প্রকাশ: 28/07/2022
Sitting on the terrace of a cafe in the heart of Lisbon one
morning in June, sales specialist Victor Soto was busy at work communicating
with colleagues across Europe and the Americas.
The COVID-19 pandemic is what drove the British-Peruvian
33-year-old to become a so-called "digital nomad".
"The lifestyle gives me a lot of choice and
freedom," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Soto made the decision
to work only for companies that offer fully remote working in order to fulfil
his passion for travel, he explained.
Soto is now also part of a growing trend among digital
nomads who are looking for a less frenetic pace of life.
These new "slomads" still travel around the globe
taking their work with them, but are choosing to spend longer in one location -
some to enjoy a richer cultural experience while others are driven by the
desire to be more eco-conscious.
Remote and flexible working has boomed since coronavirus
lockdowns lifted globally, backed by major companies from AirBnB to Twitter and
a rising number of nations issuing digital nomad visas which allow people to
stay and work for up to two years.
The typical profile of a digital nomad is shifting, as
island-hopping 20-somethings are joined by online workers in their 30s and 40s
travelling with partners and children, experts and researchers say.
But concerns are growing over their environmental impact.
While data is scarce on the carbon footprint of digital
nomads, "slomads" are striving to fly less, stay in sustainable
accommodation, and invest in, or contribute to, green projects.
However, climate campaigners are not convinced, saying the
social phenomenon still depends on air travel, which produces up to 3% of
global greenhouse gas emissions.
"I think we feel a bit guilty, because the main issue
with this lifestyle is the flying," said Emmanuel Guisset, a former
digital nomad who is now chief executive of Outsite, which offers co-living
spaces for people including remote workers.
SLOWING DOWN
Pre-pandemic, the stereotype of a digital nomad was a
freelancer in their 20s bouncing between sunny locales and sporting little more
than shorts, flip-flops and a laptop.
Now, more people are combining work with travel later in
life - often staying longer in one place to benefit from cheaper rents and
better appreciating and contributing to local culture.
A poll published in May by freelancer marketplace Fiverr and
travel guide publisher Lonely Planet showed one-third of nomads surveyed moving
every one to three months, while 55% enjoyed working in one location and moving
after three months or more.
Americans make up the majority of digital nomads. A 2021
study from Upwork on the habits of hiring managers estimated that 36.2 million
US citizens would work remotely by 2025, an 87% increase from pre-pandemic
levels.
Tourist hot-spots have been quick to embrace digital nomads,
and view the growing trend of remaining longer in one location as a way to
recoup losses from pandemic lockdowns.
Destinations such as Aruba, Barbados, Cape Verde, Croatia,
Estonia, Indonesia, Malta and Norway have created digital nomad visas, allowing
people to stay put and work for up to two years.
Accommodation rental company AirBnB saw a 90% rise in
long-term bookings in Portugal last year compared to 2019, which it said
reflected how more people are taking advantage of the ability to work and live
from anywhere.
Yet digital nomads admit there is still a lot of flying
involved, especially since the easing of COVID-19 restrictions, although
experts say it is difficult to identify nomads' share of flights compared with
tourism and business passengers.
Denise Auclair, corporate aviation expert at European clean
transport campaign group, Transport and Environment (T&E), said there was
"a golden opportunity" to continue with the reduced level of business
travel seen during the pandemic, and to cut down on unnecessary flying.
But she queried whether companies are factoring the carbon
footprint of employees working as digital nomads into their annual emissions
reports.
Guisset of Outsite said nomads are increasingly turning to
carbon offsets, whereby people seek to compensate their climate impact by
funding projects that reduce emissions through activities such as planting
trees.
Some environmental groups, however, have dismissed such
carbon-credit schemes as "window dressing".
"It gives people a false sense of flying green, when
there are so many problems with it," said Dewi Zloch, aviation expert at
Greenpeace Netherlands.
She pointed to research done for the European Commission in
2017 which said carbon-offsetting schemes are not providing real and measurable
emissions reductions.
GREEN LIVING
The pandemic-driven remote work boom, meanwhile, has
encouraged the creation of co-living and co-working spaces, some of which are
trying to put green ideas into practice.
When Outsite first started with its California co-living
property, the company planted a tree for each booking made in locations from
the Andes mountains to Indonesia.
Traditional Dream Factory, a co-living space in Portugal's
vast rural Alentejo region which plans to launch in summer 2023, is trying
something more ambitious.
Co-founder Samuel Delesque said the aim is to set up a
community of like-minded digital nomads, engineers, artists and crypto
entrepreneurs who will also regenerate the land.
The organisation has already started covering deforested
areas with nitrogen-fixing crops and planted hundreds of trees.
It also plans to insulate its living quarters and create
natural pools and showers to save water and become self-sufficient.
A former software engineer and digital nomad, Delesque plans
to expand in countries like South Africa and the United States.
Caring for the environment is at the heart of his project,
the Franco-Danish entrepreneur said.
"If we don't manage to align economic values with (the)
ecological, then we're really doomed as a species," he added.
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