Conde Nast Traveller UK March 2021

A WHILE AGO, WHEN MY MIDDLE DAUGHTER was about to undergo interviews for big school, we were practising questions on her around the kitchen table. She wasn’t having any of it and remained quiet and downcast. At a certain point, I asked what her favourite way to spend her time was, and her little sister, unable to contain herself any longer, leapt up and shouted, ‘Exploring! And colouring in!’ I think of exploring and colouring in a lot now that our world has physically shrunk around us, this inexorable pulling in of parameters. And yet I don’t mind being at home, I don’t mind it at all. My eyes have been retrained, my hunger for experience perfectly taken up by, on any given day, looking out of my window at the…

DARA McANULTY The Green List (p75) ‘If we think about how we can counterbalance the weight of our footfall, that would be a great start. Take care, be compassionate and notice the beauty around you. Knowledge is infinite and makes our world so much wider.’ Northern Irish naturalist, writer and environmental campaigner Dara won the 2020 Wainwright Prize at 16 for his first book ADRIAN GRENIER The Green List (p75) ‘Reduce plastic consumption where possible: take a reusable water bottle out with you every day and avoid single-use bags.’ ‘Entourage’ star Adrian co-founded the ocean-safeguarding Lonely Whale organisation in 2015 ANGELA LINDVALL The Culture Hopper (p54) ‘Take your own soaps and shampoos – and your own towel if you can – but the biggest thing for me is food containers. I always travel with a big bag full…

Nothing has transformed the world of travel more dramatically than the past year. And while it has been devastating for all of us, it has also, through the enforced pause, given us time to reassess our place on the planet. Amid the noise of what is ‘after’, there is a constant refrain of green shoots. At Condé Nast Traveller we have been deeply conscious of the environmental paradox of sustainable trips – can the carbon produced to get there ever really be justified? We believe the answer can be yes, through supporting all that is regenerative, championing those already making great strides in considering their impact and challenging those who need to get up to speed. That’s why we dedicate this issue to travelling better: for the earth, for people, for…

In the UK alone we throw away 4.5 million tonnes of food annually. In response, savvy spirit makers and distillers are melding this excess into planet-saving creations. Using some of the mountains of cascara – the remaining fruit from the beans of the 95 million cups of coffee we consume daily – Discarded Spirits dries and ferments the berries before steeping them in alcohol for two weeks to produce a silky-smooth vermouth. For the sweeter-toothed, it takes destined-for-the-bin banana skins to make a molasses-rich rum. Sourcing unwanted Tahiti limes grown in the Catanduva region of Brazil and bruised raspberries from Scotland’s Strathmere Valley, Served is a new brand offering a low-alcohol sparkling drink to pack for a sustainable picnic. And it’s not all about odd fruit. California’s Misadventure Vodka, the…

‘The Sahel is one of the regions that suffers the most from the changing climate,’ says Malian musician Inna Modja at the start of The Great Green Wall documentary. ‘Restoring the land is a matter of survival.’ The semi-arid area runs the width of Africa south of the Sahara Desert. It faces droughts and desertification, and is a stark example of how the climate crisis and land degradation cause conflict and migration. The Great Green Wall (GGW) was launched by the African Union in 2007 with the plan to plant a band of trees stretching 5,000 miles across the Sahel, from Senegal in the west to Djibouti in the east. While the living wall was billed as a new world wonder, the idea turned out to be too simplistic for…

Art has long tackled major issues, from civil rights to gender equality. Today, it’s increasingly sounding the alarm on the climate emergency, from the slippery topic of oil-industry sponsorship of cultural organisations to individual artists fuelling the dialogue on green issues. Among them is former YBA Gavin Turk, whose fascination with waste – he once created cufflinks from discarded chewing gum – has evolved with a new urgency. Meanwhile, Cape Town-based photographer Thirza Schaap explores plastic pollution in her deceptively pretty Plastic Ocean compositions of rubbish collected from beaches. And in London, the Serpentine Galleries recently became the first contemporary-art institution to appoint an ecology curator. As part of the multi-platform Back to Earth initiative, which launched last April, it has invited thinkers to respond to the crisis. Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur…