If you"re jetting off for a half-term break this weekend, beware: that dose of February sun might well earn you pariah status. Eco-anxiety is in, meaning flights are (or at least, should be) out, their carbon fume-sputtering inexcusable, according to Greta Thunberg’s green brigade, now we know exactly what it does to the planet. But if you can’t part with having a "proper" break, is there a way to offset the damage done by getting there by being as sustainable as possible on hitting the landing strip? I decided to put the notion to the test in St Lucia, which has set its sights on achieving a 35 per cent renewable energy goal this year. A sizeable target for any country – not least one like the Caribbean island which, though sun-soaked for much of the year and covered in acres of lush green rainforest, was nearly 100 per cent reliant on imported fossil fuels for energy in 2015. The task would be simple, or so I thought: counterbalance the 6,800km trip (responsible for pumping out a wince-inducing 2.04 tonnes of carbon) by arming myself with good-for-the-earth gear – a backpack from Qwstion, a Swedish brand that uses biodegradable banana fibres, a sustainably-made towel from Finisterre, vegan Vivobarefoot shoes created from algae-based foam – and making planet-friendly choices wherever possible, from driving an electric vehicle to staying in sustainably-minded resorts. Going green, however, got off to a rocky start. In neighbouring Barbados, there are electric-car charging points every 5km; in St Lucia, which has a population of 180,000 or so, there are about 15 e-cars on the roads. The government is intent on making them more desirable with import taxes of just five per cent (compared with the 12.5 per cent VAT and import duties from upwards of 50 per cent levelled at petrol and diesel cars), as is David Bristol, founder of renewable energy and e-mobility solutions firm Gearing Up. "We are really the one-eyed man in the land of the blind,” he says. Bristol"s firm built the country’s largest solar-powered carport in its capital, Castries, last summer; towns remain devoid of neon-lit plug-in points, as I learn when we take the company’s e-van for a spin. Bristol, a former surgeon, believes increasing the number of charging stations - a target currently in their sights - will help assuage customer reticence: not only do the vehicles pootle along near-silently, “electric vehicles actually have more torque or accelerating power than regular vehicles of the same size”. On St Lucia’s winding roads, some of which stretch upwards near-vertically, the cars" regenerative braking function means “whatever one loses on the uphill climb you will certainly get back on the downhill run”, making them “ideally suited to our kind of mountainous terrain”. Progress has been slow until now, but Bristol is confident of “a doubling of the EV population in the year, and I expect that to accelerate”. And for St Lucians, as well as the 1.2m visitors the country welcomes annually, green efforts are go. Every hotel I stay at urges that lights are switched off and and linen only washed when necessary to reduce planetary strain; on one beach, I spot a poster espousing ocean-protecting tips for divers, and meals are largely comprised of homegrown crops like plantain, sweet potato, cassava and coconut that haven"t travelled thousands of miles to reach the plate. At Fond Doux (fonddouxresort.com), a 250-year-old former plantation based in Soufriere, abandoned colonial buildings are restored and transported to the 135-acre site, rather than importing new materials for construction; machinery is foregone in favour of shovels to “ensure nature [is] not disturbed”. The land is peppered with cocoa, mango and soursop trees, and while their farm-to-table ethos has long been in full flow, they have had to adapt to the so-called Blue Planet effect, too. Single use plastic is being ditched, with gift shop purchases now packaged in paper bags. Paper-wrapped chocolate is also in use at Boucan, Hotel Chocolat’s boutique St Lucia outpost (hotelchocolat.com/boucan), which seeks to have 100 per cent of their packaging be either compostable, reusable and recyclable by next year. Their restaurant dishes up ‘cocoa cuisine’ from pods harvested on their 140-acre Rabot estate - think cacao nib Caesar salad dressing, and fish and chips served in a cacao tempura. For those keen to get more involved in the process, the hotel offers a two-part excursion: a walk through the estate"s cocoa groves to pick ripe cocoa pods, followed by a bean-to-bar class where you grind up your own chocolate to take home. So lunch was locally grown, and topped off with a treat made onsite by my own hands: my green rating was, surely, growing by the second, enhanced all the more by stays at sister hotels Jade Mountain (jademountain.com) and Anse Chastanet (ansechastanet.com), this year re-certified Gold by TravelLife, the sustainable tourism certification system, and currently the only resorts on the island with the rating. They share a white sandy beach where there are natural excursions aplenty - free-to-use kayaks, paddleboards, sailboats and snorkels (even a quick dip below the surface provides reams of trumpetfish, squid, parrotfish and more), guided walks, hikes and road biking. And, in keeping with growing customer demand for all things natural, the resort’s first vegan restaurant opened last July. The hotels also offer glorious views of the Pitons, St Lucia’s twin peaks; for those wanting a gear-change from the resorts’ all-inclusive luxury, a hike up Gros Piton is surely the greatest appreciation of nature you can give. Around two hours each way, it’s a more strenuous option than the Tet Paul Nature trail, another of St Lucia’s majestic view-filled activities that takes 45 minutes to weave your way around, but well worth the hard work. Choosing sustainable excursions is one thing, but making ones you already enjoy more eco-friendly can be done, too: the Rainforest Spa at Sugar Beach (viceroyhotelsandresorts.com/ sugar-beach), t ucked by the base of Petit Piton, offers chemical-free treatments in its treehouse treatment rooms. They use bananas - once the country’s greatest export before unseated by tourism - to tighten wrinkles and hydrate with cocoa butter, while its detox wraps employ organic seaweed, grapefruit and citrus from the island. And watching the sun go down from the hotel"s beachfront Bayside Bar with a cocktail in hand - rum, of course, given the likes of Chairman’s Reserve are distilled in St Lucia, topped off with a twist of locally grown peel - felt like the right way to toast our eco-exploits. But while I was reasonably pleased with my environmental efforts, John Buckley, managing director of Carbon Footprint (carbonfootprint.com) - an offsetting outfit that charts how much damage you"ve done to the planet and how to rectify it - was less so. "At the moment, we"re not seeing any real reduction in the number of flights that have been taken,” Buckley tells me; in 2018, around 895m tonnes of CO2 - 2.4 per cent of global CO2 emissions - were emitted by domestic and internal flights, while passenger numbers are expected to double to 8.2bn come 2027. This means those of us not already offsetting will need to do so, fast: donations to Carbon Footprint are spread across initiatives from UK tree planting to installing fuel-efficient stoves in Ugandan homes. No matter how green your trip post-flight is, then, there"s no escaping the real carbon culprit of exotic holidays. Our inability to give them up is “a shame,” Buckley says, because “you want to see [people] take action and decide not to fly at all.” He suggests that the first thing to consider is whether you need to take a flight, or if you do, whether you can travel closer to home (opt for Barcelona instead of Tenerife, he says, which is half the distance). Some airlines even offer the option to donate to offset schemes while booking. But fundamentally it’s bad news for those who think they can retain both a jetset and environmentally-friendly pedigree, Buckley concludes. “People have just got to be aware that when they’re getting on an airplane, they are funding climate change.” For tips and advice, visit our Advice section, or sign up to our newsletter here To talk all things motoring with the Telegraph Cars team join the Telegraph Motoring Club Facebook group here