IDEA CATALOGUE DANSIC 2019
SUSTAINABLE TRAVEL
Thanks to...
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Preface
More inspiration
Who are we? What do we think? Idea Lab - Introduction Partners Barriers Results & Prototypes Thank you
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Travel stories - Cycling - Bus - Train - Hitch hike Interviews - Sustain Daily - CONCITO - Kaospilot Sustainable Challenge
We love to travel, no doubt about that; now even more than ever. For most millennials, it has become a rite of passage to learn from new cultures and customs from all over the planet, as we document everything from beach paradises in the Caribbean to Buddhist sanctuaries in Tibet; all while hashtagging vigorously. But have you ever stopped to wonder if there were a #downside to these travel habits? As cheaper tickets have opened up the world, the lifestyle of the super rich has now become available to a wider audience. Throughout our lives, we generally emit the most greenhouse gasses not only through our means of travel but also through the habits we have as tourists. So how do we changes these habits? How do we keep exploring the world, without damaging it in the process? How do we make sure that the paradise we visited in our early 20’s or 30’s will also be a paradise for the next generation? Our aim in DANSIC is to innovate the way we think about sustainability. This year our mission in DANSIC is to inspire young European people to make changes in their travel habits. By collaborating across sectors and actors - from students and professionals to companies and organizations - DANSIC will explore concrete solutions to overcome some of the current constraints of sustainable tourism in Europe.
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Who are we? Danish Social Innovation Club DANSIC is a voluntary student organization which aims to strengthen a socially, environmentally and economically sustainable society. Every year DANSIC takes on a new issue. In DANSIC19 our mission is to inspire a generation to become sustainable travelers. During this project we are focusing on new ways rather than to criticize the travel culture that is. The motivation for our project is the negative effect that our travels have on the climate. By not pointing fingers we hope to open more people’s minds to the idea that travelling isn’t always associated with long plane rides to far away destinations. We want to show that many of the same experiences can be attained just as easily in more sustainable ways. The hopes for DANSIC19 is: that you’ll be inspired to innovate your travel habits. That you consider sustainability as a factor that matters. That you will see the possibilities rather than barriers in your future sustainable travels. 04
“Traveling is becoming a still bigger part of young people's life. Because it has become so cheap and accessible. We travel to the other end of the world to experience, to taste and to relax. This has huge consequences for the environment, which has finally come to light in the media during the past 6 months. Many politicians and businesses believe that technological development will solve this problem - and it might solve a part of it - but I believe that we need to reconsider the way we travel and aim at the root cause of it: our travel habits. My hope for DANSIC19's Hacking Habits is that we can make it easier and more attractive to travel slower with an interest for untouched places and hidden stories.”
Pernille Larsen President DANSIC19
What do we think?
Mille Andersen VIce President DANSIC19
“Travelling is an important element in the climate debate that has not previously attracted the same attention as other aspects of consumption – and that is a shame. What about our travel habits? To me personally I had a wowexperience when I calculated my climate footprints and found out by my return flight to New Zealand only, I had already used my personal quota of the world’s resources for a year and a half. One single action counts for that many resources, that is crazy! My hope for DANSIC19’s Hacking Habits is that we can inspire each other to see the value of travelling in an alternative and sustainable way.”
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Idea LAb This year DANSIC created an Idea Lab with the name Hacking Habits in collaboration with Denmark’s brightest and most creative minds! we invited students and experts from both the industry and academia to take part in co-creating solutions to change our current - and often very unsustainable travel habits. It is estimated that tourism accounts for 8 % of the global greenhouse gas emission, and the sector is growing dramatically. Transportation, especially flying, is the greatest emitter in relation to travel, but we encourage you to take all aspects of a travel into account. Including all kinds of activities at the destination, consumption and accommodation. We should investigate and change our perceptions of what it means to travel. We are aware that we can't change the structural issues on one sole weekend, but we planned to start from the bottom with what we have: our minds. This was done through innovative processes and sharing experiences at the Idea Lab.
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We need sustainable solutions that are as easy as booking a flight. We have experienced that information about and inspiration for how to travel more sustainable is lacking. Therefore we wanted to collaborate on developing ideas for future platforms with this purpose. So, we filled the rooms of the IT University in Copenhagen on March 1st-2nd with experts and students ready to hack away at the problem. The student participants were 20-30 years of age. In groups together with people from the industry these young bright minds spend a weekend brainstorming, developing, prototyping etc. with great results! In DANSIC we believe that we need to address the problem internationally, and young people are first movers within the area. The effect of reaching the young generation is large due to the potential lifelong impact. 07
partners 14 partner organisations took part in the Idea Lab as either Experts or Content Partners Content partners The content partners were a part of the groups along side the student participants. Each content partner was working on the barrier most relevant to their field of expertise, and brought valuable knowledge and insights to the table in each group. Experts At the Idea Lab the experts shared their experiences and perspectives, as well as provided feedback on the work of the groups. All experts had extensive professional experience in working with sustainable travel, each in their own domain.
Read more about the partners on the following pages!
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KLIMAHELT “There are so many interesting paths to explore, and sustainable travel does not equal restricted experiences.”
