United Kingdom
A free online lift-sharing service where you can offer or ask for a lift to a city or event in the UK or Europe.
Hotonearth.co.uk is a gobal warming awareness site which includes a shopping directory featuring travel companies. For every purchase you make from one of these retailers via the site, a percentage of your payment is passed onto a carbon offsetting scheme. You pay no extra than you would from shopping from this travel company normally; the donation comes from the store themselves.
You can even choose from a list of Project Partners which scheme you support.
Debate rages about the effectiveness of Carbon Offsetting - but every little helps.
This is a big, friendly event - in fact it's one of Central London's largest environmentally-friendly festivals. It's held on the first Sunday of every June in Regents Park.
At the festival you'll find many stalls offering options for the environmentally conscious consumer, with everything from herbs to green electricity and eco-holidays. Another aim of the event is to reduce its environmental impact each year.
The Bikefest allows punters to try out all sorts of bicycles and find out about cycling activities going on in London.
Regents Park
www.camdengreenfair.ik.com/
Forgoing air travel is the single most effective way to reduce your impact on the climate.
A personal website run as a hobby, not a business, with information about how to travel around the world by train or ship. It's extremely useful if, like me, you've stopped flying.
Destinations covered on the site are worldwide;
www.seat61.com
Reduce petrol pollution by car-sharing. Similar ogranisations exist in other countries.
This guide is pretty foolish. There is no such thing as an "eco-holiday" if you are flying. Consider this senario: you fly from London to India for an "eco-tour" which promises you that you will be staying in tree top houses, that it is all sustainable and that your cash goes into the local economy etc. If you have taken a return flight to India you have just released 1.5 tonnes of CO2. Roughly the same amount as is released by driving an 4x4 for 15000 miles. The only eco-holiday is one that involves staying in the UK or getting the ferry to France.
A great website that features a free electronic magazine full of interesting ideas for eco-friendly travel.
For green holiday breaks and accommodation in the UK take a look at Natural Discovery's website.
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