Blog Action Day - Online carbon offsetting
Travolution is pleased to be taking part in the first Blog Action Day - a scheme backed by the likes of Reddit and Google to draw together blog posts around the world on a single day under one banner: highlighing green issues.
For our post I've decided to look at how much the top travel websites in the UK promote their own green agenda from the homepage and/or if they use carbon offsetting through the booking process.
The top five online travel properties, based on the IMRG-Hitwise HotShops list for August, were selected for the task.
Thomson Holidays
"Greener Travel" information is available for users (but is the second to last item on the left-hand navigation. No passenger online offsetting programme (except with specialist operator Crystal Holidays)
Expedia
No links from the homepage to any environment-based content. No apparent offsetting programme (US Expedia site does use Terrapass system).
EasyJet
"Fly Greener" tab is the first featured on the site's horizontal navigation. No self-offsetting function available - EasyJet does it automatically.
Lastminute.com
Information about the Carbonwise scheme can be obtained via a link from the homepage - right-hand navigation, two-thirds of the page down. Users can offset during the booking.
Ryanair
Environmental policy set out in About Us section from the homepage. No self-offsetting programme for customers.
The moral of the story here is this: don't rely on travel companies to do any carbon offsetting.
Generally speaking some allow customers to do it; some will do it on their behalf; others don't give much credence to offsetting whatsoever.
Climate Care is a good, independent offsetting site.
Further details and a list of all the participcants are available on the Blog Action Day website.
Other travel-related bloggers taking part:
Kevin May, editor, Travolution
Technorati tags: green environment blog action day
4 comments:
Well I'm not surprised about the travel companies. Useful post, tx
Thank for the post, its really useful. Conservation and environmental friendliness are very important to me. I am working with this coalition to ensure that congress send the president a strong energy bill which involves signifigant improvements to the environment. this bill is going to guarentee the growth of renewable energy and enact the best fuel economy standards ever. Please check out www.energybill2007.org and sign the petition to help get this legislation passed. I would love to see this bill passed ensuring conservation and environmental protection in our country.
I work for Cox Enterprises and saw that you participated in Blog Action Day. I thought you might be interested in visiting www.CoxConserves.com. The site details Cox’s commitment to the environment and offers tips on how anyone can become eco-friendly.
Anonymous: We did not participate in the Blog Action Day so that companies could then use our post to promote their green credentials, especially those with little or no relevance to the online travel industry.
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