Not So Sustainable Travel

The summer season is in full swing

Here in Florida, tourist are sweltering on the beaches and downright melting into the pavement at Disney.

I just got back from my summer vacation. We took a 10-day trek across Southern Utah. And when I say trek, I mean we drove 1,600 miles and hiked another sixty miles.

It is a spectacular part of the states. And the Utah National Parks are stunning. The drive, while long, was beautiful as well.

I was happy to breathe some of the cleanest air in the country. I can’t say the same for much of the northeast. With eastern Canada on fire, smoke covered the east in a blanket of smoke.

That may have helped send folks west, because the crowds descended on the parks. We were not the only family that decided to get some fresh air in nature. There were people everywhere. The more we ventured through these beautiful parks, the more I thought about how we could preserve them for future generations.

And it is not just a few U.S. National Parks. Globally, tourism is a huge business. And as with any huge business, its environmental footprint is gigantic too.  A recent World Tourism report stated that travel and tourism accounts for around 11% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

The movement for more sustainable travel is catching on. A quick search for Eco-Tours will produce a long list of places you can go and feel like you are doing your part to save the planet. That is great. And while it won’t appeal to everyone, I am more than happy to stay somewhere that minimizes the ecological footprint.

But sustainable travel is also big business.  Sustainable travel is estimated to grow from $1 trillion in 2022 to $8.4 trillion by 2032.

I try to wrap my head around that number and how that is going to help preserve the National Parks I just visited. All I can see is more people travelling and even more pressure put on ecosystems we built parks around to preserve.

Sure, an eco-friendly lodge will help give back to its community. But it’s like me choosing a reusable shopping bag or refusing to use a plastic straw. I do this because I choose to, but until everybody chooses there will be plastic bags and plastic straws.

Eight trillion dollars equals a lot of people to move from point A to point B. This will take a whole lot of planes, trains, and automobiles. Long airline flights are by far the biggest producer of emissions. They are followed by the cruise industry. 

While environmental sensitivity at the destination is important, the travel to the location is the problem to solve. 

There are several solutions to the transportation problem. The most obvious are sustainable aviation and ship fuels.  Until then, you either refuse to fly or you fly knowing it is contributing to the problem.

I guess it’s no surprise that few people will stop travelling. And we currently can’t fly on planes using biofuels. 

But some outstanding entrepreneurs are developing new tools and technology to make those ideas reality. And that’s where Mangrove Investor’s New Energy can help. Our research targets the companies developing the great ideas. And those that bring us closer to true sustainable travel.

For The Good

Michael Nichols

P.S: Update from my recent Grove Weekly “Ohana- The Row For Hope” They are off and rowing. They departed the shores of California yesterday on their way to Hawaii in the “The World’s Toughest Row” We wish them the best of luck and safe passage across the pacific.

Numbers to Know

100,000

On any given day there is approximately 100,000 flights per day (Trip.com)

2,332,992

The number of people that passed through a TSA checkpoint yesterday on their way to a flight. (TSA)

311,985,998

The number of visitors the US National Parks had in 2022. (National Park Service)

What’s New in Sustainable Investing

J.P. Morgan launches sustainable investing tool

J.P. Morgan Securities Services announced the launch of its Sustainable Investment Data Solutions for institutional investors. (J.P. Morgan)

Elon Musk calls ESG “The Devil”

Elon Musk called the framework that evaluates companies’ social and sustainability standards “the devil” as a report showed tobacco stocks scoring higher than Tesla in ESG ratings. (Market Insider)

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