it’s the perfect time to experience something new with your new partner, and for spending quality time together in your first days together.

Even so, there are several paths you can take through doing a little green honeymoon planning to help minimize its environmental impact without compromising your dream honeymoon.

Consider Staying Closer to Home

Limiting or avoiding travel altogether is simply the best way to avoid any environmental impact and lower carbon footprint after your wedding. There may be a wealth of undiscovered locations that are just around the corner and traveling by train is the perfect Eco-friendly travel method to see them. It is understandable, however, if you dot not want to give up a trip abroad. So if this is the case then simply follow some of the green honeymoon planning suggestions provided below.

Support Eco-Tourism When Planning Your Trip

You might have heard of “Eco-tourism” before, and the “ecotourist” label is now used to represent those who want to travel but in a way that causes as little impact on the environment as possible.

Truth be told, Eco-tourism is the fastest growing market in the tourism industry according to the World Tourism Organization. This is good for you because many hotels and resorts are now incorporating Eco-friendly practices into their normal business operations.

More Ways to Enhance Your Green Honeymoon Planning Process

Green honeymoon planning must take into account a number of factors;  probably even more than you think. There are numerous things to consider in addition to how to get there, including:

* Is the area your planning to honeymoon considered Earth friendly?
* What types of dining facilities are there in the area?
* Do the dining businesses use locally grown food thereby reducing your impact?
* Are the lodging facilities considered Eco-accommodations?
* How you are going to get around once you are there?
* Where you’re going to shop (hint: shop local and look for Eco-friendly products),
* Does the travel agent you’re using specialize in Eco-trips?
* Consider other little things (not having your sheets washed every day) that can make a big difference,
* Whether you’re going to do any local volunteer work when you’re there (try WWOOFing – working on organic farms – and other schemes that benefit the local area).

How to Book Your Green Honeymoon

When you book your green honeymoon, you can make things a lot easier by using an Eco-conscious travel agent who understands what your motivations are. They can help you book a package that will help minimize your trip’s impact on the environment.

However, you always need to remember that many businesses claim to be green simply as a marketing tactic, so it’s up to you to do your research to ensure that they really do live up to their promises.

You Should Consider Carbon Offsets During Planning

You’ll find that many organizations are offering a way to offset your carbon emissions by making donations that will help to give back to the environment. However, it’s important to realize that this is a last resort, and many critics claim that offsetting your carbon can never completely make up for the emissions you will create as part of your travel.

In fact, it has been shown that some companies may overstate the benefits of offsets, which is another method of green-washing. Certain projects, such as renewable energy projects, could be worth more than others, so choose your cause carefully – and remember to avoid generating excess carbon as much as possible.

Although this article only touches on the basics of green honeymoon planning, I hope it’s given you different things to consider to lower your environmental impact during your honeymoon. Trying to live green doesn’t have to mean a honeymoon that’s any less enjoyable. Completely the opposite really since you’ll be able to enjoy yourself more knowing you’re doing what you can to minimize emissions and boost the economy in the area where you are honeymooning.

“I read the news today, oh boy”

I mean there are some days when I read articles in the news and I just sit shaking my head mainly due to all the negativity. Yesterday’s shaking however, is an example of stupidity centering on an issue continuing to persist because of the news and questionable advertising.

The story from lovely old England was partly about the bottled water companies trying to wage war against tap water dues to falling sales.

Now I realize the story was merely reporting the state of bottled water industry trying to regain lost sales through advertising and marketing but sheesh!

The piece noted one of the tactics used by the bottled water industry was to attack the degrading water quality of municipal tap water.

Although some municipal water systems may have degraded water quality, those systems (at least in this country) are constantly monitored (not the case for the bottled water industry in most instances) and still have to make minimum water quality standards as set by the Safe Water Drinking Act (again here in the U.S.).

Does that really warrant spending $5.00 to $8.00 per gallon (even more in some places) for bottled water versus a few cents per gallon (unfiltered) and maybe up to $0.25 per gallon (if filtered) from our tap?

Not in my mind!

A few other issues with bottled water include:

• Greater than 25% of bottled water providers here in the U.S. are not from remote “pristine” springs but are actually filtered municipal water;
• There are many cases where bottled water quality has been determined to be degraded;
• Bottled water companies also process the water prior to bottling;
• Tap water is delivered via an existing piping system usually driven by gravity; bottled water has to be packaged and shipped to end user (often with several intermediate stops);
• Bottle water comes in bottles (usually plastic, sometimes glass) with most of them being discarded as trash; &
• It takes extra energy and resources to make the bottles (most of which end up as trash) and ship them as noted above.

So please ….. GIVE ME A BREAK!

In what alternate reality does anyone think bottled water is better than tap water?  (Assuming not in an under-developed country of course) ….

Only in the alternate reality of the news, advertising and marketing.

A recent study to quantify the increase of bisphenol-A or BPA in human urine excreted from people drinking water from hard plastic (polycarbonate)  bottles was recently completed by researchers at the Harvard Medical School.

The results of their study identified a 69% increase of BPA in the urine from test subjects drinking water from polycarbonate plastic bottles containing bisphenol-A (BPA).

There is an ongoing debate concerning the health effects of bisphenol-A (BPA), a chemical additive to plastic bottles storing consumable liquids, in adults, though other studies have shown possible links to heart disease and liver toxicity.

Detailed information can be found on the original news post at Boston.com (The Boston Globe) by clicking the following link:

Harvard study backs bottle concern