Last week I blogged about some of my strategies for traveling green on my 5-day trip to Vancouver, so I thought a quick update was in order.

• By carrying my Nalgene with me, I avoided using bottled water with little difficulty - despite seeing thousands of them during the conference and at the airport.
• Recycling was no problem at the Sheraton Wall Center because there was a blue bin right in my room - that’s the first time that’s happened.
• Both the Vancouver International Airport and Chicago’s Ohare had a robust recycling presence, while I didn’t see anything at the Charleston airport (can anyone confirm that?)
• I made 17 retail purchases and received only one bag - the clerk wrapped and bagged this pewter slug while I was talking to the artist…sneaky!
• I kept forgetting to use the cloth napkins - I can do better.
• Since I pretty much walked everywhere except to and from the airport, I kept my carbon footprint down and even lost a couple pounds.
• I didn’t have the maid come once, and I didn’t have any problem with towels or sheets.
• Remembering to turn off the lights was a tough one, and I caught myself walking out of the door with them still on more than once.
• Unfortunately, I had to use the elevator a lot…I was on the 23rd floor.

All in all, I i feel it was a successful experiment. Just by paying attention to my behavior and making better decisions I was able to minimize my impact without adversely affecting my trip. But I have to say, a progressive city like Vancouver not only inspired me, it enabled me. More on that after the jump.

Vancouver is really figuring this green stuff out. There were hybrid taxis everywhere. Suburban sprawl was ignored in favor of condensed, multi-use neighborhoods. How refreshing it was to see people walking to corner markets and using the ubiquitous bike-only lanes. Recycling cans were next to trash cans, and I even saw a few “organic only” receptacles around popular dining areas for street level composting. I even ate at a restaurant that promoted serving tap water - cheers to you Jules.

Why haven’t I seen any of this in Charleston? Is it because we don’t care? Is it because Vancouver is in the Pacific Northwest, the epicenter of the green movement? Is it because their forward-thinking government isn’t politically distracted by crime and moral issues like ours? Who knows.

In the end it’s the cities residents who make the choices. When we all start caring about this stuff, speaking up, and convincing others to do the same, we’ll start seeing some of these things.