Hi! I’ve already written a blog post about Warwick GSD Society (you can read this here), so here is one more specifically about our annual international tour.

We try to include a sustainability facet to our tour, as that’s what brings us all together as GSD students, so while planning the tour we focus on destinations where we can learn something interesting from a sustainability point of view.

As we are quite a new society, our first tour was only in 2019. Unfortunately, our 2020 tour (which should have been the topic of this blog post) was cancelled due to COVID-19. Nevertheless, we should be organising a 2021 tour and hope to see some of you there!  

Our 2019 tour took us to Copenhagen, in Denmark, and Malmö, just across the border in Sweden, two cities famed for their commitment to sustainability. Even as we were landing in Copenhagen, we could see the windmills in the sea from the plane window. We also caught sight of one of the city’s waste incinerators, created with the aim to produce carbon-neutral energy.

On our second day, we visited Freetown Christiania, a (mostly) independent commune enclaved in the city. This was my favourite part of the trip, as the atmosphere was very peaceful and calm, so different to the rest of the city. 

In Malmö, home to Europe’s first carbon neutral neighbourhood, we talked with our guide about the city’s recycling system and how energy use is monitored in apartment buildings. 

Our 2020 tour should have seen us travel to Prague, where we were planning to visit the city, take a walk in a surrounding nature reserve, and plant some trees.

This year, we were also hoping to organise our first domestic tour in Term 3: a litter-picking activity in an area of natural beauty in the UK. This would have allowed us to offer a shorter and more affordable opportunity to our members. Sadly, this also had to be called off due to COVID-19.

Charlotte Flechet

Second-year Single Honours GSD student

Monday 18 May 2020