The Green Backpack,
Before I ever packed a suitcase for an international exchange, I packed something more important – a habit.
At thirteen, I was President of the Nature Conservation Club (NCC Club) at my school in India. Every weekend, my team and I would travel to local rural areas not for leisure, but for purpose: picking up waste, clearing plastic from riverbeds, and distributing reusable bags and sustainable alternatives to communities who had never been offered a better option. We didn’t call it sustainability back then. We just called it responsibility, because that is exactly what it is. Not a trend, not a movement, but every single person’s own duty to maintain and live in a clean, eco-friendly environment.
That habit never left my backpack.
When I learned I had been accepted to the PolyU International Summer School in Hong Kong, my first instinct wasn’t to search for restaurants or tourist spots. It was to research. Hong Kong is a fascinating case study in the tension between urban density and environmental ambition. As one of the world’s most densely populated cities, it generates enormous pressure on its natural ecosystems, yet it also has over 40% of its land designated as country parks. This duality reflects the UN’s SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) and SDG 15 (Life on Land) in real time, and it sharpened my awareness of what mindful travel means in a city like this.
My preparation has been deliberate. I chose to travel light, a single carry-on, to reduce the carbon weight of my flight. I researched Hong Kong’s extensive public transport network and committed to using the MTR, trams and ferries exclusively during my stay, referencing the Rome2Rio app and Citymapper for sustainable routing. I will carry a reusable water bottle and tote bag. I used Google Flights’ carbon emissions comparison tool when selecting my route, actively choosing the lower-emissions option. To understand Hong Kong’s own sustainability commitments, I explored the Hong Kong Green Map platform and the Hong Kong 2050 is Now climate action portal.
But beyond the personal, I believe travel carries a social responsibility. The students I will study alongside at PolyU come from across the world. Each conversation is an opportunity to share sustainable habits across cultures. That is the spirit of SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals. I intend to bring that spirit into every corridor, every classroom, and every weekend trip I take in Hong Kong.
I began this journey at thirteen in the Tamil Nadu district countryside, convincing my teammates that a cleaner world was worth showing up for every single weekend. That same conviction is what I am carrying to Hong Kong – not just in my carry-on, but in every choice I make while I am there. Because sustainability isn’t someone else’s job. It never was.
The green backpack goes everywhere I go.
