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The Sustainable European Tour: green is the new black. Final Report

 The Sustainable European Tour is over from two weeks. I took some time to write this final report/reflection, I wanted to analyse and elaborate all the data properly.

After doing the final balance, I am proud to announce that:

The Sustainable European Tour has been a success. 

Crossing Europe using just Sustainable transport is possible.

I did a comparison between the emissions of the tour and the emissions of a flight from Istanbul to Paris (one way). The results are the following:

Emissions of the flight: 0,31 tons of CO2*

Emissions of the Tour: 0,10 tons of CO2*

Traveling Sustainable allowed me to save 0,21 tons of CO2!

It’s not just possible to travel in a sustainable way it is also convenient from the safeguard of the environment.

Is it also economically sustainable?

To reach Paris from Istanbul I travelled for 3855 km using the following means of transportation:

4 Trains, 2 Autobus, 1 Ferry and 1 Blablacar

For a total price of 216 Euro.

A flight for the same day (16 of August) from Istanbul to Paris, on Economy Light, would have cost 400 Euro.

Finally, it is also economically sustainable.

The Sustainable European Tour

To Travel or To shift?

10 days, of which more than 50 hours of travelling can’t be compared with 2-3 hours of a flight for the same distance, for many reasons. But are we sure that being sited in a plane for 2-3 hours could be defined as travelling? I would define it more as shifting from a place to another, especially when you are travelling in some economy or light economy. To travel implies to cross a city, a region, a country or, like in this case, a continent. Admiring the landscapes, having a deep immersion inside new cultures, meeting new people and smelling new perfumes that should be defined as travelling.

This helped me to understand that, at least once a year, it is good to “travel” in the true meaning. One, two weeks or a month is not important. The most important thing is to enjoy the route not only the final destination.

Of course, the plane remains still the most convenient way of travelling, especially if we talk of business travelling or long haul. But I would avoid to use it has the only way to travel.

Sustainable European Tour

Are all the “sustainable” means of transport really Sustainable?

Old buses and horrible ferries: not all the segment of the tour have been enjoyable or “sustainable”. An example is an empty bus for almost the half of the way, in Macedonia. Neither the less is the crap ferry from Bar, Montenegro to Bari, that is still causing me nightmares at night. Why? In my opinion, it’s the low level of convergence between European countries and not. The Balkans countries have still some problem with “smart” travelling.

Talking of smart, I would like to talk about Blablacar: even if travelling by car may be not so sustainable from the point of the view of the emissions, the sharing economy and the technology are really helpful in this sense. Transforming a possible solo trip with the car in a shared trip where to meet people to share ideas with a less impact on the environment and on the wallet (for the driver and the passengers). This may be a clear example of round sustainability.

Sustainable European Tour

Quality of the Air in the Cities

Thanks to the CleanSpace tag I had the opportunity of measuring the quality of the air in the cities I have been:

The results are a bit disappointing, the air quality resulted to be polluted in almost all the cities, even the smaller ones. Even if they were partially empty because of the summer and the holidays.

Social

The idea of doing the tour in August wasn’t the best from the point of view of the social visibility. But, even from this aspect, the tour surprised me. I would like everybody who took the time to read my posts. It may seem an indirect form of support but is really helpful, especially when travelling alone. Some of the Instagram’s Stories reached more than 1000 views and the photos received thousands of likes. Thank you.

Sustainable European Tour

Not just Europe

Is it possible to apply this same model of travelling outside the Europe? Who knows…

 

Stay tuned!

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