Tag: green travel

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Old Airline Seat Covers Are Being Reincarnated As Trendy Travel Bags

May 9, 2013 at 9:01 AM | by | Comments (0)

Earth Day has come and gone, but that doesn’t meant that we can’t continue to go green all year long. We’re excited about some of the products that Tierra Ideas have been cooking up, as not only do they recycle old stuff into new—but they do it with discarded airplane bits and pieces.

From purses and pouches to messenger bags and duffels, their main focus is on all types of bags. Seatbelts from old cars and tire inner tubes are just some of the trash that they turn into treasure; however, what we’re most interested in are the airline seat covers.

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A New Ban at Chicago's Airports Means Saying Sayonara to Styrofoam

May 2, 2013 at 8:48 AM | by | Comments (0)

Earth Day is in the rearview mirror at this point, but that doesn’t mean we can’t think green throughout the rest of the year. That’s clearly the idea over in Chicago, as both major airports are all about the eco-friendly.

Officials have issued some new rules and guidelines for those restaurants doing business at both O'Hare and Midway airports, as they hope to reduce, reuse, and recycle. The new green concessions policy provides a little bit of encouragement in hopes that the restaurants will do a better job utilizing eco materials and sustainable ingredients.

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Where To Go With Your Tax Refund: Costa Rica

Where: Costa Rica
April 2, 2013 at 1:58 PM | by | Comments (0)

Tax day is coming, and you're probably excited...but not because you look forward to sifting through receipts and credit card statements. You're excited because you're getting a fat refund. Probably. The economy may be on its way back up, but you should try to stretch that tax refund as far as you can...like with a little "you did a great job last year" trip—a Tax Refund Vacation.

Whether you're into eco-travel, surfing, zip lining, hiking, swimming/snorkeling/Scuba, hanging out with exotic animals (like the Coati), learning Spanish or just lazing on a sandy beach, Costa Rica can make it happen. Regardless, you're in for sun and warm temperatures.

If you're interested in the Caribbean side with all its eco-tourism or you'd like to scratch a visit to Arenal volcano off your bucket list, fly into San Jose International Airport. For trips to the Pacific side's beaches, surf spots and giant national parks, Liberia International AIrport is the best bet (and it's got a brand-spanking-new terminal).

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How KLM is Turning Used Cooking Oil Into Flights Between Amsterdam and New York

March 11, 2013 at 9:15 AM | by | Comments (0)

"It really isn't smelly!"

That's the assertion given by KLM to press and passengers on Friday, as the first-ever series of biofuel-powered intercontinental flights was inaugurated.

All is normal inside the aircraft, and indeed passengers may have no idea they are flying on a history-making jet, unless they see the proud "we fly on biofuels" statement painted on the side. Outside, two fueling trucks pump the plane's tanks full of a mix of regular kerosene and biofuel manufactured from used cooking oil. According to the AP, the process to make this magic fuel goes a little something like this: "the waste oil from frying up crawfish, cracklins and other Cajun specialties is refined at a Louisiana plant, then trucked to JFK." Sounds simple, huh?

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How Air France is (Literally) Selling Their Ads to Travelers

Where: France
March 5, 2013 at 11:18 AM | by | Comments (0)

More and more we are seeing environmentally responsible decisions coming from airlines in the form of fuel conservation, on-board recycling programs and carbon off-setting. Air France has taken "thinking green" to the next level and we're not just talking about recycling bins for newspapers; although, they do that too.

Partnering with environmentally friendly bag maker, Bilum Paris, AF has created a line of travel bags and wallets made from the giant billboards plastered up on the side of highways. Not only are they made from the super tough plastic material, but they are actual Air France billboard posters.

The first poster has created 9 cabin bags, 23 laptop bags and 30 travel cases. For as little as 69 Euros, you can have your own little one-of-a-kind slice of Air France. To browse the range, head to their e-shop.

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Why You Should Care About Airbus' Great White Sharklets

February 21, 2013 at 6:04 PM | by | Comment (1)

No, it's not Shark Week, but airlines are a little obsessed with sharks right now. First there was the news that Lufthansa is testing a sharkskin-like material on their wings, and now JetBlue is flaunting the first Sharklets in the USA. Not baby sharks, sadly, but Sharklets, which is just a slick term for elongated wingtips stuck onto the ends of A320 wings.

Today JetBlue became the first US airline to send an A320 out into the skies with Sharklets, but why should you care?

