How To Reduce Your Environmental Impact As A Remote Worker

Photo by Ishan @seefromthesky on Unsplash

We’re all having an impact on the increasing carbon levels of our planet. From the transportation we choose, the clothes we wear, and the food we eat—every day we’re adding to the problem whether we want to think about it or not.

And while part of that is really not okay, there’s another part that is.

The human ecosystem currently relies on fossil fuels, plastics, and harmful chemicals. This is the bad news. The good news is that it won’t always be this way.

The semi-bad semi-good news is that it’s probably going to take at a minimum a few years to create a human ecosystem that is healthier for our planet.

While we wait for that day, there is still a lot that we can do to make sure that we’re not adding more of a carbon footprint than we need to. As remote workers, we have a lot of freedom. We can work from where we want which means that we’re not stuck in a corporate office that’s ignoring the red alarm warning us of our planet’s future.

We don’t have to abide by any environmental rules than the ones that we choose for ourselves.

And that means that we have a lot of power to dictate how much waste we create and how much we avoid. It’s going to take a team effort to ensure our planet is able to sustain the next generations.

Here are the 4ways I’m reducing my environmental impact as a remote worker.

#1: Bring Your Own Water Bottle EVERYWHERE

I’ll start with the most obvious one first. As a remote worker, I work from coffee shops or coworking spaces. The amount of plastic cups that my reusable water bottle has saved is in the hundreds.

There are 2 scary things that you need to know to understand why this is so important:

1. A plastic cup takes 450 years to decompose. That means that your children’s children’s children’s children will be the generation that sees your plastic cup decompose. Until then, it will be sitting in a landfill or in the ocean destroying the environment around it.
2. “I recycle, so it’s okay if I grab a plastic water cup every now and then.” Only 25% of plastic is recycled. That means that out of 100 plastic cups that you’re using at cafes, when you’re out to eat on your lunch break, or at your coworking office ONLY A MAXIMUM of 25 have been recycled and the other 75are now sitting on the planet for 450 years.

Any type of plastic that is a one-time use like a plastic water cup is a strong no, unless I’m in such a circumstance that I absolutely cannot get by without it.

#2: Ask The Cafe What Cup They’re Going To Put Your Drink In

Have you ever had something like this happen:

Barista: What can I get for you?

Me: I’ll take an iced earl grey tea please.

Barista: For here, or to go?

Me: For here.

Barista: *Hands me a plastic cup, with a plastic lid, and a plastic straw*

Despite telling a barista that you’ll take your drink “for here”, there is no promise that your drink will come in a paper or reusable cup (mug or glass). I’ve learned this lesson enough times to figure out that I need to ask them what cup they’re going to put my drink in.

Immediately after I order, I’ll ask, “What cup are you going to put that in?” The barista will reach behind her and pull the cup that my drink will go in.

If it’s a cold drink that they want to give me plastic cup for, I’ll ask for a mug or glass. If they don’t have either, then I’ll ask for the paper cup that the hot drinks come in.

The goal is to not get a single piece of plastic from the barista and there’s only one thing you can rely on in this situation: every coffee shop is different.

Some will give you a plastic cup and a paper straw (almost there…). Others will show the mug your drink is going to go in (woo hoo!).

The first pro here is that you’re not using more plastic than you need to be. The second is that if enough people are requesting to not use a plastic cup, the cafe or coworking space can realize that their customers don’t want to use plastic and move away from it.

PS: I also do this when ordering drinks to go. Paper cups work just as well for cold drinks as plastic cups do.

P.S.S. I also ask what cutlery they’re going to give me for food and ask if it’s made out of plastic (some places use decompostable cutlery) or if they have regular silverware that I can use instead. You’d be surprised how many places give you plastic to ease their clean up, but have reusable options available.

#3: Keep A Minimal Wardrobe

I don’t want to overpress my idea of how to live, but I can say that being a minimalist has vastly improved my life. When I was 25 I sold all of my stuff and backpacked around Central America, Europe, and Asia for a year and a half.

I learned how little you need to be happy and how much happier I was with less possessions. Less stuff meant that I could say yes to every travel opportunity that came my way, that my focus was completely on things that actually mattered—not my material items, and that I was free to leave where I currently was in a moment of spontaneity.

I’ve adopted this mindset into my “normal” life now that I’m no longer backpacking and I live in Los Angeles. My entire wardrobe fits into one suitcase and I’m able to make tens of different outfits just by buying neutral colored clothes (white, black, grey, brown, and blue).

While this can be applied farther than just remote workers (corporate workers can adopt the same mindset), as a remote worker I get to wear whatever I want to work.

So, I focus on wearing minimal, comfy clothes and I wear those clothes out. I don’t buy new ones unless I really need them and there’s a lack for that item in my wardrobe.

While this may seem initially limiting, it can become absolutely freeing. You know that you’re not buying clothes that will hang in your closet for months untouched and the water consumption and environmental damage your clothes did take to create is being mitigated by the amount of times you’re wearing these clothes.

“…Extending the life of the garment diminishes the impact.” -Smithsonian Magazine

#4: Choose Pools Over Private Uber Rides

Here’s how my rule for choosing a pool vs. a private ride-share ride:

1. If I don’t have time to take a pool, I’ll take an Uber—no guilt
2. If I have time to take a pool (since it adds an extra 10–15 minutes depending on your destination—I’ll take a pool

Yet, ensuring that I am choosing Rule #2 over Rule #1 more often depends on my level of preparation. I’ll always calculate how long it is going to take me to get somewhere at a certain time in both a pool and a private ride. The day of, I’ll make sure to do my best to allocate enough time to take the pool.

As a remote worker, I’m not running to be at my office at a specific time each morning during rush hour traffic. Despite living in LA, I have the luxury of working around traffic (most of the time) when I’m scheduling my in-person meetings.

This means that 95% of the time, I can add on the extra 10–15 minutes that a pool will take me.

“If every Uber rider in the Bay Area shared their trip for one day, we’d save 133,721 miles on the road and 36,105 kg of CO2.” -Uber, April 2016

Today, we’re relying on plastic and fossil fuels for transportation, and material items to make us happy. But tomorrow, things can change.

We can show businesses that we don’t use plastic which means—they have no reason to buy it.

We can choose the environmental option by allocating 10 minutes of our lives to reduce our carbon footprint.

And we can say no to the consumerist ideologies that tells us that owning everything will make us happier.

This is how I’m reducing my environmental impact as a remote worker. If you’re a remote worker too, let me know if you have any other tips or tricks in the responses below. I can edit this article and feature you—this is a team effort, remember?