Guardian Green Travel Guide

Guardian Books has published 'The Guardian Green Travel Guide'. Edited by the Guardian's Liane Katz, with a foreword by slow travel guru Alastair Sawday, it is focused on "demystifying the complex ethical issues around responsible travel and our holiday choices" and includes an accommodation directory of green places to stay (mainly in the UK and Europe) originally published in the Guardian, in association with greentraveller.co.uk.

The Guide contains green travel articles published in the Guardian and on guardian.co.uk over the last couple of years, though there are several newly commissioned works and contributions from leading green travel writers Hilary Bradt, Leo Hickman and Alastair Sawday.

Articles include:

Just how bad is flying?

The case for and against offsetting

Can you be a green skier?

Features include:

UK island hopping

Family friendly days out in the UK

Long haul bus trips

Weekend breaks by train

Ethical tour operators

Most of the reviews in the accommodation directory were written by Richard Hammond, founder of greentraveller.co.uk and editor of Alastair Sawday's "Green Places to Stay":http://www.greentraveller.co.uk/node/39, and were first published in the Guardian. Each property is given one of the following star ratings:

A rating of 1 leaf/star indicates first steps taken towards environmental sustainability and/or socially responsible tourism.

A rating of 2 leaves/stars indicates a deeper commitment towards environmental sustainability and/or socially responsible tourism.

A rating of 3 leaves/stars indicates an outstanding commitment towards environmental sustainability and/or socially responsible tourism.

The guide was launched last night at Stanfords bookshop in Covent Garden, London, and included a panel discussion, chaired by Alastair Sawday, with Liane Katz; Rupert Faussett, Principal Sustainability Advisor at Forum for the Future; Louisa Bell, Head of Environment and Energy at Eurostar and Richard Hammond.

For more information, see guardianbooks.co.uk.