Sustainable Travel

Tourism accounts for roughly 8 percent of the world’s carbon emissions. If for example you flew to Miami from to Chicago, your family vacation alone likely emitted about 1 metric ton per person. If you drove from Orlando, it’s about half that.

Yet travel, recreation, and the great outdoors are invaluable teachers and healers. We need time away from our desks and our routines to bask in the sunshine and connect with people and nature. We are explorers, we yearn to see the world, to experience the unending novelty nature provides.

Unfortunately, the reality is travel and tourism have a huge impact on greenhouse gas emissions. Climate change is evident across the globe, from melting glaciers to warming oceans and powerful storms. In July of 2023, water temperatures in the Florida Bay were an unprecedented 101 degrees and in the mid to upper 90s throughout much of the Keys. Coral bleaching has reached a level the Keys’ reefs cannot recover from.

In the face of mounting evidence, I strive to be part of the solution. With Driftroots Paddle Company, a portion of your tourism dollars are donated to organizations that help capture carbon and promote biodiversity. With careful research, I’ve chosen companies that seek to: Restore degraded forests by planting trees, protect intact forests from logging and development, and conserve the biodiversity of our oceans.

By traveling with Driftroots, you’ll not only experience beauty and tranquility of the Keys, but you’ll sail away with an intimate understanding of this unique environment and the comfort of knowing you’ve contributed in a meaningful way global conservation efforts.

Disclaimer - Can we really be carbon neutral? This is a huge topic for debate. Carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions are calculated on a large scale with lots of rounding and estimation. Likewise and even fuzzier are the models for carbon sequestration. You’d think it couldn’t get worse, but our social and monetary valuation of the resources for carbon sequestration are arguably undervalued (at best) and/or completely unattainable. So while an offset for 1 ton of carbon can be bought for $30 or $40, Driftroots donates 10% of our profits to numerous local and global conservation efforts. Is it enough? I’m not sure. But if we all put in the effort, we can be the change.