There are several possibilities to spend ones holidays or leisure time. Travelling and exploring new cultures or landscapes is one thing many people like. The annual holidays can be spent out in nature far away from home or in a luxurious hotel nearby. But, also for leisure activities there are several options like a day skiing or in the zoo, visiting a cinema or a museum.

Many people recognize the environmental importance of travelling from one place to the other by different means of transportation. But, tourism is more than this. It involves also the accommodation as well as the activities with which one spends the day.

This is the starting point for some of our projects were we investigate several issues related to tourism from cradle to grave in life cycle assessment studies. These investigations involve for example:

• Different scenarios for reaching the final destination by bike, car, train or bus
• Different types of accommodation ranging from camping places, rented homes, mobile homes, mountain huts to five star hotels
• All types of activities one can do, such as diving, sailing, cruises, mobile homes or visiting zoos, cinemas, indoor pools, museums or theatres
• Other issues related to the holidays such as the food preparation and consumption

Our investigations show that often the distance and mode of transportation is important for the environmental impacts caused. But, there are also activities like cruises or heliskiing that can lead to considerable higher environmental impacts than other types of holiday activities.

We can help to better understand and reduce the environmental impacts of companies in the tourism sector (e.g. a hotel owner or the operator of a skiing resort) with our studies. We help consumers and organisations to plan environmental friendly holidays which give the satisfaction of discovering something new without harming the environment too much. Finally we can also offer a range of life cycle inventory data that allow calculating environmental impacts such as the carbon footprint of leisure activities.

• Büsser S., Stucki M., Jungbluth N. Environmental Impacts of Holiday and Leisure Activities. Poster  17th SETAC case studies symposium, 28.2.-1.3.2011 in Budapest

• Research study by Büsser & Jungbluth "Umweltbelastungen verschiedener Ferienszenarien im In- und Ausland (Environmental impacts of holiday scenarios in Switzerland and abroad)" commissioned by WWF Switzerland in 2010.

• Project "Carbon footprint of Swiss mountain railways and skiing" 2010

• Perch-Nielsen S., Sesartic, A. & Stucki M. (2010) The greenhouse gas intensity of the tourism sector: The case of Switzerland. In: Environmental Science & Policy,  13, pp. 131-140.

• Kreuzfahrten belasten die Umwelt stark. 21.12.2008. Der «Tages-Anzeiger» hat für acht verschiedene Ferienarten ein kurzes Ökoprofil von ESU-services erstellen lassen. Ski fahren ist top, Kreuzfahrten sind ähnlich umweltbelastend  wie Badeferien in der Karibik. (auch erschienen in der Basler Zeitung, Berner Zeitung)

• CO2-Reduktion im Alltag: Der Klimaschutz-Lifestyle. Manche Leute erfüllen bereits heute die klimapolitischen Ziele der Schweiz für das Jahr 2020 – zum Teil, ohne sich dessen bewusst zu sein. Gehören Sie auch dazu? Artikel im Magazin UMWELT 3/2008 Klimawandel basierend auf einer Studie von ESU-services im Auftrag des BAFU.

• Jungbluth, N. & Frischknecht, R. 5.3.2002: "Ökobilanzen für den Flugverkehr." In Suter, P. IGLA Interessengemeinschaft Lebensqualität Altenrhein und Umgebung

• Sesartic A. & Stucki M. (2007) How Climate Efficient Is Tourism in Switzerland? An Assessment of Tourism's Carbon Dioxide Emissions in Relation to Its Added Value. ETH, Zürich.

Contact: Niels Jungbluth