Realtalk: Sustainable travel – with Mona and Alex
Sustainability is on everyone’s lips and cannot be mentioned often enough. There are always things that can be designed and lived even more sustainably. Of course not only at home, but also on the road and while you travel. We asked ourselves what Mona and Alex from betterworldtravellers think about the topic and how they try to implement sustainable travel. The two have given up everything in Germany in September 2020 and now want to travel around the world in their camper Van for the next 10 years. They are living the ecotourism – but see for yourself!
Why did you decide to live more sustainable; what was the trigger point?
When we became vegan and informed ourselves about the topic, we realized how much is going wrong in our world and that animal husbandry is one of the biggest CO2 consumers in the world. Also on our travels we have seen so much garbage and plastic that we realized that we can never change the world. What we can do though: Do our best to leave a positive footprint on this planet and infect others to do the same! This also describes well the daily work we do at betterworld travelers: We try to show others that you can have an awesome life but at the same time take care of the world.
How do you implement sustainability while travelling and where do you reach your limits?
All products in our van are 100% biodegradable and vegan, we don’t use any chemicals, are 100% self-sufficient with solar power, etc.. Also better vegan diet helps a lot to live sustainably as we eat a lot of fruits and vegetables and buy them in reusable bags. Online we search with Ecosia instead of Google and we try to leave the places we sleep cleaner (i.e. collect trash) than we found it. Most recently, we also organized the first 5-day BETTERWORLD NATURE CLEANUP. Learn more about easy ways for less trash in your environment here!
We also donate every kilometer we drive to Atmosfair at the end of the year. We cook and grill with gas and because of our water filter we never use plastic bottles. We also buy a lot of things in bulk to reduce plastic. We reach our limits when we buy groceries: Here, plastic is used very often. No matter if it is vegan yogurt, spinach leaves, lettuce or arugula. Also organic markets are difficult to find abroad for us with the camper because we can not drive into narrow and large cities.
What do you want to pay even more attention to in the future?
Exciting question, because we pay attention to very much already. There are many little things that we want to pay attention to: With every purchase really look to buy as little plastic. With every ferry to ask ourselves whether we really want to see this island on a world trip, etc.. Every decision we make we always think through in terms of our environment, we think that’s super important.
How does socialbnb help you with that?
We would like to travel with our backpack again soon – most likely to Asia, as it can get cold in the RV in Europe in winter. Therefore, we hope to be able to stay in many socialbnb accommodations. We are already looking forward to that!
Do you know someone who travels with a focus on sustainability? Or can you answer the questions here yourself and report some exciting things? Then please get in touch with us!