Founders; Stefan Roi & Jakob Gøtterup www.klimahelt.dk
We have started Klimahelt to create an easy and engaging path for our users towards a more sustainable way of living. Our perspective is broad, but we want to emphasize high impact actions, and sustainable travel is one of them. We don't want to tell people they should travel differently or less often. Everyone's already heard that song. No, we want to inspire people, show what experiences sustainable travel has to offer, and make the (dis)advantages clear environmental impact, personal economy, etc. We explore the already existing opportunities to sustainable travelling, gather the information and make it accessible to our users. Our goal is to progress from "flat" information towards simple yet engaging user experiences (think gamification). Sustainable travel must be fun and attractive. What is your best advice to people who wants to travel more sustainable? Travelling has always been about curiosity, exploration, personal learning's and increased outlook. Have these values in mind and be open towards new ways of travelling, instead of just following the same path as everyone else. Maybe you should try hitchhiking for the first time in your life? Maybe Interrail is due for a revival? There are so many interesting paths to explore, and sustainable travel does not equal restricted experiences.
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Blaffernationen “Hitchhiking is a prime fitness center for social trust, curiosity and courage” Fortunately extreme poverty is declining all over the world and people reach middle class level. Therefore a lot of people want to travel in the forthcoming decades. We need to take initiative - most importantly - on a political level but also bottom up as climate conscious consumers by putting pressure on companies and politicians with fun and educational alternatives to flying. In Blaffernationen we inspire people to travel on ground and in near surroundings by using hitchhiking in multiple creative ways. We arrange two yearly holidays/contests (BLAF & BededagsBLAF) where groups of people travel by thumb around the country to investigate hidden places and meet new people outside their own echo chamber. Furthermore we arrange shorter gamified hitchhiking trips for companies that want a fun, social and out-of-thecomfortzone teambuilding event that can spark innovation, chaos management and knowledge sharing across al departments in the company. What is your best advice to people who wants to travel more sustainable? Accept the fact that sustainable travel is (still) a time consuming and troublesome hazzle but life in general is too. The easy way is to fly, but you learn more by travelling slow on ground with time to reflect and digest experiences. Let’s slow down and feel the breeze and take time to have a chat with a stranger. Who might experience something you didn’t plan on.
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Founder; Carsten Thede www.blaffernationen.dk
gomore “The journey itself can be full of fun, surprising and great experiences� Sustainable transport is the foundation and heart of GoMore. We help people share cars and encourage a more sustainable way to travel and use resources. This implies sharing the experience of travelling as well as the mean of travelling: the car. Sharing is highly encouraged through both an environmental and economic benefits for the user who shares. Ultimately, we aim to reduce the number of cars on the street through sharing. Costumer Care Assistant: Frederikke Mouritsen www.gomore.dk
GoMore represents a holistic approach to sustainability in the transport sector. Our initiatives are accessible for everyone, whether you simply wish to share your journey from one place to another or wish to share your own car with people around you. Our business model provides a winwin scenario where people with cars can get their costs covered, people without cars can get a ride or rent a car cheap, and combined that makes a better use of resources. What is your best advice to students who wants to travel more sustainable? During my time on GoMore I have through many encounters with commuters, drivers and car owners learned that the journey itself can be full of fun, surprising and great experiences. If students put a greater focus onto the journey itself and the opportunities it presents, we would maybe be less likely to travel as cheap and as fast as possible to destinations far away.
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rensti "it takes a bit more bravery to dare to travel slowly but you get much richer experiences from it"
Sustainable travel is important to us, because we acknowledge the need and desire to travel, but also that our current way of travelling is hurting the planet. Since our goal at RenSti is to fight global warming in any way possible a part of that is also to try and make travelling less harmful/more sustainable. We offset peoples emissions, amongst others travel related. This means that we measure how much CO2 has been emitted by for example a flight and we then support a project in a developing country, which reduces CO2 by an equivalent amount. This could be planting trees in Africa but it could also be funding a Landfill gas capture system in China. On top of that we (the founders) have both done a great deal of travelling by sustainable means, hiking, hitchhiking, interrailling and taking long bus journeys so we also try to inspire people to do more of the same. What is your best advice to students who wants to travel more sustainable? Well this is going to sound cliché, but embrace that the journey is the goal. And if it truly is the goal, then why not elongate it a bit. Embrace slow travelling. It takes a bit more bravery to dare to travel slowly but you get much richer experiences from it and you don’t damage our planet while doing so.
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Founders; Oliver Martinsen, Oskar Hansen www.rentsti.dk
wonderful copenhagen “Choose the way you use your travel budget carefully, to minimize negative impact and maximize positive impact.”
Sustainability Manager: Mikkel Sander https://www.visitcopenhage n.dk/da/tourismforgood
To stay attractive as a destination, we need to consider sustainability as an essential part of our destination development. The local’s support for future tourism growth is a central part of creating positive interaction between locals and travelers. To maintain the support from the locals, we need to consider and manage the both positive and negative consequences, tourism have on both environmental, social and economic sustainability. Wonderful Copenhagen have recently launched our strategy for sustainable tourism - Tourism for Good. The ambition for 2030 is that tourism in Greater Copenhagen positively impacts local and global sustainable development. Tourism for Good have four focus areas: Broadening Tourism, Tourism Choices Matter, Partnerships for Good and Leading by Example. The strategy also have 12 target to reach in 2021 and 26 suggestions for specific activities. What is your best advice to students who wants to travel more sustainable? Be conscious about your choices. Choose the way you use your travel budget carefully, to minimize negative impact and maximize positive impact.
