SHARE
COPY LINK

TRAVEL

Have your say: Have environmental concerns affected your travel plans?

Has the flight-shaming movement or worries about sustainability impacted the way you travel? Do you have any tips for travelling more sustainably? Let us know.

Have your say: Have environmental concerns affected your travel plans?
Photo: DPA

Amid a backdrop of climate change and the risking flight-shaming movement, more and more people are incorporating sustainability concerns into their travel plans. 

Statistics from the German Airports Association (Flughafenverband) show a 12 percent drop in German domestic flights in 2019. 

Meanwhile, a Tagesschau poll from 2019 showed that almost one in four (23 percent) of Germans wanted to fly less than they currently do. 

These concerns are likely to be particularly pressing for readers of The Local Germany, many of whom come from abroad and want to visit friends and family far away. 

We’re reaching out to find out if environmental concerns have impacted the way you travel. If so, how much? And whether through flying less – or even changing the way you pack your bags – have you found a way to travel more sustainably?

This callout is for a commercial editorial article in partnership with bunq, a Dutch bank which seeks to incorporate environmental sustainability into banking. 

Your answers will be published in The Local in a sponsored content piece looking at how to make travelling more sustainable.

By submitting a response you agree to allow The Local to use it in a series of articles and you consent to The Local publishing your name. 

The Local Europe AB will never use your contact details in an article or pass them on to a third party. The Local Europe AB will not store your email address for more than three months unless you have signed up for our editorial newsletters.

Loading…

p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica}
p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px}

 

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

ENVIRONMENT

Sweden’s SSAB to build €4.5bn green steel plant in Luleå 

The Swedish steel giant SSAB has announced plans to build a new steel plant in Luleå for 52 billion kronor (€4.5 billion), with the new plant expected to produce 2.5 million tons of steel a year from 2028.

Sweden's SSAB to build €4.5bn green steel plant in Luleå 

“The transformation of Luleå is a major step on our journey to fossil-free steel production,” the company’s chief executive, Martin Lindqvist, said in a press release. “We will remove seven percent of Sweden’s carbon dioxide emissions, strengthen our competitiveness and secure jobs with the most cost-effective and sustainable sheet metal production in Europe.”

The new mini-mill, which is expected to start production at the end of 2028 and to hit full capacity in 2029, will include two electric arc furnaces, advanced secondary metallurgy, a direct strip rolling mill to produce SSABs specialty products, and a cold rolling complex to develop premium products for the transport industry.

It will be fed partly from hydrogen reduced iron ore produced at the HYBRIT joint venture in Gälliväre and partly with scrap steel. The company hopes to receive its environemntal permits by the end of 2024.

READ ALSO: 

The announcement comes just one week after SSAB revealed that it was seeking $500m in funding from the US government to develop a second HYBRIT manufacturing facility, using green hydrogen instead of fossil fuels to produce direct reduced iron and steel.

The company said it also hoped to expand capacity at SSAB’s steel mill in Montpelier, Iowa. 

The two new investment announcements strengthen the company’s claim to be the global pioneer in fossil-free steel.

It produced the world’s first sponge iron made with hydrogen instead of coke at its Hybrit pilot plant in Luleå in 2021. Gälliväre was chosen that same year as the site for the world’s first industrial scale plant using the technology. 

In 2023, SSAB announced it would transform its steel mill in Oxelösund to fossil-free production.

The company’s Raahe mill in Finland, which currently has new most advanced equipment, will be the last of the company’s big plants to shift away from blast furnaces. 

The steel industry currently produces 7 percent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions, and shifting to hydrogen reduced steel and closing blast furnaces will reduce Sweden’s carbon emissions by 10 per cent and Finland’s by 7 per cent.

SHOW COMMENTS