Studying abroad at King’s College London this fall will be the most carbon-intensive decision I make this year. One transatlantic flight outweighs months of everyday “green” habits. So instead of pretending I can offset that with small gestures, my approach is to treat sustainability as a constraint that shapes how I travel, not an afterthought.
The first rule I’m setting for myself is simple: no flights once I arrive in the UK. Weekend trips are where study abroad emissions quietly add up, and I want to avoid that entirely. I plan to travel by train and bus, even when it’s slower or less convenient, and limit how often I leave London in the first place. Fewer trips, longer stays, and more intentional choices will allow me to become more culturally immersed and truly belong in a destination.
In London, my default will be zero-emission mobility. I will walk or use public transportation for daily movement and avoid rideshare services altogether. London’s tube infrastructure makes this realistic, and I want to fully commit to it rather than treating it as optional. I also plan to track my own transportation habits using basic data logging, like something as simple as recording weekly travel modes and distances. As a data science student, I’m interested in turning sustainability into something measurable, not abstract. If I can quantify my behavior, I can adjust it for myself and the peers around me.
Food is another area where I can make concrete changes. I will shift toward a mostly plant-based diet while abroad, acknowledging it would be difficult as a bodybuilder. I also plan to cook more meals instead of relying on takeout, which reduces both packaging waste and delivery emissions. Carrying a reusable container and water bottle is standard, but I want to go further by actively avoiding high-waste consumption patterns.
I also want my impact to extend beyond personal behavior. While at King’s, I plan to engage with student-led sustainability initiatives and volunteer in local environmental efforts, such as urban clean-up projects along the River Thames. These actions align directly with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. They reflect a mindset I want to carry forward: sustainability as a series of constraints that force better decisions. Political science has shown me how policy shapes environmental outcomes, and data science gives me tools to evaluate those outcomes. Studying abroad is an opportunity to apply both not just by observing London’s sustainability systems, but by holding myself accountable within them.
I don’t expect my choices to cancel out the impact of studying abroad. But I do expect them to change how I move, consume, and think. If I treat sustainability as something that requires inconvenience, tradeoffs, and measurement, then my time abroad becomes more than an experience, it becomes a lifelong practice that I will carry forward, and hopefully inspire others with.
