On the Road Again...with a lot less guilt as excess baggage!

Road trips in the U.S. seem to have a culture all of their own and there are some who get regular nagging urges to hop in the car and escape the real world as swiftly as possible. However with the prices of gas going up and the knowledge of the impact our travels make on the environment at large, some wonder how they can make travel by car a more green experience.

Enter Better World Travel Club. Formed as an alternative to the popular AAA, Better World opposes AAA’s lobbying for more highways and car-friendly legislature and instead seeks to find ways to encourage drivers to lessen their impact on the planet. In fact Better Word advocates for ideas that encourage people to drive less such as Pay As You Drive Insurance. They offer many of the same services as AAA such as emergency roadside assistance, maps, and discounts for travelers on hotels and hybrid car rentals plus perks such as 10 dollar fuel reimbursements per quarter (which means your membership might actually almost pay for itself), an excellent earth-friendly email newsletter and links to responsible tourism companies. They penalize drivers of cars with low MPG ratings with higher rates (which they in turn use the extra cash to put towards carbon offset) and also offer a bike club that offers bicyclists roadside assistance, membership in the League of American Bicyclists, email newsletter and a wide range of discounts. Better World is also a leader in the purchase of carbon offsets for travel, period.

What does this mean, you ask? When you take a flight or drive your car, you are contributing to the amount of greenhouse gasses spewed into the atmosphere each day. When a person purchases carbon offsets based on the miles they travel or the amount of energy their home uses, for instance, a company will use that money to invest in programs that negate their carbon output such as the planting of trees, wind power investments, and building retrofitting. Better World Club’s carbon output estimation engines will calculate the investment needed to offset your trip or a year of driving your particular make and model of car. I've been a member of Better World for a month now and used their roadside assistance twice. The verdict? They're far nicer on the phone and call more frequently to check on you than AAA, although their services are sometimes somewhat slower to arrive based on my experiences. But for me, the peace of mind of knowing that I'm not supporting companies whose philosophies I don't agree with makes it worth a little extra inconvenience. Tip: When signing up, if you are already a AAA Member, Better World may match your membership rate and set your order so that it kicks into effect just as your AAA membership expires. http://www.betterworldclub.com

Another way to make your road trip a little greener is to rent a hybrid car. Not only will you lessen your impact on the planet, but you’ll be saving yourself money on fuel. Many mainstream rental companies are heeding the call and offering hybrid and bio-diesel options to consumers. Enterprise, Hertz, and Fox, for example, are offering hybrids in some states at this point. EV Rental was one of the first rental services in the nation to offer environmentally-friendly cars: http://www.evrental.com/ Western Road Trips, based in Salt Lake City, rents hybrid cars and fuel efficient RVs: http://www.westernroadtrips.com/ Bio-Beatle, based on the island of Maui in Hawaii, is leading the way in renting bio-fuel vehicles only. http://www.bio-beetle.com/ ZipCar, which operates in some major cities like New York, rents hybrids by the hour: http://www.zipcar.com/

For more general information on renting a hybrid car, check out the following link: http://www.hybrid-rental-car.com/
Here are some more helpful links to help you make your next road trip guilt free:
Kick the Oil Habit’s excellent blog:
http://www.kicktheoilhabit.org/roadtrip/
8 fantastic green road trip tips:
http://earth911.org/blog/2007/08/23/eight-ways-to-green-your-road-trip/
Download National Geographic’s Green Guide’s Greener Roadtrips here:
http://www.thegreenguide.com/gg/pdf/GGRoadTripTips.pdf
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