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andreas greve “Would you do the same at home that you do when you’re out exploring the world?” Travel is a magical thing. Personally, I believe that traveling makes one more educated, tolerant, perhaps even happy. I am lucky to be part of a generation that enjoy almost endless possibilities in regards to going ‘out there’ and seeing new parts of the world. But nothing in life comes for free, neither does unlimited travel, the negative effects of which are documented in the erosion and pollution of local environments and culture, indeed even the global climate because of air travel and unregulated cruise tourism. As part of a research project (Tourism in The Circular Economy) that studies drivers and barriers for tourism practices that support a circular economy, travel is at the core of our field and sustainability is at the heart of my motivation. Even though the point of departure is practices by tourists themselves, I find that we study at the intersection of consumer behavior, structural conditions and business innovation which, I believe, underlines the complexity of innovation in the tourism industry. Perhaps the circular economy may prove a practical tool for improving the state of sustainable tourism? What is your best advice to students who wants to travel more sustainable? To cut it short, I think that if it’s too easy, it’s probably not too sustainable. It doesn’t have to be expensive to travel sustainably, but it may require an extra level of awareness, on your part, to your surroundings and the effects or consequences of your choices when traveling. Would you do the same at home that you do when you’re out exploring the world?
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Researcher RUC: Andreas Greve
motes "We nudge travelers towards more sustainable choices - tour buses are so last year"
Sustainable travel is very important for our business, and more importantly, for our globe. We are all traveling enthusiast, and being able to travel sustainably is a key part of our vision. Our input to sustainable travel is through a digital platform, in which we encourage people to explore the world by foot and bike. Thereby we nudge travelers towards more sustainable choices - tour buses are so last year ;) What is your best advice to students who wants to travel more sustainable? Use our platform ;)
CEO: Mathias Mølgaard & CMO; Yassin Achiban www.motes.world
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rejsrejsrejs “Go with others, share transport, give back to the local societies, and be the good example everyone will talk about after you have left." Being a travel magazine and dealing with all aspects of travel the topic of sustainability is impossible to ignore. The recent focus on each traveler’s own actions in relation to sustainability has made most frequent travelers reconsider their habits. As founders of a sustainable business ourselves we firmly believe in the triple bottom line where the social, the financial and the environmental issues together make up the results. We see sustainable travel as a way of making clever and informed decisions regarding transport without necessarily restricting travel as a result. At RejsRejsRejs.dk we are in the process of developing a branding option for tour operators with a sustainable profile to make it easy for them to highlight sustainability as a selling point along with the price and the level of comfort. We also raise the question of different types of sustainability relating to travel and encourage our readers to consider all the aspects of being a sustainable traveler. What is your best advice to people who want to travel more sustainable? First of all do not let yourself get bullied into missing out or feeling bad about traveling in general. Look into the amazing places around you and think about why other travelers go halfway around the world to see something which was right next to you all along. Take all aspects of sustainability into account when traveling – not just the flight. Go with others, share transport, give back to the local societies, and be the good example everyone will talk about after you have left.
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Founders; Jacob Gowland Jørgensen & Jens Skovgard Andersen www.rejsrejsrejs.dk
trailtours “Imagine taking the train to China, what adventures might be ahead of you…?" We at Trailtours.dk believe we can change the way people travel. We can do better; more responsible, more sustainable and still show that people can explore and experience the world. We love to run trails as trails are in the nature, we all must take care of it. Originally the thought behind Trailtours.dk was to arrange breathtaking travels around the world, in steep mountain ranges or in the rainforest. As time went by, the thought of doing business on behalf of the planet’s wellbeing became more and more distant. Founder; Simon Grimstrup www.trailtours.dk
To travel can never be done 100% Co2 neutral – life can’t, so why travel. We want to show that a sustainable choice can still happen without having to compromise comfort, experiences or effectiveness. We will not offer any travels by airplane but by train or bus where train is not an option. We will respect the local traditions where we are, we will blend in instead of standing out. What is your best advice to students who wants to travel more sustainable? Think out of the box when you chose how to travel. As a student, money is often few – so pack your bike or backpack and go for it. Take the train – bus or boat and make the road a journey and an unique adventure – where you will find yourself in remote and friendly places, away from all tourist traps! If you want to see more of the world – think ‘train’. It takes a bit more planning and time, but worth it. Imagine taking the train to China, what adventures might be ahead of you…?
