Ramblings of a Sustainable Man

Raffles Design Koh Tao Trip - Feb. 2013

Day 1

Travel / Transit / Transport

Headed for Koh Tao, the majority of us set off from our base camp at Raffles Design Institute in Silom, to Hua Lamphong train station, Bangkok, with our minds contemplating our goal, the concept of what it actually means and takes in order to consider yourselves to be living a sustainable lifestyle. A good, surefire method to start you off on your way to achieving this (somewhat) vague goal, with is by reducing (or cutting altogether) your so-called 'Carbon Footprint'. However, with 500 km separating us and our destination zeroing our Carbon Emissions seemed improbable. Therefore, it became a question of: how do we get there in the most Eco-Friendly way possible?

Well, the most obvious answer for us to that question was; to utilize all Public Transport available to us, to deliver us to our destination. Luckily, we had thought ahead and this was precisely what we did; by reserving ourselves a place on the sleeper train to Chumphon.

Hua Lamphong Station.

When using public transport one must be prepared to sacrifice numerous things; personal comfort, convenience and perhaps a sleepless night! But a little discomfort can help you a long way towards you achieving your aim of reducing your Co2 output which helps reduce the impact of Green House Gases that directly influence Global Warming and Climate change, as well as saving you a bit of money! In fact, the cheapest flights from Bangkok to Chumphon were approximately 2,500 bath return, whilst train tickets were 2,200 bath return (including the ferry fare to Koh Tao). Bus prices were comparable to that of the train and the journey didn't take as long, but if we compare the Co2 emissions from these different modes of transport, there is clearly only one winner: the Train.

Carbon Emissions compared:

Planes produce 66 grams of Co2 per person, per kilometer (approx. 33 kg for this journey).*
Buses produce 17 grams of Co2 per person, per kilometer (approx. 8.5 kg for this journey).*
Cars produce 47 grams of Co2 per person, per kilometer (approx. 23.5 kg for this journey).*
Trains produce 7 grams of Co2 per person, per kilometer (approx. 3.5 kg for this journey).*

* Information courtesy of The European Rail Industry, UNIFE, http://www.unife.org/page.asp?pid=96

As you can clearly see, that although the Train may be the least comfortable and with the longest time in transit, it is by far the most Eco friendly mode of transport; producing less than half of the carbon emissions (3.5 kg) compared to even its closest the rival, the Bus which produces 8.5 kg of carbon dioxide.