BEFORE YOU TRAVEL
In the cockpit, pilots use checklists for two reasons: to avoid emergencies and to deal with them. When one strikes, the crew engages the whole team, including any capable passenger.
We are facing a climate emergency, and we need your help.
You have already taken the most important step: deciding to reduce your carbon bumprint. Use this checklist whenever a travel opportunity comes up. And you are not alone; 93% of travellers say they want to make more sustainable choices.
Personal Climate Emergency
Pilots call “Mayday” the moment they realise something is going seriously wrong, not once it’s a full-blown crisis, so that everyone in reach can focus on the problem while there’s still time to act. That instinct, catch it early, say it out loud, is the whole of aviation’s safety culture.
The climate emergency has crept up on us the same way low-level smoke slowly fills a cabin: easy to miss, until it isn’t. You don’t need anyone’s permission to make the call. Declaring your own personal climate emergency is that first, decisive step, and if you’re reading this, you’re already halfway there.
DECLARE
Your Bumprint
Flying is one of the most carbon-intensive things many of us do, and carbon is only half the story: contrails and other effects roughly double a flight’s warming. The trouble is that CO2 is invisible and easy to ignore, so it helps to see your own footprint in black and white.
UNDERSTAND
Ripple Effect
Every trip you take, and every one you talk about, ripples out to the people around you. A “Flight Pusher” sends the wrong kind, nudging friends, family, and colleagues into the air with the far-flung stag do, the destination wedding, the “quick weekend away.” A “Ripple Maker” sends the good kind: making the train trip sound like the better adventure, and the lower-carbon choice the normal one. Which ripples are you sending?
ACTIVATE
Hard Conversations
Climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe says the single most powerful thing most of us can do is talk about it. Most people are more worried than they let on; 80% want stronger action, but they’re just not saying so. Cast your “carbon shadow” wide: talk to family, friends, and colleagues, and share this checklist.
INITIATE
Is your Journey Necessary
Cheap flights make it feel like every sporting event, mini-break, and “country tick” needs a plane. Before you book, ask the honest question: does this trip actually need to happen, and does it need to happen by air? Some do. Many don’t.
ASSESS
Non-Flying Options
Always check for a ground option first, because avoiding even one flight is one of the biggest things you can do, and the train is often the nicer way to travel. It is more common than you’d think: 54% of journeys from London City Airport take under six hours by train. If your employer offers “journey days” (sustainable travel leave), use them.
EXPLORE
Multi-Purpose Travel
Fewer, longer trips beat lots of short ones. When you can, save up several reasons to visit a place, a wedding, a work trip, a holiday, and roll them into one. Avoiding a single flight is more impactful than almost any other travel choice you can make.
COMBINE
Distance of Travel
Distance is the single biggest driver of a flight’s emissions: just 6% of flights, the long-haul ones over 4,000 km, produce around half of aviation’s CO2. So when you can, choose the closer version of what you’re after: Disneyland Paris by train rather than Florida by plane, or a Mediterranean beach rather than a long-haul one.
REDUCE
Download a PDF version of the checklist to take with you.
