Remotely working employees contribute 54 percent less to Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Working from home has become the preferred choice of many professionals across the world. While many people have adapted to hybrid work structure, some are back to office space for work. Well, working from home not only adds up to the convenience of the workers but also helps to contribute less towards the emissions of greenhouse gasses, revealed a recent study.

According to a report published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the employees in US who are working remotely are found to emit 54 percent less greenhouse gasses when compared to regular officegoers. On the other hand, the hybrid office workers did not contribute to a significant reduction in greenhouse gases.

The report pointed out that a day of remote work reduces emissions by as much as 2 percent. The major reason behind this is due to vehicular pollution. The employees did not need any to commute to their office and this means that no transportation. The use of fewer vehicles directly contributes to the low output of greenhouse gas emissions. It was found that if individuals opted to work remotely for two or four days a week, the emissions might drop to up to 29 percent as compared to on-site employees.

For the purpose of research, multiple datasets were used by researchers from Cornell University and Microsoft. The research projected greenhouse gas emissions by all kinds of workers- remote, hybrid and office. The study also found that IT and communications technology had minimal impact on individuals’ work carbon footprints. In the case of working from-office option, the office space can be downsized and shared. By sharing the office, there can be a reduction in office energy consumption.

Even though the findings were limited to the US only, the trends are likely to be replicated in the Europe and Japan regions.

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