Retro Campervans & Ecology

At Balkan Campers we realize the effect of tourism on the Planet and we want to adapt in a way to do minimum harm.

For sure the most important thing is to stop the growth mania and be happy with what we have. Quest for eternal (material!:) growth is killing us and putting our entire Planet at risk. Once we stop the growth, we need to optimise the rest of our businesses to a more environmentally friendly way. We need to decrease our emissions and increase carbon sinks And there is only one proven solution for carbon sinks – nature & forests!

At Balkan Campers team we are trying to reduce our CO2 footprint together with you by encouraging you to plant a tree. Many of you decide to do that & plant prior to your arrival. Thank you again for taking care!
https://balkancampers.com/love-and-unity/reduce-your-co2-footprint-  

As we simply love Nature and respect Her we also support local organizations like Balkan River Defence in their fight for the last pockets of Wilderness in the Balkans.
And we are planning new projects for this year (stay tuned!).

But what about the carbon footprint of old school VW campervans? 
Is it really more ecological to buy a new, modern car than driving 40 year old baby?

We did a lot of research on this topic and its complicated. 

WHY?
For every new car produced theres a bunch of emissions hiding in it. Ores have to be dug out of the ground and the metals extracted. Raw materials have to be transformed into parts. Besides metal, hundreds of other materials and parts has to be brought together: Parts like plastic, rubber, fabric, glass and much more. These parts and materials have to be transported all around the world, which again causes a lot of CO2. But the car industry doesn’t produce emissions just in the car production but also in their sales offices worldwide trying to convince us we need the latest SUV and other sort of bull…. just so to feed the growth mania monster.

SO
We try to maintain our babies to the best possible shape as that is an important factor in fuel consumption and exhaust. If possible we use used spare parts (from other campervan lovers and collectors) and recycle them whenever possible. So we are basically recycling and constantly renewing our vans to keep them in good shape. And one of our earliest mottos we still encourage you to take on is “Save gas, drive slow.” And enjoy the trip!

We feel that this is an important lesson to learn. Especially nowadays when things are cheap and unappreciated so people simply throw them away and buy new ones.

3Rs & 1L – reduce, reuse, recycle & love