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airbnb “Through home sharing, guests are provided with the opportunity to live like locals.� Airbnb is built on the foundation that home sharing delivers authentic, sustainable experiences for guests while benefiting local people, places and communities. The Airbnb host community incorporates numerous environmentally friendly practices in their hosting, such as guiding guests on how to separate household waste, use public transit or by providing bicycles during stays. Staying in someone’s home also entails a more efficient use of space than traditional accommodation, which is primarily built for travellers rather than locals and has a constant energy consumption. Guided by local hosts providing unique recommendations, Airbnb travelers engage with destinations through a more diverse set of activities than travelers who stay in traditional accommodations. Through home sharing, guests are provided with the opportunity to live like locals. Airbnb is not only changing how people travel, but also where they travel, distributing travelers more evenly both within and across destinations. The vast majority of the money generated on Airbnb flows directly to hosts, and in turn benefits local economy when hosts spend and reinvest their earnings in their communities. What is your best advice to students who want to travel more sustainable? I personally believe in guests educating themselves about the destination they are visiting and how they might support environmentally sustainable initiatives led by locals.
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Community Organiser in the Nordics; Cathrine Reimann
As well as
Represented by; Jack Robinson & Roger LeBlanc
Represented by; David Paagh
Represented by; Nikolai Zoffmann & Camilla Nelly Jensen
Represented by; Tomas Penxa
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Barriers Why is it, that even though we might actually want to travel more climate-consciously, we often do not act according to these intentions? Prior to the idea lab, we dived into this question to understand the barriers that hinder us from breaking the bad habits and become more climate-friendly travelers. We browsed through research papers about psychological mechanisms that push us to ignore the link between our individual actions, climate change and the social mechanisms that makes us travel around the globe. We realized - not surprisingly - that there are several reasons for the above question. We managed to identify 5 central barriers that hinder climate-friendly travels.
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Barriers
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outcome The Idea Lab was all about coming up with solutions on how to break the barriers of sustainable travelling. We are very proud to present the inspiring, creative and brilliant prototypes, which the participants came up with. For more information about the solutions or the groups' processes, contact DANSIC to get the contact details of group members. You can read a more detailed description of the prototypes and processes on: www.dansic.org/category/prototypes/
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Group 1 Eszter Szathmari Mimi Shen Sofie Frederikke Lau-Jeppesen Yassin Achiban
Barrier: Global vs. Local
It is essentially possible to recharge yourself in your own backyard The group has developed an app called Recharge - It’s easier than you think. The idea of the app is to make local experiences more attractive. Recharge is meant to tackle the feeling of recharging that you get from sipping a cocktail by the pool somewhere exotic. According to this group, striving for this feeling can be the motivation behind many people’s travels. Therefore they asked themselves: "Can you create this same feeling without the exotic surroundings?". The Recharge app will inform the traveller of the list of initiatives and experiences around the traveller's location via a map. A filter will make it easier for the traveller to find out if there are any experiences close by, which fit their specific interests. If the traveller is on a schedule, they can enter the desired amount of travel time into the filter, and the app will then only display options possible within the given time frame. The app will also have an information site, where the traveller can educate themselves on how to be a sustainable traveller. In order for the app to work, the group has considered partnering up with local tourist information, Naturstyrelsen and similar organisations. Influencers will help make it more attractive to travel locally and create an interest in these areas. 26
“We believe that a big problem in the way we think about vacation is that many people are convinced about the fact that you need to travel far away - by plane - in order to get the feeling of recharging yourself.
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Group 2 Gabrielle Rokkjær Vivian Madsen Frederikke Mouritsen
Barrier: Lack of Alternatives
It is not about the destination, it is the journey that’s important “Why do we want to do this? We want to support the culturally attentive and curious traveller by providing authentic alternatives” To solve this problem the group has designed a platform that facilitates slow travel called Slow-on-the-Go. This platform is meant to display alternative measures of transportation and alternative destinations; partial destinations. The partial destination is exactly what it sounds to be - a destination on the way to your final destination. The platform will generate alternative routes with partial destinations based on the slow travel principles through a filter and criteria picked out by the user. The content for the website is therefore based on user-generated content and is reliant on active users. The idea is that only by travelling slowly you can experience the journey - the Slowon-the-Go platform provides the user with a very personalized experience, that you won’t get a second chance at. “We need to demystify alternative travelling. We believe that most people want to travel more sustainably and alternatively, but they don’t know how to do it or what it demands from them. Our prototype demystifies slow travel by guiding the traveller towards making the journey the focus rather than the destination - and making it fun to be sustainable.” 28
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Group 3 Signe Dreyer ElkjĂŚr Laura Eveliina Karppinen Heidi Beck Pedersen Simon Grimstrup
Barrier: Global vs. Local
A platform to raise the awareness about the opportunities of traveling locally The group’s overall goal of the days at the Idea Lab was to come up with a solution, that would be able to increase people’s awareness on the opportunities of traveling in local areas. The way in which the group suggested to raise the awareness was to start in the local communities by enabling them to organize and brand themselves as tourist destinations. The solution is a platform targeting two different user groups. One group is smaller local communities, villages etc.. First, they would engage these communities through meetings and provide help with organizing activities, that can make their village a tourist destination. Not all locals need to be engaged, but the acceptance from everyone is needed. Suggested activities from the villagers to provide are such as letting the tourists put up a tent in their garden, taking the tourists on a hike, go sailing and sharing stories about the local area. These activities are supposed to be visualized through the digital platform. The second user group is the travellers. The travellers will be presented with a map on the platform showing all the possible go-to villages in Scandinavia and the availability. The traveller can look into different activities and see the reviews and ratings from previous visitors. When choosing the wanted activity the traveller is forwarded to the next landing page, where possible accommodations and eating places are shown. Once everything has been chosen the last landing page shows the route of the travel and the total price. 30
