#1 Consciously Curious - Climate-conscious travel & digital nomad life
Hey there,
Welcome to the first edition of "Consciously Curious"!🌻
In today's episode:
Plane vs. Sail & Rail: How much more climate-friendly is the latter
How to approach remote working as an employee in the EU
The idea for this newsletter came about because I noticed that I’ve become a passive consumer of information. I often feel so overloaded with information, that my attention ends up fragmented. I finish one podcast episode and immediately click on the next, instead of digesting the conversation I have just listened to. This newsletter is an attempt at nudging myself into engaging more deeply with the topics I care about while also curating them in a way that makes them easily digestible for others. It allows me to zoom in on a few topics every month in a systematic way.
At the beginning of each month, I will write about anything that has piqued my curiosity recently, often related to social or political issues. This first issue gives a good impression of what kind of topics you can expect in this newsletter.
I would be thrilled if you join me on this journey of becoming more “consciously curious”.💛
Marleen
For those who don't know me, a very brief introduction: I am Marleen, a 28-year-old Behavioural Data Scientist based in Berlin, who works remotely half of the year (forever chasing the ☀️). My love for data and programming started when I studied Political Science and analysed data on cool stuff like the effectiveness of gender quotas or leadership preferences in times of crisis. Now I mostly engage in politics in my free time @Volt Europa.💜 I like to think I make the world's best porridge (which my boyfriend tries to unsuccessfully re-brand as "Pete's porridge"). I am a big music lover who takes too much pride in her carefully crafted Spotify playlists. When I am not currently injured, I love to do all kinds of sports (if all goes well, the Copenhagen half-marathon is my next goal).
1. Plane vs. Sail & Rail: How much more climate-friendly is the latter
Much to the joy of my boyfriend, a few months ago I decided that it would be best if we travel from Ireland (Dublin) to the Netherlands (Amsterdam) by Rail & Sail instead of flying. I have done several longer train and bus journeys over the years, and while the organisation is much more of a hassle, I enjoy the gradual change in landscapes and culture. On top of that, you usually meet more local people and stop in places that potentially wouldn’t have been among your top travel destinations. My longest train ride was from Moscow to Irkutsk (🚂 around 5,000km). If you’ve done any adventurous train journeys, I would love to hear about them!
Beyond the personal benefits, the main reason for choosing Rail & Sail over flying was the environmental impact of each. Based on what I know about emissions for different transport options, I assumed this would be the better choice but I had never actually calculated the exact emissions of different travel options. For our trip from Ireland to the Netherlands, I thought this would be an easy endeavour, but as it turns out, there is currently no standard for calculating emissions from aviation.
Differences between emission calculators
I tried out several emission calculators (e.g. Google Flights, atmosfair, or ICAO) and each of them calculated different emissions per passenger ranging from 70kg CO2 emissions (Google Flights) to 196kg CO2 emissions (atmosfair). After a LinkedIn discussion with several sustainability professionals and some research, the main reasons I found for differences in emission figures are:
Some calculators only account for CO2 emissions while others also include the impact of other greenhouse gases (GHGs) emitted during flying.
Calculators that do account for other GHGs use different methods. Usually, they add a multiplier between 2 and 3.
That multiplier isn’t necessarily applied to all flights. Some calculators only apply it to flights longer than a particular distance or above a certain altitude because there is evidence that some non-CO2 effects do not occur on flights below a certain altitude.
Different results for the same flight can also be the result of some calculators (i) taking into account a different number of factors and (ii) making different assumptions about those.
Factors entering the calculation might be passenger load and freight load, different classes (economy, business), actual fuel consumption, corrections of the course due to weather or holding patterns, well-to-wheel emissions (all emissions related to fuel from production to use), and so on. Not all calculators consider the same number of factors. Additionally, some only have average data while others have exact data about, for instance, the fuel use of a particular aircraft.
If calculators don’t have access to the exact information they make simplifying assumptions. To give you an example, Google Flights assumes a pre-Covid passenger load on planes. They do not publish the exact percentage, but this assumption most certainly did not match reality for many flights in the last two years.
