Honestly, travel changed me before I even left home. The moment I started planning my international placement, I fell down a rabbit hole of carbon calculators, ethical tourism blogs and UN Sustainable Development Goals, and what I found was both overwhelming and oddly exciting. Because here’s the thing nobody tells you: sustainable travel isn’t about sacrificing the experience. It’s about deepening it.
My approach started with the carbon footprint of my flight. Flights are the elephant in the room for any eco-conscious traveller, unavoidable but not unaddressable. I offset my emissions through a verified reforestation project aligned with SDG 13(Climate Action) and SDG 15 (Life on Land), contributing to tree planting initiatives in areas facing deforestation. It’s not a perfect solution, I know that, but doing nothing felt worse than doing something.
On the ground, I made a deliberate choice to move like a local. Public transport over taxis. Cycling where possible. Walking when the city allowed it. Not just because it was cheaper (which, as a student, genuinely mattered), but because slowing down meant I actually saw things. A slow morning bus through the city taught me more about daily life than any tourist itinerary could. This directly supports SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), reducing private vehicle emissions and engaging authentically with urban infrastructure.
Food was another conscious battlefield. I avoided international chains and sought out local markets and independent restaurants. Supporting small food producers feeds directly into SDG 8 (Decent work and economic growth) and SDG (Zero hunger) by keeping money circulating with local economies rather than multinational pockets. There’s also something deeply human about eating food that was grown nearby, because it reconnects you to place in a way that a chain restaurant simply never could.
I carried a reusable water bottle, my own straw and a tote bag. Tiny, I know. But single-use plastic is catastrophic in regions with limited infrastructure, and refusing it, even as one person, felt like an act of respect for the place hosting me.
Perhaps most importantly, I approached the entire placement with a mindset of cultural humility. Sustainable travek isnt only enviromental its social too. Learning key phrases in the local language, respecting community customs, asking before photographing, and actively listening rather than projecting my own cultural assumptions. This speaks to SDG 10 (reducing inequalities): acknowledging that as a visitor from a relatively privileged background, I carry a responsibility not to extract from a place, but to reciprocate.
Travel, I’ve learned, is a privilege, and like all privileges, it comes with accountability. The world doesn’t need fewer curious young people exploring it. It needs more who do so thoughtfully.
I want to be one of them.
