Should the sustainable choice mean no choice at all?

Last month I went to a breakfast talk organised by Travel by B-Corp, a growing group of UK-based travel companies who put sustainable travel at the core of what they do. The guest speaker was Milena S Nikolova PhD, a behavioural economist with a special interest in sustainability and the travel industry. The topic was why people who would say they care about sustainability don’t always make sustainable choices when it comes to travel.

Is it because it all seems too worthy or unappealing? Perhaps there’s an element of that, but it’s more down to the fact that humans aren’t quite as good at making decisions as they think they are. We’re not that rational and we don’t like complexity or vagueness. Plus, we are heavily influenced by context and our peers. And whereas say 15 years ago you might have planned a trip weeks in advance and looked at lots of options, with mobile technology you can make travel choices day by day when you are actually on your break.

Which brings me to another point she made. We decide differently when we are on holiday – we allow ourselves to break our own rules or treat ourselves; eat more, drink more, do things we’ve never done before, and not worry about the routines we observe in everyday home life. Once our brain has switched to holiday mode our focus flips over to pleasure and away from principle. So if we’re given a choice of virtuous sustainable versus fun not-so-sustainable, we’re more likely to plump for the latter once we’re in a holiday frame of mind.

How do we deal with this hedonistic holidaymaker who seems to forget about the planet once their bags are packed? There were learnings from what Milena went on to share that mean good news for both travellers and those who want to further the sustainable travel agenda that came out of an experiment she and colleagues created. Three groups were given a similar day trip experience, a countryside hike with lunch. The first group didn’t have any sustainable element to their trip, they could get there how they wanted, were given bottled water and picked up lunch from a supermarket. The second group was asked to get to the rendezvous point by public transport, bring a refillable water bottle and had a lunch that had been locally prepared. The final group had a similar experience to the second one, the difference being that key local and environmental features were explained to them on the walk and they were given the background of the local lunch suppliers. Essentially the third group were told more, they were given the story of their experience. And guess which group reported they had the best time?  Yup, the third group. While this is only one experiment, it absolutely makes sense to me – humans love storytelling, learning and sharing their experiences.

So, a richer, more sustainable experience can absolutely mean happier travellers or guests. We just can’t put the onus on the traveller to choose it; particularly if other options seem easy to choose or appear more fun. The lesson is that it’s the travel industry itself that needs to ensure that there’s no contest and that the sustainable options win out because it’s been made abundantly clear how much fun or how high quality the experience is. And, if we’re really serious about our commitment to sustainable travel, perhaps we simply remove the not-so-sustainable option? Seems like a win-win to me….

Further info:
Travel by B Corp
BeSmart – consultancy led by Milena S Nikolova PhD