I have moved countries three times. I know the particular weight of a suitcase, not just the kilograms, but the carbon embedded in every crossing.
When I was accepted to study at UC Berkeley, my first thought wasn’t what will I study but how do I justify the flight? That question, I’ve decided, is exactly the right one to sit with.
A transatlantic flight from Edinburgh to San Francisco emits roughly 1.5 tonnes of CO₂ per passenger. There is no train across the Atlantic. There is no version of this journey that is costless for the planet. But there is a version that is honest, and honesty is where sustainable travel has to begin.
So I started there. I researched Gold Standard-certified carbon offset schemes, reforestation projects and renewable energy programmes that meet the highest independent verification standards, and committed to offsetting the full return journey before I board. This isn’t absolution; it’s acknowledgement. SDG 13 (Climate Action) doesn’t demand perfection; it demands action.
Berkeley demands the same. It is the first university in the world to achieve a Platinum rating in the STARS sustainability framework , and its Clean Energy Campus Initiative is transforming the campus into an electrified renewable energy microgrid, targeting an 85% cut in building emissions by 2035. I am not arriving at a passive institution. I am arriving somewhere that expects participation.
Mine will be deliberate. The Bay Area’s BART network means I have no reason to rent a car, and every reason not to. California’s zero-emissions transport policy is SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities) made tangible, and I intend to live inside it. I’ll shop at Berkeley’s Farmers’ Market, reduce meat consumption, and treat SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption) as a weekly discipline rather than a one-off gesture. My luggage will be secondhand and light, not as a performance of minimalism, but because three moves have taught me you need less than you think.
The resources making this possible: Gold Standard‘s offset registry for flight accountability (https://www.goldstandard.org/), Rome2rio for comparing transport emissions before I travel (https://www.rome2rio.com/), Too Good To Go for surplus food in Berkeley (https://www.toogoodtogo.com/), 511 SF Bay for seamless public transit planning (https://www.511.org/), and sustainability.berkeley.edu, a genuinely rigorous public roadmap for the campus I’m joining (https://www.sustainability.berkeley.edu/).
I won’t pretend this placement is carbon neutral. It isn’t. But I refuse to let imperfection become an excuse for passivity. The SDGs are not targets for governments alone, they are a language for choices made at scale, by individuals, repeatedly, over time.
My suitcase will be lighter this time. Not just in weight, but in what I’ve decided it should mean to travel at all.
