How to Travel the World in an Earth-friendly way Travel and environment enthusiasts discover travel hacks, green initiatives and more at the One Shoe Earth Day 2017 event

by Priya Jadhav

April, 2017, Mumbai: For Ansoo Gupta, the founder of One Shoe Trust, there cannot be a better day than World Earth Day to share her passion for travelling responsibly. After having travelled to over 70 countries and counting, the tireless explorer has been working on sharing her love with others. Her motto has always been: “Don't just travel, travel right. And always, always travel light." Which is how this exciting panel on how to travel responsibly came through for the event organized by One Shoe for Earth Day 2017.

Ansoo founded One Shoe Trust for Responsible and Mindful Travels with the express objective of raising awareness about the world issues amongst the travel enthusiasts in India. India is witnessing the second highest growth rate in tourism in the world. At 11% y-o-y growth, it is next only to China. It is projected that by 2020, there will be 50 million outbound tourists from India (UNWTO). Given the havoc that tourists can cause at a destination, this increase can be a somewhat alarming from sustainability perspective. But if these 50 million Indian tourists travelled responsibly, with an aim to understand local cultures and to broaden their horizon, it can become a powerful resource that can bring about the much needed change in the way tourists are perceived and possibly start reversing some of the ecological damage that tourism causes as well.

Hence the events and sessions that Ansoo conducts, always have an underlying theme of being a true traveler – using travel as a means of self-growth and to benefit every community and place that the traveler visits. 2017 has been declared the International year of sustainable tourism for development and in the series of events that One Shoe Trust has planned, the Earth Day travel meetup is special. 

Set amidst Bombay’s longest-running and perhaps the first Farmers’ Market, Ansoo kicked off the travel sessions as she presented how to travel with less and within your time and budget. Known for her travel workshops "Come, Plan, Go" in which Ansoo shares her time-tested tips on how to travel more for less; it is known that once you attend her workshop, you can't shake off the travel bug and you will end up travelling to exotic lands albeit responsibly and within your available resources. Ansoo urges people to travel as a means for self-growth, for knowing our world and for protecting it. Given that she’s been doing this since 2012, with her workshops her big thrill remains, “to watch people who have never travelled make their own memories!”

 Joining her on stage was Blue Yonder's Gopi Parayil who helps you chose the right places to travel. Gopi is one of the forerunners in Responsible Tourism space in Asia. Founder of The Blue Yonder, he has conceived and implemented many innovative travel experiences that were designed to address local issues related to triple bottom-line sustainability. He has also co-founded World Responsible Tourism Networking to bring together peers in the tourism business together and is on various jury's including National Geographic World Legacy Awards. The Blue Yonder recently won the Das Goldene Stadttor (known as the Oscars in Tourism) for the promotional video (#ItsTheWayYouSeeIt) on River Nila in central Kerala as well as the Best Cultural Immersion awards from Outlook Traveller / WTM London. Last winter, Gopi was invited to speak at the United Nations about the scope of mainstreaming 'responsibility' in travel and tourism industry.

But going green is not limited to just when you travel outside the country but also how you bring back the green into your own lives. Which is why Priyanka Shah from Ikheti who is an expert on urban farming talked about bringing nature into the four walls. An MBA, Priyanka is known for providing green solutions to families, societies and builders. A TEDx Speaker on the subject of Sustainable Urban Farming, Priyanka was also selected for The International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) by the U.S. Department of States.

And finally, Yash Maniar shared his views on how to find non-plastic, more earth-friendly alternatives to some daily products we use.  An alumni of the prestigious DO School, Yash founded Shunya Alternatives- a Mumbai based start-up that sells 100% compostable tableware made from bagasse, a biodegradable sugarcane by-product. “For us, living in an earth friendly manner means making choices that do not affect or harm the earth’s resources, its inhabitants or the environment in any way. It means respecting all that we have received and minimizing the trace of our existence and activities” said Yash.

The idea of bringing these experts together by the One Shoe Trust was “to help travelers convert their travel bucket-lists to reality in an earth-friendly manner. And move travel to the Green Way!” In an al-fresco environment of the lush green D’Monte Park, surrounded by rows of kiosks where farmers sell their organically grown fruits and vegetables, lip smacking food from home chefs and traditional songs and dance, the travelers had a nice Sunday picnic at the Farmer’s Market, getting a little closer to Mother Earth.