When the pandemic hit., Airbnb’s business as hit hard. The platform plunged 80% in two months. But the rise of remote work and the bliesure movement has pushed bookings and revenue about the company’s pre-pandemic levels. It’s led the CEO of Airbnb, Brian Chesky, to announce several big moves, including one of the industry’s most liberal “work from anywhere” policies.

“Since we made the announcement, more than 1 million people have visited our jobs page. I’ve had tons of other CEOs reach out to me saying, “Hey, we’re thinking about doing this.” I never predicted that our design would have an influence on the world. I think we just struck a chord,” the CEO told Fortune.

“I don’t think hybrid, asking people to come back to work in the office three days a week, actually provides a ton more flexibility than the old world. And I felt like location-based pay would eventually be an outdated practice. We’re just getting in front of the curve. And listen, if people can live on Airbnb, if I live in San Francisco and I want to go to Maine for three months, am I going to lower your pay because Maine may have a lower cost of living? It would be kind of weird,” he added. Read more at Fortune.

Reaching gender parity across work, health and politics across the globe will take 132 years at the current rate of progress, according to new research from the World Economic Forum. Iceland has come the closest to closing the gender gap, with Finland and Norway not far behind. Since the start of the pandemic, the report highlights, women’s participation in the labour market has significantly decreased. That’s due to the burden of care falling on women. Gender parity is now at its lowest level since 2006. Read more at the World Economic Forum.

On TikTok, the #CorporateTok genre is growing fast. Scroll through the post, and you’ll find young employees critical of traditional workplace norms, workers resistant of back-to-the-office mandates…and advocates for the slow work movement.

The antithesis of busyness or multitasking, the slow work movement encourages workers to redefine what they see as productivity and embrace their creativity and goals to the fullest It’s not just TikTok, either: workers have leaned into new concepts like the four-day work week and bleisure as they seek to re-examine their relationships with work. Read more at the Financial Times.

Container ships transport just about everything these days. And the world relies on them heavily – and wants more of them. “During this pandemic, people went crazy because they were closed inside their homes. So what do you do? You go online and start shopping,” says Captain Erduan Murtaza, captain of the 10 million cu. ft. container ship, the Gerda Maersk. “[All that stuff] has to come through these boxes.” Container ships are growing to meet nonstop consumer demand, but despite claims of their energy efficiency, maritime shipping still accounts for almost 3% of all global CO2 emissions. Read more in TIME.

European Union ministers have moved towards a plan to raise the share of renewables in the bloc’s energy mix to 40% by 2030. In the EU, energy production and use are responsible for 75% of the bloc’s emissions. According to a Reuters report, the new objective is up from 22% in 2020 and will be couples with a plan to cut energy consumption by 9% at the end of the decade. The proposal will be under final review later this year. Read more here.