Catherine Riney proposes a creative and sustainable project to record our travels: Our World Travel Logs. An interesting idea to remember them and have them whenever we want. Who doesn’t like the idea of capture the stages of our travels? With this small booklet you will have the opportunity to do so, without being a burden on the environment. This object has a particular feature: is produced in a sustainable way. Let’s read the words of the creator of Our World Travel Logs.
Oliver Camponovo
Here you can find the first part of the article Catherine Riney: Our World Travel Logs
After going through the whole process working with friends and family, printers, and design software. I decided to enter a competition run in the Guardian Newspaper for entrepreneurs with only one or two people involved to get support from Guardian Labs and eBay to help progress their business.
I thought this would be a good way to help me put together a plan for Our World Travel Logs and see where it might take me. I dutifully filled in the application forms which definitely helped me focus on my target market and why I was doing this in the first place and where it might lead.
I was successful in the first round so I went through to the next which meant I had a phone interview with a journalist to discuss my business. I happened to be in a hotel in Brooklyn New York for that conversation. I had to send in a photo to go with this next phase which I did just after having my hair done for my sister’s wedding. My sister was getting married in Central Park and it actually coincided with the morning of her wedding (you can see the photo as it is currently on my LinkedIn profile). It was a short conversation just to get an idea of who I was beyond the application.
This initial phone interview went well, as did my sister’s wedding! I was the chief photographer and hand faster. A glorious day in Central Park and the wonders of random uninvited guests. On to the next phase, and the next part of our post wedding holiday.
I am proud of my little booklet, I love it, and so it seems do others out there who have actually bought something I have created!
My family and I had been up to Nova Scotia, kayaking, hiking and exploring before heading to a family gathering in Green Lake, Minnesota. On the way to the lake I received another call to say I was in the 3rd phase of the competition and would need to discuss the strategy for marketing my business. This I did in our hire car with my family listening in but being very quiet for about 20 mins.
So far so good. We had our holiday at the lake before moving on to the camping part of the holiday in Itaska State Park where the Mississippi River begins. Of course, this would be when the final stage took place. Have you heard of Dragon’s Den (or maybe, Shark Tank?).
As I was starting a travel related business, I guess it was fitting to be travelling. The final stage was a Dragon’s Den style pitch and Q&A. If you don’t know it, basically, it is a short interrogation of what your business is all about and why you should be one of the 15 winning entrepreneurs. There is still a link to one of our newspaper articles!
I managed to find a wi-fi connection in the state park for an early morning chat with 3 people, a business manager from eBay, a finance person from the Guardian Labs and a well-known entrepreneur and Dragon’s den presenter Touker Suleyman.
Scary right, I set up my phone to have a voice conference call with them as my connection would not support video. I spent the next 15 mins delivering my “elevator” pitch and answering their questions as succinctly as I could. With my Aunt’s dog keeping me company. Win or lose that was done and it felt great to have gotten that far.
Next few days were spent mountain biking and hiking and then I received a call to say I had been selected as one of the winners! Wow, but what did that mean?
Come that September the winners received a full day workshop, 3 months’ worth of mentoring and a connection to a like-minded group of people, to help move our businesses forward plus a listing on eBay, two feature articles in the Guardian newspaper and a small cash win followed, all part of the award.
It was at the point that my focus really began to encompass the wider environmental impact of what I wanted to achieve. I could not see the point of starting anything that did not include the thought, focus and action around sustainability.
Of course, the world has changed since I first started traveling and Greta Thunberg captured my imagination and hope, especially as my daughters are about her age. I first came across an article about how this girl in Sweden was skipping school to protest about the need to change our ways to save Our World. I still have that article to inspire me.
I feel incredibly strongly that all our activity needs to be based on sustainable principles and, for me, travel is a big one.
Travelling touches all corners of our world – our creatures, the people and the environment. There are great organisations that I have become aware of, doing amazing things in the area of sustainable, responsible travel.
Over the past two year I have been promoting and discussing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and ESG investment and strategy, hosting and sourcing webinars on business sustainability for my professional organization. Becoming an influencer in this area and continually looking to increase my knowledge and expertise.
I have a piece of a plastic bottle on my desk, which I can see as I write this, that I picked up on a beach in the Arctic circle of Norway. I regularly wonder, what happened to the rest of it? Why am I finding this piece of plastic on this gorgeous, out of the way, beach in the Arctic!? And that is just a piece of plastic, only the tip of the iceberg in this conversation about our world.
We all have a responsibility to our planet to do better. Individually we can make small changes but collectively we can do amazing things for our society and environment.
So back to business, to date I have sold several hundred travel logs using various platforms: my own website, Etsy and eBay and then the pandemic hit.
So, of course, being involved in the travel industry, sales totally dried up. They went from sales every week to nothing. As we all know the whole travel industry has been hit hard.
Then on the 15 of May I had my first sale, since then I have had the beginning of what may be the start of a recovery. At the very least a sign that people are thinking about and are travelling again.
I am proud of my little booklet, I love it, and so it seems do others out there who have actually bought something I have created! Still amazes me every time I get a sale and feedback.
Our family travel plans, and millions like us, were cancelled, you know the drill.
We had a holiday booked to Florida with family coming from all over the US and Australia. We had another holiday to Poros in Greece with my husband’s family all cancelled. All entering into the phase of do we get a refund, a voucher, or rebook.
We did a combination of those things and we will see when and how they can be used in the future. We decided, when things started to open up again, after toying with the idea of flights, trains and automobiles and watching things open then close, that actually, let’s do a holiday in the UK.
Over the past two year I have been promoting and discussing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and ESG investment and strategy, hosting and sourcing webinars on business sustainability for my professional organization. Becoming an influencer in this area and continually looking to increase my knowledge and expertise.
We have, of course, done this in the past visiting the Highlands of Scotland, the Peak District, the wonderful Lake District, The Cotswolds and the mountains and beaches of Wales. Not to mention the towns and cities around the UK we have visited. We decided we wanted to be away from London and be somewhere with less people, relax and enjoy the outdoors.
We went North. We explored Northumberland, think Hadrian’s Wall, Vindolanda Roman ruins, numerous castles along gorgeous sandy beaches, the city of Newcastle Upon Tyne and finally Kielder Water & Forest Park, Northumberland National Park and one of the largest Dark Sky Parks in the world. Complete with the wonderful Kielder Observatory to put your life in perspective. It was a wonderful two weeks away. We were grateful to be well and able to go. And enjoy what nature had waiting for us.
This brings me to the present day. Back from my travels, children back in school, trying out this new normal, for however long it lasts. I am working on my new design project, continuing to talk about sustainably and, always, thinking about my next journey big or small or even just round the block.
I believe we all have a wealth of culture and life everywhere we go, don’t forget to look out for it, protect it and enjoy it! Even when it is in your own backyard.
Let’s all do this now, together, as quickly as we can. We, human beings, are good at innovation and creativity, adapting to new ways has always kept us alive. We can do this and we can do better for our world – for the environment, people and creatures great and small.
