• Photo by Ross Parmly

The summer holidays are the peak period for travel worldwide. As fun as travelling is, the journey to the actual destination can be disastrous and ruin the whole vacation. No one really wants to waste time they could spend on the beach stuck in traffic or waiting for trains that are delayed or even cancelled. Consequently, many people opt for flying in order to reach their destination quickly and comfortably.

It is common knowledge that flying causes most CO2 emissions per mile out of all transport modes. In some cases though, when travelling to countries far away or with the whole family, it seems to be the only suitable option. Atmosfair is a website that aims to reduce carbon emissions by educating people about the carbon footprint of their journeys as well as giving them the opportunity to compensate for their flights.

How it works

Atmosfair works fairly easy – if you want to compensate for your flights, you can simply go on their website and choose the start and destination of your journey. The calculator will then not only show you the average CO2 emissions of your flight but also tell you which airline has the lowest carbon emission on this flight. You can then pay the equivalent of your flight to atmosfair. Your money will support projects that work on reducing CO2 emissions.

If this does not float your boat but you would like to compensate for your CO2 emissions, you can also donate any sum to atmosfair.

Of course, it would be best to not cause any carbon emissions in the first place but we live in globalised times and with the world on your doorstep you want to go explore it. Organisations like atmosfair allow us to this in a more conscious way until more sustainable alternatives are available.

This is also a great reminder that the true cost of our actions is often higher than what we pay for.