Tips for Environmentally Conscious Travel

“14 July 2025: The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2025 marks the tenth annual stocktaking of global progress toward the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. With the 2030 deadline only five years away, the report delivers a stark assessment: the Sustainable Development Goals have improved millions of lives, but the current pace of change is insufficient to fully achieve all the Goals by 2030.”

For information on each SDG’s current status and plans, go to UN Sustainable Development Knowledge Group.

For up-to-to-the-minute information on specific countries and more, go to the UN Sustainable Development Group.

If you are headed to the Biennial meeting next month, here are some things to consider in order be a sustainable and environmentally friendly visitor:

• Prior to arriving, review public transportation options to get around Raliegh. See if the hotel provides a shuttle service. If you’re renting a car, see if you can get a hybrid or a fully electric one. The host hotel has EV chargers. Consider carpooling with another attendee.
• Pack light. This reduces carbon emissions as lighter luggage consumes less fuel during transportation.
• Support Local Businesses: eat at locally-owned restaurants, consider plant-based foods, shop at local markets, and tour the city with local tour groups. Here is a great source of examples: https://www.visitraleigh.com/media/press-release/post/experience-raleigh-through-the-eyes-of-a-local-with-people-first-tourism/ Keep those travel dollars local.
• Visit parks and protected areas: this helps generate revenue to continue conservation efforts.
• Avoid animal tourism, which is built on the exploitation of animals. Instead, choose wildlife sanctuaries and reserves that focus on conservation.
• Conserve water and energy while at the hotel. Take shorter showers and reuse your towels. When you go out, turn off the lights, TV and other electronics, and turn off or set the thermostat a few degrees higher than you like it. Hang up the “Do Not Disturb Sign” to prevent unnecessary laundering.
• Avoid single-use plastics: every year, 8 million metric tons of plastic ends up in our oceans. Bring your own re-usable water bottle, grocery bags, and re-usable utensils. They are easy to pack.
• Use Sustainable Sunscreen that is reef-safe, labelled as biodegradable, and free of oxybenzone and octanoate.
• Practice Leave No Trace by leaving local environments as you found them. And it’s ok to pick up other people’s trash on the way out too.
• Limit single-use toiletries by bringing your own and skipping the hotel provided single-use products. Once you open them, they’re tossed, no matter how much is left in them.
• Offset carbon emissions by visiting climatestewards.org. They invest in local economies in Kenya, Ghana, Tanzania, Nepal, and Uganda to create locally-run projects that reduce carbon while assisting local communities.

Have fun and be a good example of environmental stewardship while celebrating the Biennial!

Tracey MacDermott
Chair Environment & Sustainable Development
environment@nfbpwc.org