Meet Jorin, Digital Nomad, founder of Economadia and what we would call a true Carbon Pirate.
Jorin has just arrived in Javea, Spain after a 20 hour train journey from Porto, Portugal. This 948km journey could have also taken him a 2 hour flight so we decided to catchup with Jorin to discover the story and reasons behind his travel choice.
Why did you decide to travel by train and not just take a short flight?
I was travelling to Javea for a conference on Sustainability, so it seemed a bit counter-productive to travel by plane. It would defeat the point. So, i decided to leave a few days before the event and to travel by train. This not only saved Carbon Emissions, but also money as flying would have cost me about twice as much. Alternative options like train and bus are almost forgotten, but turned out to be cheaper than flying.
“In general I try to never fly with distances below 1000 km, as you can easily do this with more sustainable methods.”
14 kg
of CO2 emissions
110 kg
of CO2 emissions
96kg of C02 emissions saved
(The equivalent of 138 washes in a washing machine)
How do you balance being a Digital Nomad and sustainable travel?
To live more sustainable and be a Nomad is not easy. In fact, it takes willpower and effort to not go for the “by default” option. The easiest and most comfortable ways often have a bigger impact on your footprint. Comfort is often the enemy when we are talking about real change. But Climate Change is going to be much more “uncomfortable” than a 20 hour train journey.
Like any goal in life, it is a process rather than a quick change. For example, if you wish to lose weight you can choose to go all-in. You go on a diet, you work out four times a week and skip on all your treats. However, these rapid changes often don’t last as motivation slowly goes down.
Living sustainable is not a decision you can make from one day to the other, but a habit you need to implement over time. We need to overwrite our default options to automatically choose the sustainable option. Once you have achieved this, it won’t take any effort anymore and becomes your “by default” method.
“Comfort is often the enemy when we are talking about real change. But Climate Change is going to be much more "uncomfortable" than a 20 hour train journey.”
“By default, you get a plastic straw in your drink without even being asked. By default, you take a low budget flight. We need to overwrite our default options to automatically choose the most sustainable.”
How do you think we can get more people to care about sustainable travel?
There is always a bunch of people who simply don’t care about Sustainability, and it will be hard to convince them. On the other side you have people who are already convinced of all of that, you don’t have to explain it to them anymore. It’s about those who are somewhere in the middle. It is those people that we at Economadia wish to reach and give inspiration. We believe in a platform where people can find those kind of relevant and appealing information that would bring them into the desired direction. If you have some ass-kicking blog articles about how to travel more ecological (for example Nofootprintnomads) or a decent list of “green” coliving and coworking places, chances are you might give it a shot and try it yourself if you basically agree with this direction.
How do you find motivation for change?
I feel that lot of my motivation comes from following my heart. I try to do what feels right for me. Not something that society told me to do, but something that is closest to my own character. If I keep looking for external validation, it would sometimes be hard to take sustainable options.
When I make my choices I try to be as consistent as possible, to really build a pattern of behavior. I believe that by going that extra mile, it will make me a better person in the long run. Ultimately I am therefore able to give back good things to the world.
In this series we highlight Digital Nomads that are trying to travel more sustainable. Even though it’s sometimes unavoidable to travel by plane, we hope this series will provide you with some inspiration to think about your own journeys. Do you have a story to share? Make sure to leave a comment below and tell us what you did. We love to hear more about sustainable travel idea’s.