More sustainable options to visit Barcelona, electric cars, and the carbon footprint.
As a small local business, we are always trying to be more sustainable and aware of our social and ecological impact. Calculating the carbon footprint is one of the measurements we can use to see how we are doing.
👣 What’s the Carbon Footprint?
As we can read in the Britannica Encyclopedia: “A carbon footprint measures the carbon dioxide emissions from a person, building, or country, including those from manufacturing, heating, and transportation. It often includes other greenhouse gases like methane”
🧳 What relation does carbon footprint have with tourism?
According to the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), tourism accounts for roughly 5% of all man-made global (CO2) emissions. This footprint includes all greenhouse gases generated by tourism-related transport, accommodations, and activities.
What generates the most emissions? For visitors to Barcelona, the carbon footprint is approximately:
✈️ Transport to Barcelona: 70–90%
🏨 Accommodation: 5–15%
🍽️ Food and drinks: 3–10%
🚶 Activities and attractions: <5%
🛍️ Shopping: variable
We are very pleased to explain that we have a very low impact as a business:
🏢 We don’t have an office:
Our office is our computer and cellular phones; No additional infrastructure or significant energy use. We can be 100% online.
🚆 We use only public transportation
to go from home to the meeting point of our tours; some of us don’t even own a car. There are many bus and subway lines to the major tourist sites and hotels.
🗑️ We produce no waste:
We use technology to our advantage to avoid waste: no printed tickets, no single-use items (we have our own radioguides system with reusable earplugs), and no other office waste.
🚶 Most of our tours are walking tours,
We do more walking tours than chauffeur-driven ones. Barcelona is a very walkable city, and a walking tour is always a good option depending on your possibilities.
🚗⚡ And the car company we work with has electric vehicles.
The car company we work with has bought a few electric cars in different sizes. We can request an electric car for your tour if you let us know.
What we have noticed using electric cars is that we like them a bit more than the regular ones; the drive is smoother, you don’t notice the speeding up as much, and it’s less noisy, plus if we do a quick stop for a scenic view, we are not contaminating the environment while keeping the car on for air conditioning or heating.
The car company we work with is investing in getting many electric cars in different sizes; they are more expensive to buy, but they have told us it is worth the investment. They have no problems charging them at their hangar, plus electricity is cheaper than gasoline; the cars have enough battery for a full-day tour, even outside Barcelona, and they are easier to maintain as electric motors have fewer moving parts.
Our tours are designed to leave memories—not emissions. By exploring Barcelona on foot, using public transport whenever possible, or electric cars, our private experiences have a significantly lower environmental impact than conventional sightseeing by coach or car. Supporting local guides and businesses also helps keep tourism more sustainable for Barcelona.