Well, if you've ever taken a moment to reflect on how much fuel an airplane burns on a flight (900-ish gallons an hour for an A320) and then considered the impact that has on the environment, you'll want Sharklets on your plane.

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The National Zoo's Live-Tweeting Just Gets Cuter and Cuter

February 5, 2013 at 1:55 PM | by | Comments (0)

Elementary logic: all organizations are increasingly leveraging social media, zoos are organizations, therefore zoos are increasingly leveraging social media. What differentiates zoos from other groups, of course, is that their tweets, posts, photos, and videos are much, much cuter.

Our beloved San Diego Zoo probably sets the standard for social media completionism—their annual Panda Week activities are to the point—but the National Zoo in Washington, DC is not far behind. Last year they live-tweeted the artificial insemination of a giant panda and the subsequent birth of the panda baby. Both of those were neat but not particularly cute.

The zoo's most recent live-tweeted event did much better on the cuteness front: photos and descriptions of elephant baths.

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Scotland Sets New Standard for Cute Travel Advertising

January 28, 2013 at 4:14 PM | by | Comments (0)

Copyranter calls them the "cutest brand ambassadors ever" and we're inclined to agree. According to the Scotland tourism board, which put together the campaign, the two Shetland ponies - Fivla and Vitamin - are wearing their "winter woolies" (?) in order to mark "the Year of Natural Scotland." The Year of Natural Scotland, in turn, appears to be a project that the tourism board totally made up.

As near as we can tell from the project fact page, they wanted to brand Scotland as a natural travel destination, and so they took the word "Scotland" and the word "Natural" and put them together. The ponies, we're told are "helping promote the Year of Natural Scotland with beautifully created cardigans."

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See San Diego's New Baby Panda in Public for the First Time

January 14, 2013 at 4:30 PM | by | Comments (0)

It's been a while since we've written about our beloved San Diego Zoo, and even longer since we've written about it as anything but an exercise in kind of entertaining but also sort of unseemly schadenfreude. Let us remedy that with background and a video of the zoo's new baby panda making his public debut.

The toddler's name is Xiao Liwu. He first met the public last Wednesday, which is when the video below was taken. The San Diego Zoo - which is one of only four American zoos with pandas - has now had six successful panda births. That makes the park the single most successful panda breeding facility outside of China.

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Buzzkill Alert: LAX Drops Free Parking for Electric Cars

January 11, 2013 at 10:21 AM | by | Comments (0)

The days of free parking just because you're eco-friendly have come and gone at Los Angeles International. The airport has announced that the incentive for passengers to park their electric car for free up to 30 days has been eliminated.

Although parking will cost the general rack-rate for all drivers, the charging facilities will continue to be free. Okay, this is great news, but the caveat is that there are only 38 spots for charging. So good luck on getting a charge because LAX is no regional airport. Since the plugs are a true premium, it has been causing some resentment from totally electric car drivers to hybrid drivers.

If you're flying out of LAX soon, you can still snag a free parking space up until March 1, after which time you'll have to cough up the $24 per day.

[Photo: jpellgen]

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Forget the National Christmas Tree; Road-trip to Visit NASA's Moon Trees

December 7, 2012 at 7:20 PM | by | Comments (0)

If you’re more bah humbug than ho, ho, ho, there are trees out there for you too: Moon Trees. These trees, located all over the U.S., don’t have sparkly lights or flashy ornaments but they have been to the moon.

Back in the 1971 Stuart Roosa brought along close to 500 seeds from five tree species on the Apollo 14 mission as part of an experiment. As Apollo 14 re-entered Earth's atmosphere the container carrying the seeds opened and the seeds all mixed together.

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Helmet Vending Machines are Coming Soon to a Bike Share Near You

November 12, 2012 at 11:50 AM | by | Comments (0)

With the appearance of bike sharing programs all over the place there’s also the need for bike safety re-education, and the city of Boston is getting ready to go all in. The police aren’t giving tickets to riders just yet for not wearing helmets, but there is quite the push to ensure that your head stays safe.

Residents and locals alike have made the city’s Hubway bike share system a hit, but now the increase in riders has resulted in a need for increased safety. Signups for Hubway encourage riders to buy a helmet, to always wear the helmet, and there are even safety classes from which to choose. The city has also started to blanket the bike lanes with signs reminding everyone what can happened to those who choose not to wear a helmet, and the results—which are not too pretty. Some of the signs show some pretty nasty injuries, and many have the tagline “And you think a helmet is uncomfortable?”

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