Is WFH Really Worse for the Environment

According to A recent report published today in the Harvard Business Review, written by a team of researchers from the London School of Economics, hybrid and remote work isn’t the obvious environmental win we all assume it is.

People are less likely to commute. The number of people who have to travel Anywhere Reduced by 17%During the pandemic there were many articles on telecommuting Could help combat climate change. The authors also made it a point to mention this in a collaborative project. MoreThanNow, a UK-based behavioral science practice, the reduction in daily travel doesn’t tell the entire story.

There’s way more at stake here. You should consider this: While companies can appear clunky or disingenuous when fighting climate change, many companies have spent the last five-10 years investing in ESG criteria as part a larger corporate ethical strategy. These efforts often manifest themselves in the physical office space where energy, technology, and waste footprints are given particular attention.

Green standards are met in buildings with energy-efficient windows, temperature regulation, and caterers who donate excess food or compost food waste get lunch priority. Single-use plastics are officially out of circulation or culturally disowned. But these initiatives can’t have much of an impact when a sizable percentage of a company’s employees are working from home.

Instead, a company’s footprint becomes more difficult to track and it’s at the individual mercies of the behavioral patterns of its employees, which are harder to track. Many would argue that this is true, given the blurred lines between home and work. Some, perhaps, would balk if they were encouraged to install solar panels on their roof, executives’ potentially noble intentions be damned.)

There are also some pandemic-borne practices that are actively contributing to an uptick in emissions and likely erasing whatever progress we’ve gained from the scale down in commuting. The authors IdentifyTelework has seen a significant increase in popularity. This means that telework travel tends to cover more distance than traditional rides to the office. Working on the road becomes a common practice and almost expected once your boss is comfortable with you working remotely from California for a few weeks or taking a Friday trip up to a lakehouse. It’s easy to justify it in our brains I’m cooped up, I’m saving so much money but from the planet’s perspective, these trips take their toll.

Plus, we’re on our computers more than ever. It’s easy to forget that using a laptop requires energy, and these days, we’re using them more than ever, replacing what used to be in-person meetings with multi-hour sessions on Zoom. An eyebrow-raising line from the article: “A typical business user creates 298lbs of CO2e from sending emails every year, which is the equivalent of driving 200 miles in a family car, just under the distance from Brussels to London.”

Companies will need to be patient in order to find the right answers. They know one thing for certain: Nobody wants to abandon this hybrid working model. Gallup’s recent poll found that 91% of workersThey are determined to keep the current model as it is. Do employees realize that this new normal could be causing harm to the environment? Most likely not. It’ll be up to employers to negotiate the tricky task of educating their employees and implementing thoughtful measures, Without appearing like they’re knocking down front doors. The full report will provide more details on how they might pull it off. Here.