Travel and sustainability by default don’t go hand in hand. If you have to fly somewhere or drive long distances you are contributing to greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. That’s why staycations have been a priority for ecologically-minded people. Traveling local reduces your carbon footprint and lets you support the people and businesses close to your home. 

But travel is an industry that holds together the economies of some countries like Thailand and Egypt. Two of our favorite places. Plus, it’s fun. And what if you are a writer who makes a living writing about travel? Get out there, but do it sustainably.

Tips for working as a writer in sustainable travel

Finding jobs

If you are looking for work as a writer ––  don’t worry –– ChatGTP still hasn’t taken over the world –– or your job. Creative, knowledgeable people in multiple languages are sought after across a wide range of outlets in the writing and journalism fields. Sites like Topcontent hire writers in the travel space and this site focuses on niche areas and non-English content as well. If you aren’t strong in English, but write well and have a passion for writing and travel, this site is for you.

If you dream about being a digital nomad, it doesn’t mean you have to work as a travel writer, but it sure can be fun. There are plenty of Facebook groups that offer writing gigs for travel writers. Digital Nomads on Facebook is a place where we found writers for Green Prophet and even if you aren’t in the position to travel, you will learn that you can write about your hometown or favorite city like no one else on the planet. Take your school assignments from college or university and do it in the place in situ if you are learning over Zoom working with a tutor to do my physics homework. 

Finding the muse

Another tip for you is to hone in on your passions. Here are some tips and ideas for you to explore: If you like food, start writing about the best restaurants for locals. Think about ones that use local, seasonal ingredients and which tell the story of the place. This kind of content helps travelers be easier on the planet by eating healthier. Tourists often get stuck hungry at landmark sites and after reading bogus Yelp reviews end up eating low-quality junk food served on plastic that many locals would never touch.

A good way to start writing is to approach the topic like you are speaking to your best friend when you were 12-years-old. This way you explain the idea in a way that is easy-going and colloquial, you will say things honestly and you will write in a way that a 12-year-old can understand. No one needs complicated words to make a point. 

Getting of the house is never a bad idea. Even travel writers love to lie in bed and wait for the world to come to them. Just because you crave exotic locations and food, getting out of bed when you have arrived to your destination is the next step. Dust off your barefoot shoes, turn over new stones, and go to the opposite path of the travellers and tourists before you. 

Deciding what is eco – you can be the judge

Most travel resorts and guest houses around the world aren’t calculating their carbon footprints. If you stay at a family-run guest house in Calcutta and ask them how eco-friendly their rating is, they might have no idea what you are talking about. But it’s eco to support family-run guest houses, just like it’s eco to travel to Chiang Rai and stay with the Hill Tribe people. 

On the other hand there are large “eco” resorts on Phuket, Thailand like the Keemala, where we stayed last year (and it’s one of the best places we have ever visited), and they can send you a sustainability rating and eco-process they created and designed to help the jungle and the local population. Use common sense: it goes without eco-credentials, that small family businesses are more sustainable than large resorts. 

Lastly, if you travel to a place boasting about it’s eco credentials, ask them about power use, water reuse and plastics. Ask them about employee salaries, benefits and time off. You can decide if the credentials are real or just a marketing tactic. 

Good luck and enjoy your trip. 

The post <strong>How do you write for sustainable travel?</strong> appeared first on Green Prophet.

Unleash your inner Thoreau, show the human side of sustainability and and win $10,000 for a creative nonfiction essay.

Have you been lucky enough to Dance at the Dead Sea but then couldn’t help but notice its destruction? Or you’ve have had the rare chance to travel and surf through unknown parts of Iran. Perhaps you are just a wanderer or quiet philosopher type who has a rare knack for seeing natural detail the rest of us miss. If you have a “green” eye, a corresponding “green” pen, and an ecologically-minded story to tell or have told you can submit it to a new contest for sustainability writing and win a cool $10,000.

Creative Nonfiction magazine with the Walton Sustainability Solutions Initiatives at Arizona State University are looking for the best creative nonfiction essay on sustainability. The winning essay which will take home the prize will also be published in the magazine’s special “Human Face of Sustainability” issue.

The magazine and the Sustainability Solutions Fair, one of the programs within the Walton Sustainability Solutions Initiatives at Arizona U, launched this competition to grow the conversion on sustainability within the individual as a writer, and to enlarge the conversation about sustainability as a whole around the planet.

“As we face daily reminders of environmental challenges across the globe, our work here is to advance knowledge about the existing and potential solutions of sustainability, so we’re thrilled to be partnering with Creative Nonfiction to raise awareness and thoughtful responses to these issues that affect every one of us,” says Patricia Reiter, director of the sustainability programs at Arizona University.

Before you sharpen your pencils, we suggest reading a great primer: American Earth: Environmental Writing Since Thoreau. I’ve been reading this book edited by Bill McKibben over the last year and it gives the best lessons on how to write on sustainability issues that are in line with the times. It inspires.

And you also have to know the basic entry requirements for the contest: According to the contest rules your entries should be personal essays or stories that illuminate and present the human side of environmental, economic, ethical, and/or social challenges related to the state of the planet and our future. They need to be true stories, backed up with facts and research if possible.

From the editor’s desk: “We seek essays on topics that range from global to local, from “big” (e.g., Resilience after natural disasters; New technology solutions vs. common sense; Energy harvesting) to “small” (e.g., Personal decisions about consumption; Reuse, recycle, up-cycle, bicycle?; Green, clean—what does it mean?; What can we learn from past generations?). Whatever the subject, we want to hear about it in an essay that blends facts and research with narrative—employing scenes, descriptions, etc.

“Your essay can channel Henry David Thoreau or Henry Ford, Rachel Carson or (a literary) Rush Limbaugh; but all essays must tell true stories and be factual and scientifically accurate,” editors note.

Creative Nonfiction founder and editor Lee Gutkind points out: “There are so many with an interest or stake in this timely and important issue: including nonfiction writers, environmentalists, engineers, and scientists. I’m eager to read through these submissions and see how a diversity of voices are exploring and contextualizing their ideas through narrative.”

In addition to the $10,000 prize, the winner will be invited to attend a special launch event hosted by Arizona University’s Walton Sustainability Solutions Initiatives. With a contest deadline at May 31 this year there is a little less than three months to get your work submitted.

An additional prize will go to an artist who is selected to illustrate the issue, so forward this call-out to your designer friends as well. Designers can win $3,500 but more importantly perhaps, have their work featured on the magazine’s website and inside the special edition on sustainability. Anything suited to a print format will be considered.

Complete submission guidelines are available at the Creation Nonfiction website here

The post Write for Sustainability and Win Creative Writing Contest appeared first on Green Prophet.