Conscious Travel with Carbon Offsets

After 15 1/2 months of COVID, I am *ready*. Ready to start returning to normal, which includes things like travel. We finally booked our first flight since this whole thing started (Vegas here we come!), and I couldn't be more excited. 

Now, air travel is pretty horrible from an environmental perspective, accounting for about 2.5% of CO2 emissions and 5% of global warming (due to other non-CO2 factors). While air travel is becoming more energy efficient, it can't keep up with increasing demand. Folks, this is horrible news! 

If you are able, train travel is a great alternative, especially if you live somewhere with high speed rail, like much of Europe. 

If trains aren't a viable option for you, consider carbon offsets. I was pleasantly surprised to see this option presented to me upon checkout with Alaska Airlines. For the low cost of $0.01 per mile ($17.32 for our trip), we can "pay back" our impact by contributing to projects that make a difference. 

What exactly are carbon offsets? Are we sure it's not just green-washing? There are multiple types of offsets, and multiple companies offering them. You will need to look at the particular company to see if it meets your priorities. For example, your funds could go towards planting trees, or R&D for alternative energy and technologies, or installing alternative energy devices, upgrading air travel itself, investing in carbon recapture devices, and more. 

This particular group, The Good Traveler, was founded by the San Diego International Airport in 2015, and partners with 20 other airports and airlines to offer offsets. They use your purchase to fund a variety of projects. Here are just a couple examples: HFC Reclaim is a project in Illinois to recapture and resell HFC refrigerants, prevented use of and emissions from virgin refrigerants. Ball State University has a project in Indiana to install a campus-wide closed loop heating and cooling system that upgrades them from coal. Massachusetts Tri-City Improved Forest Management project was able to protect 17000 acres of forest land. 

Pretty cool all the projects a small upgrade to your travel can fund. A small cost to mitigate the impacts of air travel.

Spotlight: Sugarfox

Wow, folks, what a few weeks! Since my last post, T had some health issues. All is fine now, but a few late nights, a quick trip the hospital, followed by recovery, and needless to say, I took a bit of a break from writing. 

I'm back, and there's nothing better to get me inspired than an amazing upcycler. Meet Stephanie Hongo aka Sugarfox, a self-proclaimed "trash sculptor" from Connecticut. Her work can be found on Instagram (https://instagram.com/sugarfox_art).

Trash sculptor is a perfect descriptor: Stephanie takes discarded objects and recyclables and carefully pieces them together to create detailed 3D portraits of her (usually animal) subjects. Having a background in mural painting as well, she adds painted backgrounds and finishes to her sculptures.

Here are just a few of my favorites:

This colorful tree frog. More than a portrait, this full figure leaps off the canvas. How many trash components can you recognize? I love the spoons as a great representation of the back toes.

Or this amazing fox portrait.  The forks lend such great detail to the fur pattern, while other components, like the stars on the bridge of the nose and forehead, give him an edgy style. 

These incredible bears. A fantastic element of Sugarfox's posts is, she often includes process photos and multiple angles to see the details. She takes you along for the journey of how they come to be and the materials that bring these creatures to life.

If you are a creator, does this give you inspiratoon for alternative materials to incorporate? If you are an appreciator of the arts, please check Sugarfox out on Instagram for many more of her works!