Green travels on home turf
The Green Traveller (Richard Hammond, Pavilion, £18.99)
By Kate Simon
Will lifestyle choices help win the battle against global warming? The current Cop27 talks make clear the massive global government action necessary to counter the climate crisis – yet the apparent lack of political will to carry it out makes it tempting to feel a personal response is at least a start.
Hence the growing appetite among travellers to take the greener route around the world – and even around the UK. The pandemic has encouraged more of us to stay closer to home and, it seems, we want to know the most environmentally friendly ways to explore our own backyard, too.
The Green Traveller by Richard Hammond is one of the most useful recent additions to the expanding library of books on the issue. Richard, who runs the website Green Traveller (where you can also sign up for his informative regular newsletter), is an authority on sustainable travel and his book about ‘how to travel in a way that is sensitive to the climate and nature emergencies’ is characteristically enabling.
In the book, Richard suggests how to identify greener choices and ways to be a greener guest, as well as providing abundant practical suggestions about the best options available to the green-minded traveller. The journey starts with some good advice about thrifty ways to use public transport, how to easily access walking and cycling routes, and other efficient ways of getting around.
The Green Traveller isn’t limited to Britain’s borders, but many of the suggestions are on home turf. Richard has drawn on his own extensive travels to round up the best places to stay, from champing (that’s church camping) to hotels with natural swimming pools, and where to eat and drink, from off-grid supper clubs to seafood shacks.
There are handpicked adventures and experiences, from scuba diving to foraging courses, and citizen science projects, from recording marine wildlife to counting butterflies. The book of course advocates Slow Travel, taking time to savour landscapes and cultures as you pass through, as well as engaging with community-run enterprises.
Plus there are shout-outs for other useful resources, such as the websites of the estimable train travel expert Mark Smith, aka The Man At Seat 61, and the marine conservation charity Surfers Against Sewage, which champions the protection of the UK’s coastline.
The Green Traveller is undoubtedly one of the best resources for navigating the environmentally imperfect world that we are currently stuck with and it’s one I’ll use – I like to know as much as the next woman that my holiday is sustainable.
But I fear when it comes to waging the war on climate change, a mass movement to persuade our governments to act rather than reliance on an individual response is what we really need.
Phil’s Beer Notes
Once you’ve completed your sustainable trip, the best way of continuing your good work is to drink the local beer. Look out for Camra’s LocAle stickers in the pub or simply ask at the bar how you can best minimise your beer miles. (Not that you can always be sure how far the ingredients have travelled to get into the beer – which is a problem with New World hops.)
You can also look out for beers made by brewers that make a point of following sustainable business practices. SIBA, the independent brewers’ association, hands out an annual award to the best, and in 2022 that’s Barnaby’s Brewhouse in Devon. Ludlow Brewing in Shropshire was runner-up, and Pembrokeshire’s Bluestone Brewing and Norfolk’s Duration Brewing were also finalists. And I would also give a mention to a couple of veteran ‘green’ brewers, Purity Brewing in Warwickshire and Stroud Brewery in Gloucestershire.