I grew up in New York City, which means I grew up believing the world basically ended at the Hudson River. I’d never left the country, not once, until last summer, three weeks after graduating high school, when I packed a single backpack and set off for Greece. Nearly a month later, I’d made my way through Germany, Holland, France, and Austria, and I’d learned something I now believe completely: travel is food for the soul. But I also learned it can be fed sustainably, and that the two aren’t in tension, they’re the same meal.
So I gave myself one rule going in, no planes, no rental cars, no shortcuts. Trains and buses got me between countries, and in France I traded four wheels for two, biking town to town instead of driving. It’s a slower way to see a place, and that’s exactly why it works. You catch details at twelve miles an hour that a car window blurs right past.
The trip wasn’t only about the scenery, either. I picked up a rotating crew of fellow travelers along the way, and more than once we pooled spare change to buy groceries and put together meals for people sleeping on the street. Nothing fancy or organized, just backpackers doing what we could. But it taught me that sustainable travel isn’t only about emissions. It’s about not treating the people in a place like part of the scenery.
That’s the mindset I’m bringing to my semester at Central Saint Martins this fall. Coming from FIT, sustainability is already baked into how I think about fashion and design, and I want London to be an extension of that, not a break from it. Practically, that means the Tube and my own two feet over taxis, thrifting and vintage shopping over fast fashion, and hunting down local, low-waste materials and food whenever coursework gives me the chance.
Little as they sound, these choices map onto goals I actually care about: Climate Action and Sustainable Cities through how I get around, Responsible Consumption through what I buy, and in the spirit of that summer of shared meals–Zero Hunger through whatever volunteer work I find once I’m settled in.
To me, sustainable travel was never about traveling less. It’s about traveling with your eyes open to the place, the people in it, and the footprint you leave when you go home. That’s who I was backpacking across Europe last summer, and it’s exactly who I plan to be for a semester in London.