Accounting for non-CO2 effects
You might be wondering why calculators use a multiplier for non-CO2 emissions instead of calculating them directly. That’s because those gases have complicated effects on the climate, some of which are not fully understood yet. They also appear to have different effects at different altitudes. A classic case of “it’s complicated”.
The largest non-CO2 effect comes from contrails which are high-level clouds composed of water in the form of ice crystals (the trail you can sometimes see behind a plane in the sky). These clouds result in both cooling due to reflecting solar radiation during the day and warming by trapping outgoing infrared radiation. They have an overall warming impact.
The second largest non-CO2 effect comes from Nitrogen Oxide (NOx) which has many complicated interactions with other gases and is thought to have an overall warming effect.
More resources
If you would like to learn more about how to calculate flight emissions, here are some more resources for you (thank you to Noel Duffy and Paul Behrens for sending these):
An on-line travel footprint calculator released to the science community. Astrophysics, April 2020.
Guest post: Calculating the true climate impact of aviation emissions. CarbonBrief, September 2020.
Contrails: tweaking flight altitude could be a climate win. Nature, May 2021.
‘Each flight is different’: Carbon emissions of selected flights in three geographical markets. Transportation Researcher Part D, September 2017.
Example: Plain vs. Sail & Rail emissions
My main takeaway is that the emissions from flying have many direct and indirect impacts on the climate, so it is important to be transparent about the methodology used in the calculation. Given the impact of non-CO2 emissions, it seems insincere to define the climate impact of aviation as CO2 emissions only. This is, however, the methodology Google Flights and ICAO (another popular calculator) use which is why their emission figures for a flight from Dublin to Ireland are around 2 to 3 times smaller than for other emission calculators. In the example below, I will use the calculator provided by atmosfair which uses a multiplier of 3 for flights above an altitude of 9km (see the full methodology here).
The plane emissions are for an average flight (economy and scheduled). Kg CO2 is per passenger for a single journey. The calculation for the ferry is based on a foot passenger and includes CO2 and non-CO2 emissions (107.4km journey). The national rail emission figures are also based on CO2 and non-CO2 emissions (363km journey). The source for the Eurostar emission figures can be found here. I did not include travel to and from ports, airports, and train stations as these can vary a lot depending on your mode of transport.
Taking the Rail & Sail option leads to an ~88% reduction in emissions compared to flying. Even if we use the most lenient calculation for flying (70kg CO2; only CO2 emissions & the most fuel-efficient airplane), we still see a 66% reduction in emissions. The exact figures should not be taken at face value though, because calculating emissions for the ferry and train involved different calculators. However, the figures indicate that option 2 is considerably more climate-friendly (by how much is up for debate). Maybe this will inspire you to also choose the Eurostar or Rail & Sail next time you are hopping across the channel.🇬🇧🇮🇪
2. How to approach remote working as an employee in the EU
Since I have been asked a few times about how I can work from places like Portugal or Spain for part of the year, I thought it might be useful to write up how I approached the topic and to share some resources. I realise that this is not for everyone, so feel free to scroll past this part if you aren’t interested. :)
My remote work journey started during the bleak Covid winter of 2020. I was scrolling through Instagram and saw that one of my former classmates (hello Marlene 👋, if you are reading this) was living her best life as a digital nomad in Gran Canaria. We got in contact and I realised pretty quickly that this was the perfect opportunity for me to escape the grey Berlin winter. She invited me to a Slack group which made it much easier for me to imagine what life would be like over there.
At that point, I had been in home office for almost a year, but my company had no official remote work policy in place. As far as I knew, no one had ever asked to work remotely and I had only been at the company for around a year. As soon as I had figured out where I wanted to go exactly (Las Palmas in Gran Canaria), for how long (6 weeks which turned into 3 months), and what would be necessary for that, I approached my manager. My employer was a bit overwhelmed initially but they ended up being very supportive. All I needed was an A1 certificate (A1 Bescheinigung) to prove that I pay social security contributions in Germany which they filed with my public health insurance. My employer also drew up a remote work contract to regulate different scenarios like what happens when my laptop gets stolen or in which cases the remote work arrangement can end prematurely. And that was it! (FYI: For tax reasons, you are not allowed to stay outside of your home country for more than 6 months.)
