Should I really give up clothes? Says Responsible Travel

A recent study by the government-funded Carbon Trust, reveals the surprising fact that of the 11 tons of CO2 emitted annually by the average Briton, we emit 1 ton through our clothing, from the chemical processes used to manufacture and transport the items, emissions from water heating and wet appliances used in cleaning, drying and pressing clothes but only 0.68 tons by flying.

You would be forgiven for pleading ignorance on this point as most of the press coverage points the other way. responsibletravel.com decided to compare column inches for clothing carbon emissions with those for flying carbon emissions over a 7 day period.

And the results?

Whether it is Tony Blair going on holiday, Prince Charles flying to New York or not flying to Switzerland, the public’s selfish desire to keep on flying, or new carbon offset schemes aimed at aviation emissions, flying is a hot topic every day of the week.

Clothing, meanwhile, gets but a passing mention on 17 January as a result of Asda’s PR machine: calling on people to wash their clothes at 30 degrees rather than 40, while failing to mention the social and environmental impacts of cheap clothing manufacturing in the launch of its £25 suit.

The person on the street reading the paper would therefore be excused for thinking that by giving up flying they can solve the problem of global warming without needing to worry about issues such as turning down the heating or avoiding suspiciously cheap clothes. If consumers are misled by the media into concluding that some forms of emissions are greater than they are it will be at the expense of overall reductions.

Justin Francis, Managing Director of responsibletravel.com, says:

“Let me be perfectly clear, we do believe that we should be flying considerably less and we believe we are the first travel agent to say this; we have been lobbying the government to find more effective ways to curtail the growth in air travel . However, we do need to keep a sense of proportion. We’re not asking people to go naked to stop their clothing carbon emissions but to think about the clothes they buy and how they treat them. In the same way, demanding that people stop flying altogether is not the solution to all our problems, especially when many developing countries rely on responsible tourism as a significant source of income to protect and conserve their environment.”

responsibletravel.com is calling for clear and readily available information about the relative scale of emissions and what we can do about them. And their top tip? Take the train for your European city break and use your flight where it can really make a difference. Oh, and you can keep your clothes on!

www.responsibletravel.com

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