Environmental Leader

While at least one travel agency is ditching the notion of using carbon offsets for air travel, a prominent U.S.-based Internet booking agent still believes. Travelocity is using social media networking to promote carbon offsets for air travel, while offering free carbon offsets for the holidays.

Travelocity has created a fan page on Facebook, where it is offering to offset any fan’s holiday travel for free. Travelocity plans to donate in excess of $10,000 to The Conservation Fund, toward planing of native trees to offset carbon emissions.

Travelocity already has the Travel for Good program, which promotes sales of carbon offsets to travelers.

Travelocity has more than 10,760 fans on its Facebook fan page, where it also promotes “green” hotels and volunteerism during travel.

Earlier this year, Travelocity launched a green directory to help consumers plan responsible travel.

The Green Directory is a destination guide for people interested in ecotourism, but goes a step further by creating a list of hotels that are making sustainability efforts so that those traveling for business rather than pleasure can also go green while away from home.

Just months ago, one of the first travel agencies to give fliers the option to offset the carbon emissions of their flights ceased offering the program, calling it a “medieval pardon.” Responsibletravel.com, a UK travel agency, had been offering the offsetting option since 2002. Now it believes the best way to address global emissions is to focus on reducing emissions in the travel industry, instead of offsetting them.

Yet Travelocity is not alone in seeing a future for carbon offsets and air travel. For instance, kiosks at San Francisco International Airport allow fliers to offset the carbon footprint of their flights.