How Your Travels Can Support a Good (Green) Cause

paddlers and bluegrass help restore a watershed

One of the guiding principles of green travel is that the communities we visit should benefit from the time and money we spend there.

Stop to think about where the money you spend in a destination goes.  Here are some questions to ask yourself:

• What impact does it really have?
• Does it shift hands in the community?
• Does it feed a family?  Several families?
• Will you help a kid go to school?
• Are you supporting conservation?

Or does most of it leave the community shortly after you spend it making someone who lives somewhere else with no direct connection to that place richer?  That happens all the time.  More than we realize, actually.  It’s known as “leakage”.

Leakage occurs when revenue generated from tourism leaks out of the local economy.  Here’s an example:

• I spend $50 for dinner for my family at a chain restaurant.
• Of that $50, $20 goes to buy the food we ate which was imported from many miles away, $10 goes to support the minimum wage of the staff who served me the food, and $20 is profit to the owner of the restaurant who lives near corporate headquarters in another state.
• So, really, less than half actually stayed in the local community and had a direct impact.  Half of my $50 dinner leaked out of the local economy.

I had the opportunity to attend several events in Appalachia this spring:

• A Ramp Dinner
• Cheat Fest
• A Farm Party
• An Earth Day Festival
• A Gala

The ramp dinner and farm party raised money to support a local food system in West Virginia, Cheat Fest raised funds to support the restoration of the Cheat River Watershed, proceeds from the Earth Day festival supported the Fayette County Green Advisory Team, The Gala was a fundraiser for a local non-profit watershed organization.

I also volunteered my time at the Earth Day festival to support the event.  Sometimes offering time and a strong back can be as valuable as cold, hard cash.

I felt good when I arrived back home.  Tired from too much fun and also looking forward to returning next year to see the positive impact resulting from the work of the local organizations I was able to support.

Here’s a few more examples of good (green) causes to support:

• Farmer’s Markets – your $ goes directly to local farmers and you get good, fresh, local grub.  Organizations like the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project and West Virginia Farmers Market Association can help you find them.
• A Church Dinner – you’ve seen the signs “Spaghetti dinner tonight”.   Every time I’ve stopped I find little old ladies making the tastiest food often straight from their garden.  I’ve found them to be very welcoming to “outsiders”.

Philanthropy is the effort or inclination to increase the well-being of humankind, as by charitable aid or donations.

Hopefully the experience you have while traveling has a positive affect on you and the destination.  Think about the money you spend and how you spend it.  When you get back home or before you leave you might want to extend the benefits by joining the local conservation organization or donating additional funds to support the cause.

Back to my earlier example:

• I spend $50 for dinner for my family at a local restaurant.
• Of that $50, $20 goes to buy the food we ate which came from a local farmer who was actually eating there that night and told me how to grow the organic “hillbilly” tomatoes I was eating, $10 goes to support the wage of the staff who served me the food whom I left a big tip due to her exceptional service and for telling us the best spot to see the sunset, and $20 is profit to the owner of the restaurant who lives above the restaurant and stopped by to welcome us to the area he/she grew up in and refer to as “the center of the universe”.
• So, really, all of the money I spent stayed in the local economy, had a direct impact on the land and people, and I had a unique, authentic experience I’ll never forget.

Do your travels support good (green) causes?  Have some examples to share?

Tags: community benefit, doug arbogast, green travel, travel green appalachia, traveler philanthropy

This entry was posted on Monday, June 7th, 2010 at 11:59 am and is filed under Blog, Green Travel Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “How Your Travels Can Support a Good (Green) Cause”

1. Simple Ways To Travel Green – Support Local Businesses « Travel Green Appalachia says:

   July 12, 2010 at 12:08 pm

   [...] family and I saw this poster for the 3/50 Project.  I had recently written a post titled “How Your Travels Can Support A Good (Green) Cause” to talk about where the money you spend in a destination goes and encourage travelers to [...]