When Covid-19 cases were still high, people were left with no choice but to work remotely to limit person-to-person contact. Despite the tragedy of it all, there was a bright side to everyone being confined in their homes. CO2 emissions went way down, and a study suggests that it's still achievable today.
Less Travel, Less Carbon
Companies are already transitioning back to on-site work as the risks that the pandemic brought are dying down. That means that the days of no traffic and crowded places are gone and carbon emissions are back to prior to the pandemic.
A study from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal says that a nation of remote workers would help reduce emissions. Researchers said that working from home could lead to a 54% decrease in carbon footprint while hybrid workers could reduce it by 29%.
However, transportation is not the only factor to be considered. Microsoft and Cornell University have also considered communication tech, commuting, non-commuting travel, office energy use, and residential energy use as factors, as reported by Gizmodo.
Office spaces require a lot of energy since it has a vast array of electronics being used at the same time. The places are said to be the largest contributor to emissions when it comes to on-site and hybrid work setups.
When done properly, remote work really does reduce carbon emissions. It still depends on the lifestyle of said employees. Even when conserving energy, working from home still uses up power like a person would in an office.
One of the study's authors from Cornell University, Fengqi You says that "remote work is not zero carbon. And the benefits of hybrid work are not perfectly linear. The research also showed that there is only a 2% difference in lowered emissions between remote and hybrid work.
With the freedom to work anywhere, employees visit their loved ones and do other activities, increasing their non-commute-related travel. If done right and workers actually do stay home as opposed to riding vehicles to work, then the theory of reducing emissions by half could be possible.
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How To Reduce Carbon Emissions?
There are many ways to reduce a person's carbon footprint, no matter what their work situation is. For one, whether you're in an office or at home, turn off or unplug devices or electronics that are not in use to conserve energy use.
Some workers are lucky enough to live close to their office. If so, walking or using a bike could be better for the environment. If you do need to ride to work, it's better to commute instead of driving your own car, which is another vehicle on the road emitting CO2.
If you're not fond of being with a crowd of people in public transportation, you can carpool instead. According to Constellation, you can reduce your carbon footprint by about 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide every year.
If you can, change to renewable power sources. At home, you can have solar panels installed. In certain areas, you can even sell the extra power back to the grid. With vehicle, you can change to EVs so you can charge your car instead of using gas.
