E.48 Conscious travel. What it is and how to do it right with Alivia Fields

Welcome to this week’s talk show episode:

Alivia Fields is a photographer, wanderer, dreamer, and believer. Her passions include avocados, toast, and avocado toast. She is on a mission to spread light + love…and eat avocados along the way. Slow, intentional living and sustainability are two topics very dear to her heart, and she hopes that through her creations, you are inspired to be a light in this world. 

Intentional travel breaths so much life into Alivia, which is why she started a travelogue, Never Going Home. She is known to say: take it slow and relax, or put on your adventure shoes — either way, enjoy this journey called life.

Listen in as Alivia shares her journey.

 

 

 

 Alivia Fields is a travel blogger with a focus on sustainability.  Today Alivia is enjoys photography, mainly in travel and wellness and intentional living in the field of sustainability. Alivia gets to work with a lot of big brands like Alaska Airlines, Delta and Marriott Hotels which are focused on travel. Alivia also gets to work with many brands in the sustainability space as well. 

Travel and sustainability are her two passions and she has built her brand on integrating those together. Alivia explains that often the two are disassociated with each other so creating a more intentional lifestyle is Olivia’s mission.

 When Alivia was younger she had dreams of becoming an actress in Los Angeles and in the process of acting she accidentally fell into photography. At that point she realized she could make a career out of it and she is very happy she did!

 Stepping behind the scenes of Alivia’s blog she was happy to share her unconventional and unique history of how she got started blogging. When talking with friends about what they were doing on social media, Alivia started taking her own pictures and creating her brand aesthetic, in a time where instagram was gaining popularity and creating more curated instagram feeds.

 Alivia immediately gained 300 followers and shortly after she was recognized by someone in the headquarters of Instagram in San Francisco. They invited her to come to Instagram and share everything she knew about how young people were using social media.

Shocked! Alivia flew to San Francisco two days later and met with the team behind Instagram.

Alivia told them anything she knew about what was trending with the younger users of Instagram. Alivia continued to consult with the team and from that point her blogging career was born. Instagram gave her a platform on Instagram!

In this process Instagram put her on the suggested users list for three weeks which catapulted her following from 300 to 3,000 followers at 18 years old.

Needless to say Alivia loves the Instagram Team!

Alivia had a beautiful head start that has allowed her to live her calling and her passion in conscious travel, but of course that doesn’t come without some hurdles to jump through. Alivia shares her journey of being on her own for the first time. In this time Alivia reflected and explored what she wanted to do with her blog.

One thing she did know is that she wanted to travel. So she started posting pictures of herself as if she was traveling. She received so much engagement from followers that she was starting to be recognized by many different brands that she has always wanted to work with.

She knew she had to take a leap of faith to not follow the crowd, so she created her own voice and became successful as a result.

Alivia shares, “If you are doing what you want to be doing and not listening to all the noise that surrounds you, you can actually get somewhere!’

There have been so many small victories for Alivia in her business. She shares her interest in travel and working with a prestigious airline on a sustainability campaign banning plastic straws. 

This felt like a big win for Alivia working on pitching a campaign and idea where people were actually listening. Knowing that there was a space for sustainability and travel to blend together felt so rewarding to Alivia who is a strong advocate for the environment.

To Alivia sustainability is a value that she builds her lifestyle and business on. Alivia says that being more conscious and mindful of our choices in our everyday lives and not making impulsive decisions can have a lasting ripple effect. The word sustainability becomes a more clear way of life when living by these principles.

When talking about conscious and sustainable travel, Alivia says that it does not have to be daunting, rather it can be something to enjoy!

Alivia shares her tips on how to travel more consciously sustainable below.

➤ Refuse single use and bring your own, for example, bringing your own cutlery instead of using plastic forks and knives.

➤ Bring your own water bottle!

➤ Bring your own snacks instead of buying airline snacks that are packaged in plastic.

Alivia states that it is not only important to look at your own actions when making these small choices but to look at all the changes each one of us can make to contribute to such a big global difference.

Alivia shares that you can travel consciously and sustainably mindful wherever you go but to always be mindful of the locals who live there. Being respectful of their environment when throwing trash away and also being mindful of tagging locations on Instagram when traveling are some things that we all can do. 

One thing Alivia wishes she had known before that she knows now is something called ‘carbon offsetting’. When traveling by car or plane a lot of carbon emissions are being released into the air that raise the levels of greenhouse gases. What Alivia recently learned is that there are a few airline companies that offer a purchase of ten dollars for carbon offsetting initiatives where airlines are committing to planting a tree for just a dollar everytime you fly. 

In a world where we have to travel, it is exciting to know we have opportunities to contribute back to the environment, Alivia states, with companies like One Tree Planted being a great resource for this.

Alivia also suggests when choosing a hotel that there are sustainably focused hotels that are called green initiative hotels. For Alivia she gravitates towards the smaller boutique hotels which helps the local economy sustain their tourism and travel industry.

Equally important is the extra attention and effort that smaller hotels can provide consumers such as sourcing food locally and various energy conservation efforts.  Alivia says that doing the extra research is not too hard when figuring out where these places exist.

Lastly if Alivia could give a piece of advice to her ten year younger self she would say, don’t wait, just do it!

As a kid, she had ideas that she wrote down and didn’t take action on and as an adult she says if you have an idea, take it and run with it! 

The world needs all your gifts and talents!

You can find out more about Alivia on her Instagram and her website.

 

Check out the product of the week in our She Heals The World shop!

 Treat your taste-buds this summer with this savory recipe!

Of course your summer afternoon isn't complete without something fresh to wear.

This week's style guide is complete with a white hat and beige sandals are sure to keep you cool this summer!