Sustainability, Accountability and Power: What Remote Work Means for the Gig Economy Emissions

This workshop explores a "middle-out" approach for Internet sustainability by including tech workers from the gig economy in a critical discussion about sustainability, especially those who hail from developing countries and who suffer most from the impacts of resource extraction, environmental degradation, and climate change. The workshop will discuss a systemic approach to carbon emission assessment that begins with calculating the carbon emissions outsourced by digital companies, an inventory of digital practices within the gig workers' areas of influence, and the awareness of environmental injustice created by the Internet and digital services through mining and environmental degradation in local communities. The goal is to spark a discussion among participants around how the gig economy is shifting towards remote work in developing countries and what this could mean for power relations in terms of decision-making and accountability for sustainability. The results will be used to develop this inventory as a tool to use to create awareness for Internet practitioners in El Salvador and other countries.