks fresh or make sure nothing spills in your suitcase. Plus, you can wash out the Ziplocs and reuse them while traveling.
An assortment of sandwich and gallon-sized Ziplocs will make sure you’re prepared, and a reusable bag should be large enough to hold a week’s worth of groceries. By avoiding using plastic bags and reusing the bags you have, you can easily make a large impact on the environment while simplifying your own life while traveling.
The Extra Mile
If you’re concerned about your carbon footprint, you may want to think about buying a carbon offset. Carbonfund.org is a non-profit that creates lasting offsets in carbon reductions, audited annually by a third party with some of the highest standards used in carbon offsetting.
By donating to the non-profit, you get to choose which offset program—renewable energy, energy efficiency or reforestation—you would like your donation to go toward. The offsets are surprisingly cheap; I was able to offset my entire trip to New Zealand and Sydney for less than $40. You can’t avoid emitting greenhouse gases while studying abroad, but if you want to make your study abroad experience the most sustainable, a carbon offset lets you go the extra mile.
