Remote Work for Sustainability
A few days ago I had a pleasure of giving a talk on the WindsForFuture ( https://windsforfuture.com ) summit in Cumbuco, Ceara, Brazil and sharing a few thoughts on how remote work can contribute to sustainable lifestyle. The subject of sustainability is a hot one these days, and while raising awareness and demanding systematic changes are necessary steps indeed, our own daily actions matter as well: what we eat, how we travel, how we work – all those small decisions in our daily lives that do add up day by day, and person by person. WindsForFuture gathered people with vast experience in tech, innovation, entrepreneurship, as well as media, education, government and on top of that, athletes. As this is one of the top wind spots in the world, a huge kitesurf parade took place where the Guinness Book world record has been officially broken with 596 kites on the water. As people who are in the ocean every day, we also wanted to show how concerned we are with what we see, and how huge our loss would be if the oceans and the environment would go in the wrong direction. I’ve been working remotely and traveling as a so called digital nomad for nearly 10 years which gave me an amazing opportunity to get out of the “default” and realize a few points on the way – happy to share.
Remote Team Collaboration vs Daily Commute
Let’s start by stating the obvious. In big cities, people spend hours per day in traffic, wasting the time of their lives and polluting the atmosphere in the process, just to arrive to an office where they’ll be spending most of the time in front of the computer, and more often than not, using the internet to communicate with the team members within the same building. In order not to approach them with bad timing, or to send a URL or copied text, or to have it documented in the system, or simply not to take the headphones off while enjoying the playlist. The fact that they are in the same physical space is leveraged very little compared to the lower quality of life and higher impact on the pollution that it brings.
Remote Customer Relations vs On-Site Client Meetings
There are situations where you really need to check out the circumstances in person, but in great majority of cases this could easily be taken care of online. Don’t be afraid of losing the clients over suggesting an online meeting. Rather, be ready to embrace the ones who will respect your initiative to improve the way of work and be grateful for the opportunity to access your services even if they are physically distant. There are plenty of tools nowadays for efficient conference video calls, file shares, screen shares, automatic transcripts and meeting minutes, sharing URLs in chats, using slides while presenting, recording the presentations and much more. Most of those business trips end up with more time spent in the airports and planes than with the clients, and you end up coming back completely exhausted. Just Imagine how many more clients you could attend instead, while saving your health and the health of the planet. Isn’t it a clear win win?
Virtual Networking vs Flying for Conferences
For many events it make sense to be held in “real life”, fx the one I joined a few days ago which included an outdoors sports event as well. Sometimes a visit to a place of significance can add to the participants experience, and yes, sure, the leisure activities encourage bonding and openness to future collaborations. However, again, many can easily be done remotely, and even benefit from larger diversity of participants, increased number of participants who wouldn’t be available to travel to a location, saving time and, you got it, saving the planet. Recently I’ve joined a couple of events (talks, panels etc.) followed by super efficient virtual networking on Remo platform ( http://remoapp.co ) . Huge support to the Remo team and a recommendation for everybody to check it out!
Living vs Escaping
As a nomad, I actually travel less than many non-nomads. Sounds silly, right? But it seems to be true indeed. Not only that I don’t fly around for business meetings, I also don’t need to fly out every weekend for those so-called weekend escapes. I don’t need to escape from anywhere, I am always exactly where I want to be. Staying a month in a place is merely a layover for me. I travel super slowly, or actually I don’t even travel, I live in multiple places over the course of years.
Expert Status vs Consumer Status
One of the core sources of the environment issues nowadays is for sure the consumerism that in the past 50 years has reached insane levels. Countries measure their growth in the quantities of produced “goods”, and individuals show their success by purchasing arguably unnecessary products. It’s just that what’s happening is not much of a growth to be proud of, nor some success to celebrate. Ofc it’s super complex and far from being black & white, but even a small step towards moderation could make a difference.
The remote work culture doesn’t encourage demonstrating professional status by wearing branded clothes, accessories and gadgets, driving in to work with fancy car, or inviting your colleagues over to a luxurious home. What the world sees is your expertise. The service you offer. The problem you solve. And you can just as well live 24/7 barefoot as I do (I do own flip-flops and a pair of running shows that have been with me for a few years). Ofc, mine could probably be an extreme example, but it’s here to make you think.
Global & Outdoors vs Limited
Living in different parts of the world, working on daily basis with international teams, clients and collaborators, having easier access to outdoors activities, engaging in the communities that are not purely related to one’s field of work – all that works towards building the mindset of a world-citizen who understands that there is no planet B.
If you own a business, please at least consider which activities that it consists of could potentially be done remotely. The technology is only as good as we are good at making use of it.
Pic credit: https://www.instagram.com/tallesfreitasm/