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Group 4 Mikkel Kildetoft Anna Eriksen Camilla Nelly Jensen
Barrier: Sustainability Equals Restrictions
Can sustainable filters reform existing giants in the travel-industry? "Flip this problem to make a solution: We want to make 'sustainability equal opportunity' instead. So we need to make sustainable choices easier. They should be more accessible. They should be less expensive. And they should still be in good quality. So how do we do this?� The solution is to add a green filter to a online booking platform that is used to purchase flights. In that way, all the flights will be ranked from being the 'most sustainable' to the 'least sustainable'. Working the same way as the current filters such as: 'fastest', 'cheapest' and 'best'. The group tested their idea among the participants of the Idea Lab and found that the most important factors when booking a flight is: price and time. Additionally, it was found that if one plane is faster than another and just slightly more pricey (eg. 510%), the faster plane is usually more popular. Lastly, people asked for transparency in this newly added sustainable filter, i.e. 'how it is being measured?'. People in general consider what is globally accepted and certified, so there is a need for a global certified parameter in order for the prototype to succeed. The prototype is not only possible to implement on the largest and most popular booking platforms, but also to any other website that sells services or products that could benefit from being ranked from being the 'most sustainable' to the 'least sustainable'. The selling point of the prototype is the algorithm. 32
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Group 5 Julia Anna Keller Nina Heltmann Andreas Greve
Barrier: Identity of A Traveller
Travelling Classrooms: A package solution for schoolteachers and pedagogues in 5th to 10th grade “We hardly believe that there is one mainstream traveller identity or behaviour that corresponds to sustainable travel behaviour. Why react to an existing mindset when we can change it from the bottom up across generations?! Travelling Classrooms is about educating and impacting children who will be able to inspire and teach their parents to change their travel habits.� The group came up with the idea; Traveling Classrooms which is a specialized tour package proposed to schools and teachers. The aim for Travelling Classrooms is to engage and activate children on sustainable travels and tours. The children will be able to educate their parents and inspire them to do sustainable travels through funny sustainable tour experiences. The children form new travel identities across generations that will lead to new sustainable practices. It will be taught in a fun way to the children and part of the curriculum in school and a new way to the internal school trips which will be done sustainably. Travelling Classrooms will make it easier for teachers and pedagogues to plan school trips as well, as they will get sustainable travel education and motivation. The travels will be arranged by the team behind Travelling Classrooms consisting of experts in sustainability and pedagogues who will customize the travels to the needs the specific school class might have. 34
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Group 6 Johan Scheller Martina Strpkova Anna Rozecka Carsten Thede
Barrier: Sustainability Equals Restrictions
Here’s why you should switch your weekend trip away from London or Berlin “What we want to do, is to offer all travellers something quite unique. How can we do that? We want to replace their London or Berlin trip with something very local.” To offer this unique experience the group came up with an idea for an app which will guide you through your local travels. The traveller enters his or her interest; Outdoor, dining or culture - for the app to find out which type of traveller it is dealing with. It will also filter who is travelling: a couple, single or a family; the traveller's budget, and will ask 'Where do you want to go?'. When the information is entered, the app will then give the traveller suggestions for local activities. The idea is that private initiatives, local businesses and local municipalities will collaborate to give inputs and contacts for the application. The concept is developed to connect with an existing app called Landsby-app’en (The Village App); a local organizing app for smaller villages. This collaboration will benefit the agenda of sustainable travel, but also aid in attracting young people to the more outskirt parts of the country.
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"If you look closely, you’ll find that many things go on in the small villages around the country. Within the local community there are plenty of opportunities and experiences, if you just engage yourself locally. By talking to - and staying amongst the locals - you will experience their worlds and basically get to know your own country like the inside of your palm."
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Group 7 Alina Stoicescu Nikolaj Jensen Elinor Samuelsson Tomas Penxa
Barrier: Lack of Alternatives
An app that provides travellers with eco-friendly and personal travel opportunities After working on the barrier 'Lack of Alternatives' the group came up with the idea of Sloth Travel. It is an app with the purpose of helping travellers experience travelling locally by leading them through certain filters to personalise their trip. On the first landing page the traveller will be welcomed and asked the desired where the journey should start, as well as the period of the travel, the budget of the travel and the numbers of travellers. When this information has been provided, the traveller is forwarded to the next landing page, where the purpose is to get closer to the traveller's interest. On this page the traveller is then asked to select certain interests such as hiking, art, music, wine, adventure, cycling, yoga and history etc.. Next, the traveller will be forwarded to a page showing two optional travels based on the traveller's information. For example, it can be possible to choose between “Berlin Hiking Heroes” of 160 carbon footprint and “Stockholm Climbing” of 80 carbon footprint - with that information the traveller can base their choice of travel on both interests and the amount of CO2 emission. On this page it is also possible for the traveller to change their previous entered information by clicking on 'time', 'interest”, 'cost' and 'travel', and then new possible travels will show up based on the new information. 38
“Once upon a time there were two very climate conscious individuals named Sophie and Simon, who were a bit frustrated, because they were two friends who wanted to go on vacation, but they knew it was bad to fly, and therefore they were looking for other options. They didn’t really find anything where they could get a good transparency of the different options and weight them against one another. However, luckily for them, last week there was this new amazing thing that was launched, called: Sloth Travel. We slothify travel.”