Before you approach your employer, I recommend that you decide on:
how long and where you want to work (this can usually be extended)
have an idea of what your housing and work set-up might be like (e.g. co-working, co-living, flatshare). Usually, that helps to put your employer's mind at ease.
tell them what they need to take care of (fill out an A1 certificate for you which should be the same in all EU countries, optional: set up a remote work contract)
Starting on your remote work adventure can be a little overwhelming so I compiled a few tips for you:
Housing
Prices for Airbnbs usually decrease drastically if you stay for longer than a month and during the off-season (simply message the Airbnb owner and ask for a long-term price)
Co-living places have all the infrastructure you need (a nice room, a co-working area, and a community) if you want to be more on the safe side. They tend to be more expensive though.
If you want to live in a flat share, have a look at Facebook groups for your destination.
Sometimes hostels also have special deals for the off-season, usually, you only find out about those once you are there.
In general, it's also not a bad idea to book a hostel or Airbnb for one or two weeks and look for a cheaper option once you are at your remote work destination. You would be surprised how quickly you meet new people and discover different housing options through them.
Equipment
Anything you need, you can get secondhand (monitor, yoga mat, coffee machine, wetsuit, etc.). There is a lot of turnover so someone is always leaving who is selling stuff you might need.
You might be worried about your internet connection. Some Airbnbs already list their internet speed, but you can also always message your host and ask them to measure the internet speed for you. Mobile data also works well and isn’t very expensive. Berliners won’t be surprised about this, but I’ve had more issues with my internet speed in Berlin than in Portugal or Spain.
If you want to have a good work set-up, co-working spaces might be a nice option. You can usually book flexible rates. Co-workings are great if you mostly work independently. They often have phone cabins, but these are usually not noise-proof so everyone else can still hear what you are saying.
Place
If you want to find out which places are remote work compatible, nomadlist is a good resource.
If you are still unsure whether the city or area you are interested in is remote work friendly, look for nomad groups on Facebook or search for co-working spaces in that area. Those are usually a pretty good indication.
People
Many remote work places have Slack groups and/or Facebook groups, where people post about digital nomad meet-ups, hikes, Yoga sessions (the list goes on). Go to some events and trust me, you will make friends in no time!
If you are worried that the digital nomad community is full of freelancers and people in their 20s and 30s, fear not! The remote work community is very diverse. You will meet families, business owners, full-time employees, Yoga teachers, locals, really anyone.
I think it’s also important to remember that remote work doesn't have to be harmful to the environment. It is true that there are digital nomads who almost make it a sport to fly from one country to the next but that doesn't apply to everyone. I actually think remote work can allow for much more climate-conscious ways of travel. As an example, I decided to go to Portugal by bus and train which was much more doable because I spent 2 months there. You probably wouldn't do that for a 2-week holiday.
If you are unsure about whether remote work is really for you, maybe try to combine a 1-week holiday with a 1-week remote work trip. You don’t have to go all-in immediately. If you have any further questions about remote work, leave a comment or e-mail me. :)
Additional stuff
Can you be a climate activist and still fly? Vogue, July 2022.
Why Tipping Points Could Save Civilisation. TED Talk by Dr. Paul Behrens, July 2022.
I stopped reading the news. Is the problem me — or the product? The Washington Post, July 2022.
Podcast Maintenance Phase (particularly the episodes “The Body Mass Index” and “The Obesity Epidemic”)
And that’s it for this month’s issue! Thanks for reading!💛 And a big thank you to friends and acquaintances who shared articles/podcasts/videos/insights that I included in this newsletter!
I would love to hear your feedback or suggestions! Simply click on the box below or reply to this e-mail.
Have a great week everyone!
xx Marleen