Every journey begins with a choice. For most students heading abroad, that choice is instinctive: book a flight, pack a bag, go. But when I was offered a place on the LSE General Course, a full year in one of the world’s greatest cities, I decided my journey would begin differently. Not just with excitement, but with intention.
Travel and sustainability are too often framed as opposites. Adventure on one side, responsibility on the other. I reject that framing entirely. The world we want to explore is the same world we are obligated to protect, and the way we move through it is one of the most powerful environmental decisions we can make.
Flying is one of the most carbon-intensive activities a person can undertake. Yet, it accounts for around 2.5% of the world’s CO₂ emissions, a number that sounds modest until you consider that aviation emissions in 2023 reached almost 950 million tonnes of CO₂. Demand for both passenger and freight aviation is expected to remain strong into the future. Knowing this, I made a commitment: where alternatives exist, I would take them. Our World in Data IEA
Flying from Illinois to London was unavoidable for the initial crossing, but once in Europe, I intend to move exclusively by rail and public transit. London itself is a masterclass in sustainable urban mobility. The Underground, the Overground, the Elizabeth line, a city of nine million people connected by one of the most extensive public transport networks in the world. I will use it. For any travel across Europe during my year at LSE, I will prioritize Eurostar and inter-rail connections over short-haul flights, which are among the most carbon-intensive journeys per kilometer a person can take.
This directly aligns with UN Sustainable Development Goal 13, Climate Action, and SDG 11, which calls for sustainable cities and communities. But for me, it is not about checking boxes on a framework. It is about living in a way that is coherent with the values I claim to hold.
Sustainable travel is also about how deeply you engage with a place rather than merely passing through it. I intend to spend my year at LSE not as a tourist consuming London, but as a resident contributing to it, buying local, minimizing waste, and choosing experiences that give back to the communities I enter rather than extracting from them.
The climate crisis will not be solved by any single student making considered transport choices. But culture shifts begin with individual decisions made loudly enough to influence others. If my year in London demonstrates that a full international academic experience can be undertaken with a genuine commitment to low-impact travel, then it is a proof of concept worth sharing.
The world is worth seeing. That is exactly why it is worth protecting.
(https://ourworldindata.org/global-aviation-emissions)
(https://www.iea.org/energy-system/transport/aviation)
