I’m not what I used to be. None of us are, right? Well, the truth is that as we age, we do change and of course that is to be expected. One unexpected way in which I have found a significant change is travel fatigue. In my 20s and 30s I would not have known a smidgen of what that felt like. My brother and my son are the types of people such that when they get in a car or on a train, they fall asleep. And it doesn’t take an hour. I mean, like 10-20 minutes. I could never understand that, until it happened to me.
Now I find that within an hour driving a car, or a little longer, I am tired. I mean, eyelids REALLY heavy, brain cloudy, open-the-windows-for-cool-air-to-wake-me-up tired. This started creeping in slowly, about 6-7 years ago. But now I know that if I have to drive more than an hour, I am screwed and I had really better think of transportation alternatives.
Which is how I ended up taking Amtrak to see friends, about 4 hours away. I could imagine it – one hour in, 3 to go, and I’m overcome with sleep, trying things like consuming lots of coffee to stay awake, opening all the windows, music loud, still feeling sleepy. There’s no way I would risk it; having had a relative killed in a car accident, I take handling a vehicle very seriously.
This is a great way to travel: you board a train, if you have a bag you stow it in the compartment above the seats (and there seems to always be enough space), you sit, pull out a book or laptop, sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride. Literally. Need food? They’ve got a café car. Need quiet? Quiet car. Potty break? No problem, there’s a bathroom. So I know there will be no more road trips for me unfortunately, unless I am a passenger.
On my trip, it was an early morning train with no time for breakfast beforehand, so I knew I could get a little something to eat. Train food is similar to plane food. Not great, not terrible, but it does the trick. Kind of like fast food or convenience store food, but maybe a little better.
Being environmentally ‘woke’ I am concerned about the impact I make in most things I do. The food server opened an approximately 8”x5” thin cardboard box (similar to what you might get at a baseball game), put in a paper napkin, then the breakfast sandwich I bought. My first inclination was to eliminate the box, but a train can get a bit bumpy, and a sandwich make crumbs, so I opted to keep the box.
While eating my sandwich, I pulled out the napkin, and found a wonderful surprise: a napkin with ‘recycled’ printed on it. I had not thought of Amtrak being thoughtful about the environment (even in such a ‘little’ way, but I’m a huge proponent of ‘baby’ steps). So it got me thinking… if the paper for the napkin is make of some recycled materials, what else do they do?
It turns out that Amtrak has a sustainability initiative and they self disclose their carbon footprint. Is it better than other companies? I can’t say, but its there, nonetheless. What I found on their website was encouraging. “Since 2010, we have reduced our greenhouse gas emissions by 17%, which is equivalent to removing roughly 42,000 passenger vehicles from the road.*” Plus, taking Amtrak is 47% more efficient than traveling by car and 33% more efficient than traveling by plane.* I mean, it makes sense. Leverage. Moving many people together means less car emissions. Fantastic.
They also have a rail calculator to determine your travel CO2 and the cost to offset it. I included my trip to my friends and an upcoming trip. It was surprisingly less to offset the CO2 than I thought it would be.
What I learned is that companies can voluntarily disclose their carbon footprint and there is an organization that leads that charge. Companies are graded from A – E with A being the top ‘grade.’ Amtrak has earned an A-**. Now I understand that no company or person is perfect (and I think we need to eliminate our ideal hero/heroine archetype) so I understand that there are flaws, but at least they are doing something.
Some of their sustainable practices include recycling seat cushions so they don’t go into a landfill, re-lamping maintenance facilities, improving fuel and energy efficiency of the fleet, delivering donated goods in natural disasters.**
Luckily, if I am headed to a place more than an hour away, I can often find public transportation to take me there. I know a large part of that is because I live in the Northeast part of the country, so this may not be an option for everyone. That access makes a positive difference for me and I am so glad to see there is an awareness of how that transportation can take positive steps for the environment.
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“Climate change is the single biggest thing that humans have ever done on this planet. The one thing that needs to be bigger is our movement to stop it.” – Bill McKibben |
We’d love to hear of companies and organizations that you know of that are making a difference in sustainability for the planet. What companies do you admire or deserve a shout-out for the environmental practices? Please leave your comments below.
*https://www.amtrak.com/about-amtrak/sustainability/travel-green.html
**https://www.amtrak.com/about-amtrak/sustainability/our-sustainability-story.html