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One of the concepts of Benjamin, also known as Tolt on social networks, is to deconstruct the clichés about the destinations he has enjoyed. On one of his two Youtube channels there are videos titled “Don’t go to Brazil” or “The truth about Iran” (“The truth about Iran”). But on January 12, 2020, this travel influencer posted a very different sequence: “Why I stop flying.”
“I’ve always been concerned about the environment, but there was a mix of ignorance and denial about the plane,” he tells BFMTV.com. “I began to express myself about ecology in private and on the networks and my environment sent me back to this contradiction. It pushed me to dig deeper into the topic of air travel, and I realized that it was totally incompatible with our climate goals.”
In fact, to limit global warming to 2°C by 2100, the IPCC estimates that the amount of CO2 emitted per person each year would need to be between 1.6 and 2.8 tons. A simple round trip between Paris and New York already represents the equivalent of 1.7 tons, according to ademe.
The Moselle instead of Brazil
If Benjamin remained a travel influencer, he did not take off again to a destination on the other side of the world. On Tolt’s channel: no more pictures of Lebanon or Brazil, but landscapes of Berry, Moselle, Lozère… his goal is simple: “Develop the imagination and what is considered desirable.”
The IPCC says nothing more in its report published in 2022: “Social influencers and opinion leaders can increase the adoption of low-CO2 technologies, behaviors, and lifestyles,” the specialists believe.
A beauty influencer abandoning fast fashion
By dint of challenges, but sometimes because of their personal journey, some influencers have decided to adapt their professional practices to the reality of the climate emergency. Even if it means radically changing your content, like Sandrea.
The young woman launched her YouTube channel in 2011, then called Sandrea26France, in which she spoke in particular about beauty and fashion. To get paid, she did product placements in particular, working with “all the big cosmetic brands,” like Sephora, and “fashion brands, like Boohoo, fast fashion mainly”.
Even without getting paid, he would ask for his videos. “I was doing a series where I was testing certain brands for my subscribers, like Shein,” she cites, for example. The brand is one of the symbols of ultra fast fashionwith a collection in constant renewal and extensive use of polyester, a synthetic fiber created in part with petroleum.
The US-based influencer describes an “excessive, even impulsive” clothing consumption.
As she continues, she wonders, “I could see very well that the quality was deplorable, and I wanted to be able to wear my clothes more than once or twice.”
A “good influence”
The real click came two years ago: “It was at this moment that I became aware of the ecological crisis in which we found ourselves and I told myself that beyond reducing, I had to ‘stop'”. According to the UNthe fashion industry is responsible for 2 to 8% of global CO2 emissions.
In the summer of 2021, she decides not to buy any more clothes from the fast fashion. “My content only depended on my purchases or what I received, so not buying or receiving anymore made me completely review what I present” on the internet, he explains.
Today he mainly publishes vlogs, videos where he shows his day to day and says he is “extremely happy with this change.”
a financial problem
But for both Sandrea and Tolt, taking a turn like this was not trivial for their finances. In 2018, 50% of Benjamin’s revenue came from airlines. When he decides to stop flying, he leaves 2020 as a transition year to stabilize his income.
Ultimately, the pandemic left him no choice. Nor did it mean a drop in income, on the contrary. “At the end of the Covid, there was a willingness on the part of the State to relaunch tourism, with public institutions that had more means” to offer operations such as an alliance with an influencer, he explains.
Their income now comes mainly from collaborations with departmental or regional tourism committees. He claims that his income increased by 80% in 2021 compared to the previous year (where it was roughly equivalent to 2019).
This is not necessarily the case. Sandrea estimates, for example, that her ecological shift, which has led her to choose the brands with which she collaborates more carefully, has meant a loss of at least a quarter of her turnover.
This economic aspect is the main obstacle today to a truly responsible profession of influence, according to the influence collective Payeton, which campaigns to “wake up the world of influence on climate issues”.
Its founder, Amélie Deloche, explains to BFMTV.com: “Today, the industries that pay the most are the most polluting, such as fast fashion. It’s asking influencers to give up some income and some aren’t ready for that.”
The choice of resignation
Sandrea also recognizes that sometimes it’s hard to stick to one’s convictions. “I recently refused Sandro’s products, it hurts because they are great but I try not to use new products at all.”
“It is much easier to continue doing things as we have always done to guarantee a better near future,” he adds.
Tolt, on the other hand, is often faced with comments or messages telling him that it’s easy for him not to fly anymore, since he’s enjoyed it so much before. “On the contrary, when you are used to a certain privilege, to a certain luxury, it is more difficult to do without it,” he replies, although he assures that it is not difficult for him.
An industry still little focused on ecology
These two videographers remain an exception in the profession. “Today, the world of influence continues to promote consumption patterns that are completely disconnected from climate reality,” says Amélie Deloche.
Beyond the trips or fast fashion“They call imaginaries of success linked to capitalism,” laments the activist: “Be happy because you can possess, because you have money, when you have to think about putting sobriety first.”
when squeezie has organized the Grand Prix Explorer in Octobera Formula 4 race that brings together 22 Internet personalities and is broadcast live on Twitch, some Internet users have highlighted the environmental impact of this sport.
The Paye ton influencer collective thus challenges these influencers on social networks with “modes of consumption completely disconnected from climate reality”. This happens through a private message, a comment under a publication or a story on the collective’s Instagram account, which ensures that it receives more and more responses from the anchored personalities.
A changing industry
In less than a year of existence, Payeton influence claims to have already seen “very big changes”: “Influencer agencies understand that ecological issues should be part of their strategy.” Asked by one of them, Amélie Deloche thus intervened in October with creators to “give them tools” of responsible influence.
His group recommends, for example, setting up a maximum of 10 paid partnerships per month and learning about the carbon impact of a trip or press event. For their part, some influencers call on their community to get involved, such as Sandrea or Tolt. Others “talk about eco-anxiety, share activist content or talk about what they have left behind”, emphasizes Amélie Deloche.
He refers in particular to Diane Perreau, followed by more than 330,000 people on Instagram. After talking to subscribers about global warming and finding out for herself, this fashion influencer gave up going to Milan Fashion Week in September because she involved flying.
“It was doable by train but not playable on schedule,” he later explained in a story. “Just to show you that things can evolve and change,” she concluded.
Source: BFM TV
