Can Remote Work Reduce Your Company’s Carbon Footprint?
As the restrictions from the lockdowns prompted by the outbreak of covid-19 globally are slowly being reduced, the temporary adjustments made by communities during the past year have prompted many to reimagine and rethink practices that we engage in regularly without giving them a thought, simply because they are the norm. This reimagination and rethinking can help us eliminate redundancies that contribute to waste and inefficiencies in our economy, government, and society in general.
One such change has been the introduction of work from home or remote work guidelines in a large majority of corporate spaces around the world. The fact that these sectors of the economy have not crashed but improved is indicative of the fact that employees continue to be productive and motivated in their homes. Productivity rates have even increased in some cases, highlighting how redundant some work environments have been. In such a space, companies in certain industries are planning to make remote work a norm, given its economic and environmental benefits.
Working from home reduces electricity usage in modern workplaces and instead shifts the load to individuals’ homes. Whilst a blanket assertion cannot be made about the total of individual eclectic consumption at home being lesser than the consumption at offices, working at home is considered to reduce electricity consumption because consumption occurs and can be regulated at only one source and not two. Initial research suggests that companies do reduce their carbon footprint when they opt into remote workspaces instead of co-located ones. The second positive impact comes from the lack of need to travel. This causes a subsequent reduction in traffic which corresponds to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and a generally clean environment.
The cumulative environmental impact of working from home depends on several externalities- including climatic conditions, the economic background of the company and employees, and the extent of provision of public utilities such as electricity to domestic households. Companies stand to benefit from creating ‘opt-in work from home systems’ which allows a set ratio of employees to stay home if they wish to
