Are you being green washed?

If you are looking for an ethical, environment-friendly holiday, it seems like the perfect place to start. Responsible Travel promises 'hand-picked holidays from hundreds of specialist operators who care about the environment and local people'. The company is by far the most successful of its kind, and has unimpeachable eco-credentials to match - one of the founders was professor of responsible tourism management at Leeds Metropolitan University, early backing came from The Body Shop's Anita Roddick and it organises the high-profile Responsible Tourism Awards.

But when I went on to its website to look for a family skiing holiday, alarm bells began to ring. One holiday was a week's trip to Whistler, on Canada's west coast. To get there, you fly to Vancouver, and in doing so will emit 2.14 tonnes of CO2 per person, at least 11 times the amount emitted on a flight to Geneva, from where a huge range of equally good resorts can be reached.

In fact, five of the 23 skiing holidays Responsible Travel had 'hand-picked' are in Canada, two are in Japan and a total of nine involve long-haul flying. It's not as if the firm isn't conscious of the flying issue. Writing recently in the Daily Telegraph, its chief executive and co-founder, Justin Francis, said: 'At Responsible Travel, we believe that we must fly less each year, for example by taking holidays closer to home and travelling by train.'

Of course, flying long-haul is inherent in many trips which aim to support poor communities in developing countries, but Whistler is a vast, purpose-built resort owned by Intrawest, a huge corporation that develops golf and skiing resorts around the globe and owns the world's biggest heli-skiing firm. In recent years it has been turning its attention to Europe and is working on plans to develop the sleepy Swiss village of Bruson, despite opposition from the WWF, which fears that new lifts, runs and apartment complexes will destroy the natural environment.