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Group 8 Fei Xie Nanna Lynggaard Mathias Mølgaard
Barrier: The Identity of A Traveller
A storytelling based scavenger hunt The group has come up with a solution to the question: 'How do we integrate sustainability in the equation in a way that supports the cool traveller's identity?'. First, plane travel needs to be eliminated from the equation meaning that the travel has to be done locally. To keep the cool backpacker excited the group developed an app based on storytelling. It provides the user with options of 3 different types of travel: a search for quirky experiences around Denmark, a mystery hunt or a theme based travel called 'Where is Denmark sustainable?'. The app presents itself as a map of the chosen area with 3 different opportunities to explore the same place, as mentioned before. The user selects a story and is then given a map to follow. As the traveller's take theier journey they’ll come along places of interest and the map will tell them that there’s a story to unlock. When they’ve unlocked the story the next opportunity will present itself. The Idea is based on an already exciting concept created by Motes for Nørrebro and Vesterbro in Copenhagen, but this prototype targets more remote and alternative destinations in Denmark.
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“We’ve focused on the identity of the young backpacker - the cool traveller - who spends his or her gap year travelling the world. What do you gain from these travels? The answers we came up with was.. … It’s a way to be unique. … It’s a status symbol. … It portrays you as an open and curious person. … It’s a way to challenge yourself. … It can give you personal growth. … And you’ll have lots of stories to tell when you come back."
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Group 9 Katherine Anne Jowett Mia Nielsen Prashant Singh Oliver Martinsen
Barrier: The "Invisible" Consequences
The solution is to rechange the system from a young age, rather than to change it now This group came up with a solution for a software platform, which can be implemented in the educational system, that will help shape future sustainable citizens. Each student will have their personal profile on the platform, but it’ll also contain a social aspect as well, that considers the whole school in a profile. Lastly, it will have a page for educational purposes on sustainability. The digital platform is built so the user will experience access to a personal student profile with the latest sustainable news and research in the area of interest for the student. On this personal profile the student can enter the personal data and calculate their carbon footprint for different things. The idea is that each student gets a practical one-on-one experience with sustainability as they can enter their data and follow the results (weekly and yearly) as they improve or degrade; they get a ranking and suggestions on how to make their behaviour further sustainable.  Being part of society and therefore having an impact, the students will also be able to follow the data of their school. The group has thought of the possibility to create a household group or an impact group with friends too. The software should advance in complexity as the student ages. Starting early but simple will help integrate a sustainable mindset in the students, and make the environment a natural consideration for them - this will hopefully shatter some of the barriers between the person and the sustainable behaviour. 42
“Maybe the reason why some of these barriers are invisible is a lack of education and a lack of willingness to find out the impact you’re having in terms of sustainability. How can we educate and encourage new ways of thinking, so you do want to know the impact you’re having?"
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Group 10 Asta Maria Veisig Baggesen Louise Olofsson Lasse Lindsteen Oskar Hansen
Barrier: The “Invisible” consequences
A society with social impact to keep your feet on the ground “We chose to flip the problem thinking, that the answer is not to hit people in the head telling them not to fly, but instead showing them the possibilities when choosing not to fly.” This group came up with an idea called We stay on earth, which is the name of an organization and a community for people who have chosen not to fly in connection with their vacation this summer. Together with different collaboration partners the organisation will offer different sustainable local experiences, that can replace the experiences travellers would’ve had on a vacation abroad. The community has monthly meet-ups where members can share experiences, and continue to feel inspired to stay on the right path. This community offers a solution on how to simply get people motivated to 'stay on earth'. By making the problem a social effort the group believes, that it is easier to activate a larger group of people to make a change. When the group tested their idea they pretended to be friendly recruiter from their organisation and asked if people would be interested in joining the community and what they would pay. They found out that some people were willing to pay a yearly fee of a 1,000 Danish Krone if experiences were free! 44
"The thought is, that in order to eliminate travels by plane for vacation purposes, we need to share positive experiences when doing so, and to inspire people with ideas for what is then possible. We believe it’s important that you can feel the effort you’re making, and not only the frustrations from feeling that you’re the only one doing anything - if you meet the other people that are making the same effort you are, then you realize the difference your choices are making.”
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thanks to all the bright and inspirering minds that took part in dansic19 idea lab
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are you ready for more inspiration?
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Through the DANSIC19 year we've gathered sustainable travel stories from inspiring people.
In this next section we've chosen a few stories to share with you.
You'll also find other inspirational pieces we've made during DANSIC19.
