The Good & Green Guides are for travellers and inhabitants alike, covering London and a range of Dutch cities and allowing people to support sustainable business.

At home we can gradually construct a web of sustainable and ethical outlets, becoming knowledgeable about suppliers, locality of produce and organic and Fair Trade credentials, amongst other criteria. When we move city or travel to foreign lands, the conscious consumers amongst us face a dilemma: where is our money really going?

As consumers we have a lot of power and we can truly encourage change, especially when our choices extend to every part of our lives, including travel.

Founder, publisher and author, Harold Verhagen introduces the concept of the Good & Green Guides, offering examples of the content found in the Amsterdam edition:

Each guide focuses on five key areas that consumers can ‘green’:

• Eat & Meet: bars, cafes, tearooms, food shops, food markets, restaurants, herbs & food supplements
• Dreaming: hotels, bed & breakfasts, hostels and campsites
• Experiencing: kids, mobility, mind & body, parks & gardens, down & out
• Shopping: cosmetics, fair trade, fashion, office & home, second-hand, vintage, repair, online shops, banks
• Getting involved: aid & activists, collection & recycling, ECO interest points, freedom interest points, volunteering, offsetting CO²

Each organization can be rewarded a maximum of 10 stars (Good & Green Star rating):

3 good stars (for taking care of the development of people),

3 green stars (for taking care of the environment) and

4 great stars (for being transparent about good and green actions and results).

Stars are rewarded when organisations meet verified national or international standards. There are also certain actions that will result in a star, such as striving towards CO² neutrality or partnering with a charity.

London’s Good & Green Guide iPhone Application was released to coincide with the Olympics. We think it’s great that a digital version has been made available; if you’re going to go green, you may as well go a step further and reduce physical consumption.

Features of the iPhone application include:

- GPS tracking, maps, searches, browses, look up what’s nearby
- Thousands of recommended Good & Green places to visit and things to do
- Extensive editorial content from the guides
- Sustainable top 10s using the Good & Green Guides Star System
- Add favourites and integrate with Twitter & Facebook
- Swipe to scroll through cities, main categories and subcategories
- Background information about sustainability & certifications

In order to green your actions, as well as the products and services you choose, use Adventure Alternative’s Sustainability Handbook. It’s the perfect complement to the Good & Green Guides, offering tips for before, during and after travel to try and make your travel choices more sustainable.

Travel sustainably :)