Study finds remote work can cut carbon emissions in half compared to going to the office

According to a US study, remote working can reduce carbon emissions by 58% compared to office work.

The study, based on Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) models, analyzed the potential of remote work to reduce employees’ carbon emissions.

The Covid-19 pandemic has increased the prevalence of remote working, which may impact greenhouse gas production due to changes in factors such as travel and home energy use.

A study published this Monday by Cornell University in the US estimated greenhouse gas emissions from this transition, taking into account factors such as information and communications technology, daily commuting, non-environmental travel, work and energy consumption in offices and offices. Houses.

The team, led by Longqi Yan, used multiple datasets with more than 100,000 samples, including from Microsoft employees in the US, on commuting and remote work.

In their study, they modeled the greenhouse gas emissions of U.S. employees across the five aforementioned categories and compared the predicted emissions for on-site, fully remote, and hybrid workers.

The model showed that employees working remotely only would have a 58% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions compared to employees working in person, mainly due to lower energy consumption in the office.

One day a week of remote work would reduce projected emissions by just 2%. In contrast, two to four days of remote work per week reduces workers’ emissions by 29% compared to employees working onsite.

Increased use of information and communications technology had a “little impact” on emissions, while energy consumption in the office and non-daily commuting were important, the researchers stressed.

The study also suggests that maximizing the environmental benefits of remote work depends on a variety of factors, such as vehicle choice, commuting behavior and energy efficiency in homes and offices.