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If you think it is too hard or challenging, you should try it! Last summer Mette and her friend grabbed their bikes, packed their stuff and started their travel to Paris by bike. An ordinary traveller of today might have wanted to ask the pair why they didn’t just take the plane direct to Paris. The answer to that question is, that Mette didn’t even consider it: “I thought it was strange to fly to Paris, when there were so many places in-between Denmark and Paris that I had never seen before”. That mindset is a really good answer on how we as global citizens become more sustainable travellers. And that should be the general way of thinking of tomorrow's traveller. 50
Name: Mette Studnitz Jørgensen Age: 22 years old Occupation: Taking a gap year, currently working at a cafÊ Where did you travel to and how? My friend and I biked from Bjerringbro to Hamburg, through Germany, to Amsterdam, to Antwerp, Brussels and then to Paris. We used our own bikes, which were nothing special. We carried our bagage in bags on our bikes.
What inspired you to travel sustainably? I thought it was strange to fly to Paris, when there were so many places in-between Denmark and Paris that I had never seen before. It was nice not having to depend on any flight, prices and so on. We decided every minute where we would go and for how long.
Did you consider the fact that you traveled ecofriendly? Yes I did, and it felt good. It was also eco-friendly for me, because I spent almost a month and a half outdoors. It was nice going to bed and being woken up each morning by the sunlight. 51
In order to avoid flying, Oliver chose to travel by bus from Copenhagen to Italy. And he has come to appreciate slow travelling, which he now thinks of as a very healthy thing to do when you have an extremely busy life.
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Name: Oliver Age: 23 years old Occupation: Running the environmental organisation RenSti Where did you travel to and how? I travelled from Copenhagen to Cervinia in Italy by bus. What inspired you to travel sustainably? I mainly chose to travel this way to avoid flying. But, I have come to appreciate travelling slowly through many trips; hitchhiking, interrailing or taking longdistance buses. I have an extremely busy life, always balancing on the verge of getting stressed. So I think forcing myself to unplug for 30something hours at a time was a very healthy thing to do. What do you take with you from the travel? Well lots of things really. I got to know some people I would have never talked to otherwise, like a group of Colombian exchange students with whom I could practice my Spanish. I also read two books I’d kept postponing, got a lot of work done, tried meditating for an hour for the first time, saw some beautiful landscapes and most of all, I got to really relax and get a bit bored. We are never really bored these days, so that was nice for a change. 53
“My choice of going by train won’t solve anything but hopefully it can be a step in the process of changing the attitude regarding how to live and travel more sustainably – both to myself and maybe people around me.”
Name: Mads Due Hansen Age: 26 years old Occupation: Student, intern at Vallekilde Højskole 54
Where did you travel to and how? I lived in Rome for half a year in the second half of 2018 and the start of 2019. When I was about to return to Denmark, I chose to travel home by train. I travelled from Rome to Milan and from there to Copenhagen – through Venice, Munich and Frankfurt.
Did you consider the fact that you travelled eco-friendly? Yes, very much. I believe that we all have to take action in the transforming of our ways of living regarding the current – and future – challenges to our climate.
What do you take with you from the travel? A lot. Even though it was tough, we also experienced a lot of nice moments. Watching the landscapes changing up through Europe. Watching the sun rise from our seats. Packing out snacks and settling into the train cabins. Long and calm talks about whatever.
Did this trip inspire you to continue travelling sustainably? Definitely. I don’t know when I’ll go by plane again. I don’t see it happening in the near future. 55
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Where did you travel to and how?
Name: Mark Elimann Age: 24 years old Occupation: Student at Copenhagen Business School and working at Intellishore as Marketing Associate
I travelled from Copenhagen to Paris and I did it by hitchhiking. Why did you choose to hitchhike? I think the main reason why I chose to hitchhike was because of the challenge. A lot of people are afraid of hitchhiking - they don’t know who is going to pick you up, are they going to steal from you etc., but I was up for the challenge and I had a great trip and met a lot of nice people, so it was awesome.
Did you consider the fact that you travelled eco-friendly? To be honest, that was not the main reason why I did it. But if you can travel eco-friendly and at the same time have a good time and get to the destination you want to go - I think that should be the way you do it.
Did this trip inspire you to continue travelling sustainably? Definitely. I don’t know when I’ll go by plane again. I think it was great meeting a lot of new people. Everyone who picks you up they want company, they want to chat, tell their story, hear your story. That’s a nice way of travelling instead of just get onto a flight, sitting there and you don’t really want to talk to the guy next to you. When you go hitchhiking, the guy next to you wants to talk with you and you want to talk with him, and I think that is a really nice combination. It'll happen again in the near future.
How was your trip? Before going, I was afraid that maybe I would be standing for four hours and not getting picked up, but after 15 minutes the first guy picked me up and it was on! It was pretty smooth all the way. First stop was in Hamburg the first day, I spent the night there, met some awesome people. The next day I went to Cologne and then I ended up in Paris. Would you do it again? Yes definitely! Just waiting for the right time and then I’ll be off. 57
Sustain Daily on how to change our habits into being more sustainable Sustain Daily is a community and an inspirational universe for everyone who wants to live more sustainably in their everyday life. Johanne Stenstrup, CEO at Sustain Daily, has told us a little bit about her experiences with changing habits and considering sustainability when travelling.
