I caught a great radio program on BBC 4 last week investigating the benefits of Working from Home. Below is summary overview. What I particularly like about flexible working is that it can provide benefits all round from the business who reduces cost from downsizing premises and travel costs; to the individual who can be productive and juggle work/life commitments; to the community that benefits from local commerce and social cohesion by reducing dormitory towns; to the environmental benefits.

FACTOID: The EU could save around 22 million tonnes of CO2 if it replaced 20 per cent of business travel with non-travel solutions. And that doesn’t include commute to work!

Although touched on in the program one area I think has great potential is the creation of community based work hubs which would be in walking/cycling distance from workers homes where you could benefit from shared resources and social interaction that working from home don’t provide helping to address the concerns expressed with respect to carbon savings. You could imagine repurposed Libraries and village halls & Pubs where you could also add community digital access of government  and other community services. But I could go on and on….

PS: Scroll to bottom for link to Microsoft enablers to flexible working.

Overview of BBC program

In the UK we spend 22 million hours a day getting to and from work. Commuters who work in London spend the longest and the most amount of money and almost all workers know the pain of cancelled trains, traffic jams and overcrowded carriages. Unsurprisingly flexible working is now the most sought after job perk for city employees, often ahead of salary, but does working from home really save on carbon emissions?

Various studies have calculated the amount of carbon video-conferencing can save and it seems to stand to reason that doing away with daily commutes and overly air conditioned high rises would save CO2. The US is already well ahead with government directives to encourage remote working. However most of these studies have been commissioned by telecommunication and IT companies, a recent study by independent consultants WSP Environmental found that home workers typically produce almost a third more CO2 in a year than employees based in the office. Another study in the US suggests that at best the savings are insubstantial; telework in the US currently saves just 0.01 to 0.4%.

What is certain is that this revolution will rely heavily on technology and whether multiple servers and screens can be run without multiplying our energy use. Dr Alice Roberts takes some real life case studies to find a definitive answer to how green working in the office shed really is and to take a look at which innovative solutions in Green IT, social networking and even decarbonised transport might really revolutionise the way we work.

MICROSFT PLUG:  Microsoft reduced its employee travel by 10 per cent last year, saving $92 million and 17,000 tonnes of CO2. Find out how Unified Communications solutions can help you with flexible working.