Carbon

This is certainly not a net zero trip, but we do make decisions to reduce our impact where possible considering time, COVID-19 & our budget.

Here are the ways we have decreased our impact to date (6 March 2022):

1) We are limiting our flights. So far (half way through our year-long trip) we have flown 3 times (4 take offs & landings) and plan to fly 2 more times (3 more take offs & landings). We are offsetting our emissions using the Gold Standard-Certified International Credits at less.ca.

2) We brought a few reusable shopping bags, a set of cutlery, food containers & water bottles.

3) We rented an electric vehicle for the first 88 days of our trip (mostly France).

4) We eat mainly lacto ovo vegetarian meals.

5) We used an E-Tuk a few times, both planned & by chance. There is a tuk-tuk app in Bangkok called MuvMi that we have not been able to make use of yet, but we were excited to see it around town.

6) Dryers are not a thing in France or Thailand. Rack or line drying clothes definitely takes more effort, but I actually enjoy the task.

7) We eat-in at local restaurants for most of our meals in Thailand, choosing reusable utensils over single use ones. There is a lot of plastic around here! Often it is as a sign of cleanliness when it is not required (like over TV remotes).

8) Compost is not collected in France, but we were able to compost when house sitting (trustedhousesitters.com). The only collection that I recall was at a space museum.

In Thailand I have seen a few compost bins around towns/parks, but it has never been an option for us at hotels. We don’t have much food waste anyway because we are not cooking.

9) Recycling bins are found in every French community. There doesn’t seem to be any household pick-up, but community bins for household drop-off are very common.

In Thailand the only reliable community recycling bins are outside 7 eleven (for drink containers). There are sometimes bins in parks and at tourist attractions. We are able to recycle at the condo we are currently staying at.

10) Slow travel. We are typically staying 1-3 weeks in each location.

11) All of the hotels that we have stayed at that serve breakfast provide filtered water that is safe to drink. I was hesitant to trust them on this one given past experiences, but was appreciative once we got in the groove. This saves some money and decreases plastic bottle waste.