“It is different from person to person how one is able to change habits. At Sustain Daily, we talk about starting with the fun stuff. It is often the things that people don’t find fun that are difficult to change. For me, it is hard to eat more eco-friendly, for others it might be hard to change their travel habits�. 58
Consider the purpose of your travel and be a responsible tourist “You have to consider what travel or vacation you want: If the purpose is a relaxing vacation, it can easily take place in Denmark or close to Denmark. Are you travelling with the purpose of experiences, you should consider if a travel by train can fulfil that. Or are you travelling with other purposes, the possibilities of being a responsible tourist should be considered”
She explained further that you can easily be a responsible tourist by minimizing plastic on your travel or spending your money locally instead of buying from large companies. Johanne’s ultimate advice was to give yourself a “purchase stop” where you consider your purchase in a longer time, whether it is new clothes, furniture or a travel. Read the full article on our website: www.dansic.org 59
Unfortunately, there isn’t much the individual citizen, company, or organization can do to change the global growth of air travel or the insufficient regulation of CO2 emissions, but this does not mean that one stands without important opportunities for action. There is not only one possible solution to the problem, but several "handles" you can use.  Henrik Gudmundson, CONCITO
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Consider whether the journey is necessary - Consider whether the activity can be carried out in another way, for example via SKYPE, Video meeting, Virtual reality or other IT solutions, or by vacationing locally. - Consider replacing the destination with an attractive alternative destination that does not involve air travel
Consider alternative means of transport than aircraft - Examine realistic alternative travel modes, eg. by train, bus or car where several people are traveling together, which will most often significantly reduce the travel climate footprint
Choose the most climate-efficient flight if you want to fly anyway - Check if the travel length can be minimized and choose the shortest route; Avoid far detours as much as possible and stopovers - Investigate the possible airlines to choose and select the company with the most modern fuel-efficient aircraft and the best climate performance
Compensate for the discharge the flight entails - Compensate (or overcompensate) the entire flight's climate footprint through support for projects that reduce or counteract a similar greenhouse gas emission - Allow compensation to be made through schemes that are certified to the highest standards, such as the Gold Standard or Verified Carbon Standard - Consider supporting projects that also support sustainable development and catalyze increased climate understanding and action 61
Kaospilot: “It is not so important what we do, but that we do something” It is difficult to change people’s behaviour in regards to travelling, but it is necessary – so where do we start? According to August Septimius Krogh, student at Kaospilot, the first step is to make people think about their behaviour. Therefore, he facilitated a project with the aim to make his peers consider their travel habits as they travelled to Barcelona on exchange. Together with some peers, August created a competition which concerned getting to Barcelona with the lowest CO2 emission compared to the price spent on the travel. The intention of the competition was to force their peers to think about their behaviour. “We didn’t want to change our peers' behaviour by setting restrictions and directing what decisions they should make” Instead, the team wanted to try and nudge their peers through this competition to hopefully push some habits. “I am certain that we succeeded in creating an overall awareness about the CO2 tag on travels. I was confronted by a few people on the team, who have never thought about travelling in this way. They were deeply touched by having to calculate their own CO2 emissions, which have definitely changed their way of thinking.” 62
Sustainable challenge for your travels 1 To start with, you can take fewer but longer trips. 2 Travel over land, so you do not have to take the plane. 3 Although you are on a vacation you should keep all the unused lights off. Reduced CO2: 50kg. 4 Bring your own mug when going for coffee and your own water bottle. Reduced CO2: 5kg. 5 Use reusable bags when shopping. Reduced CO2: 1kg. 6 Rent a bike or walk when on vacation. Many larger cities offer shared city bikes. Reduced CO2: 6kg. 7 Shop and eat locally grown food. Reduced CO2: 5kg and help local farmers. 8 Reduce your meat consumption by half. Reduced CO2: 15kg. 9 Respect cultural differences and learn from them! People in different places do things differently. Don’t try to change them – enjoy them. 10 Forget the plastic wrapping for your packed lunch - use a more ecofriendly solution, such as Beeswax wrap. 11 Pick up garbage when you see some. 12 Get a stainless steel or bamboo straw instead of using plastic straws. 13 Minimise your shower - even though you think you deserve a loooooong hot one. (the average hotel guest uses over 300 litres of water per night! In a luxury hotel it is approx. 1800 litres!) 14 Always ask before taking photographs. If someone says no, respect their wishes - happy locals makes for more sustainable destinations. 15 Choose eco-friendly hotels - ask them about their sustainability practices – Do they compost and recycle? Do they uphold fair labour laws? Do they have an effective environmental policy? Based on a weekly duration. Sources: http://www.yousustain.com/challenges & https://www.bustle.com/p/6sustainable-living-tips-to-try-during-earth-month-2018-8684237
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or f u o y k n a We th r a e y C I S this DAN
DANSIC 2019 64
Read more on www.dansic.org/travel-stories www. dansic.org/idea-lab-2019 www.dansic.org/category/prototypes or follow us on
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