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Nomad year

Digital nomad carbon calculator

List the places you stay this year and for how long. The calculator works out the flights between them, where you stay and work, and everyday life, with DEFRA 2026 and Ember 2025 figures. Free, about two minutes.

Calculate my nomad year

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What a nomad year looks like

Three made-up nomads, worked out with the calculator as it stands today. All three eat a mixed diet, buy an average amount, cowork 3–4 days a week and spend about 8 hours a week on video calls.

NomadPer yearPer monthFlightsTo offset a month
Slow traveller, EuropeHome in Berlin. Lisbon, Las Palmas and Barcelona, 3 months each in a flat, 3 months at home.5.8 t485 kg16% · 4 flights€19
Asia loopHome in Amsterdam. Bali 3 months in a coliving, Chiang Mai and Da Nang 2 months each, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok 1 month each, air conditioning most days, a scooter.10.2 t848 kg34% · 6 flights€34
Fast mover, AmericasHome in New York. Mexico City 3 months, Medellín, Buenos Aires, Lisbon and Barcelona 6 weeks each, plus 2 extra trips home.10.3 t856 kg49% · 10 flights€34

Offset price at €0.04 per kg CO₂e. Figures in CO₂e.

More data and charts on flights, stays, heating and slow travel: Digital nomad carbon footprint: the 2026 data guide

Where each year’s footprint comes from

Slow traveller, Europe5.8 t
Asia loop10.2 t
Fast mover, Americas10.3 t
  • Flights
  • Where you stay
  • Where you work
  • Getting around
  • Food
  • Shopping
  • Waste
  • Laptop, phone and calls

Flights are what set nomads apart: 16–49% of these three years. The rest is everyday life (food, a place to stay, shopping), which counts wherever you are.

What the calculator counts

Flights between places
The distance between the cities you list, in order and back to the start, times DEFRA 2026 factors that include the effects of flying at altitude: 0.229 kg CO₂e per km for domestic flights, 0.126 short-haul and 0.117 long-haul in economy. Business class counts 1.5× short-haul and 2.9× long-haul.
Trains, buses and ferries
If you take them between places a day or less apart: 0.031 kg per km by train, 0.039 by coach, 0.019 by ferry (DEFRA 2026).
Where you stay
A flat uses 200 kWh a month and a coliving room 120; air conditioning in hot places adds up to 240 (an estimate). Each is multiplied by that country’s electricity grid (Ember 2025). Hotels use DEFRA 2026’s figure for the country (38 countries), hostels 3 kg a night.
Heating
Flats and colivings are heated by the climate of each place: the household calculator’s small flat (6,900 kWh of gas a year in London’s climate, 0.182 kg per kWh) scaled by the place’s heating degree days (NASA POWER). Berlin comes out at about 119 kg a month, Lisbon about 36, Bali none.
Where you work
A coworking desk uses about 7.2 kWh per person per day (a published coworking study), times the grid. Working from a flat or café counts the laptop and screen: 0.022 kg an hour (DEFRA 2026 homeworking).
Getting around
Bus or metro 0.102 kg per km, scooter 0.083, taxi or ride-hailing 0.149, rental car 0.162 (DEFRA 2026).
Food, shopping and waste
The household calculator’s figures: 45–180 kg a month for food, 30–220 kg for shopping (average, 100 kg, unless you pick another) and 25 kg for waste.
Laptop, phone and calls
250 kg for a laptop and 70 kg for a phone, spread over the years you keep them, plus 0.4 kg an hour of video calls with the camera on.
Months you don’t list
They count as time at home, in a heated flat on your home country’s grid. With no fixed home, the places you list are stretched to a full year.

Assumptions behind the numbers

The calculator gives an estimate from a few answers, not a measurement. These are the choices it makes for you; most of them you can change in the questions.

  • Flights: the straight-line distance between the cities you list, in order and back to where you started. Stopovers and detours aren’t added, so a route with connections counts a little low.
  • Trains, buses and ferries also use straight-line distances, which are shorter than real routes.
  • Heating: a year’s heating for each place is spread evenly over its months, so a summer in Berlin counts some heating you didn’t use and a winter there too little. In the tropics nothing is counted, cool highland cities like Bogotá or Mexico City included, because homes there rarely have heating. Hotels and hostels include it in their figure per night.
  • Gas heating everywhere, as in the household calculator. An electric heater or a heat pump on a clean grid would come out lower.
  • Shopping: an average month (100 kg) unless you pick another level. Living out of one bag is the “Minimal” option.
  • Waste: 25 kg a month, the household calculator’s average, wherever you are.
  • Months you don’t list count as time at home. With no fixed home, the places you list are stretched to a full year.
  • Everything is per person: one traveller, one room or desk.

Your biggest levers

  1. 1

    Fewer, longer stays. In the Asia loop, the flight from Bangkok to Amsterdam alone is 1,077 kg, 11% of the year.

  2. 2

    Trips home add up. The fast mover’s 2 extra trips home are 1,696 kg, 17% of the year.

  3. 3

    Train instead of plane. Barcelona to Paris is about 858 km: 27 kg by train, 108 kg by plane.

  4. 4

    Air conditioning. Running it most days in Bali adds about 163 kg a month on Indonesia’s grid.

  5. 5

    Food. Vegetarian instead of a mixed diet saves about 360 kg a year, wherever you are.

  6. 6

    Calls. Turning the camera off on calls you only listen to cuts their footprint by about 96%.

Calculate my nomad year

Questions nomads ask

Is slow travel really greener?

Yes, mostly because of flights. The same places in fewer moves means fewer flights, and flights are 16–49% of the example years above. Where you stay matters less, unless you run air conditioning on a grid that burns a lot of coal or gas, or heat a flat through a cold winter.

How does the calculator count my flights?

It takes the straight-line distance between the cities you list, in the order you list them, and back to the start (or home). It uses DEFRA 2026 factors, which include the effects of flying at altitude (about 1.7 times the CO₂ alone). Stopovers aren’t added, so a route with a connection counts a little low.

Does coworking count?

Yes. A coworking desk uses about 7.2 kWh per person per day for the space, light and equipment, so it depends on the country’s grid: about 0.9 kg a day in Lisbon, 4.9 kg in Bali.

What if I don’t know where I’ll be next?

Pick the closest pattern (mostly Europe, Southeast Asia, Latin America or several continents) or list the places you know. Months you don’t list count as time at home.

How do I offset a nomad year?

The result gives a monthly figure, so you can offset month by month with a subscription, or the whole year at once. Coffset buys verified carbon credits and retires them, so they can’t be sold again, and you get a certificate. Offsetting doesn’t erase emissions: flying less comes first.

Sources

The data guide behind these figures, with chartsHow Coffset calculates footprints