It was somewhere between boarding a ten-hour flight and navigating a foreign metro system alone that I first began to question the true cost of the adventure I’d signed up for. Studying abroad has been transformative, exposing me to new cultures, perspectives and ways of living, but it is has also made me increasingly conscious of the environmental weight that international travel carries. Carbon emissions, waste production, and overconsumption are rarely the first things a student packs into their suitcase, yet they follow us everywhere we go. I now believe that studying abroad comes with a responsibility that extends beyond the classroom: to travel thoughtfully, to tread lightly, and to contribute positively to the communities and environments we are privileged to experience.
Sustainability has never felt abstract to me, it is the sum of daily decisions that are made by ordinary people in everyday moments. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals give shape and direction to those decisions, reminding us that our individual actions connect to something far greater. During my study abroad, three goals in particular have felt particularly relevant to experience: Goal 11, which pushes us toward sustainable cities and communities and Goal 12, which challenges how we consume and produce and Goal 13, which demands urgent climate action (https://sdgs.un.org/goals). Living abroad, rather than simply visiting, has shown me that these goals are not distant policy objectives but are choices that are available to anyone willing to make them.
Before coming abroad, sustainability felt like a discipline, something requiring effort and sacrifice. What Tokyo taught me was something quieter: that it can also be a culture. Wandering through flea markets stacked with second-hand clothes, antiques and accessories, I saw communities already practising what policy recommends. I bought that lesson back into my daily habits like swapping single- plastics for a reusable bottle, bag and coffee cup and stepping away from fast fashion bit by bit. Supporting local campus vendors over mass-produced alternatives became less a conscious choice and more a natural one. Sustainability, I realised, is easier to maintain when you can see it working around you.
Beyond consumption, I have tried to move through Akita the way that locals do, by foot or by bus in a city unhurried enough to reward that pace. International flights are an unavoidable reality of study abroad, but every journey after landing has been an opportunity to choose differently. That same mindset extends to how I engage with the culture around me. Sustainable travel is not only environmental, but also relational. Approaching local customs with genuine respect, rather than tourist curiosity, ensures that my presence contributes to rather than extracts from the communities generous enough to host me.
Akita has quietly changed how I move through the world, not through grand gestures, but through small, deliberate choices. Studying abroad is often framed as something students receive. Sustainability asks us to flip that: what do we give back? I hope to leave every place as least as whole as I found it.
