Refocusing Technology

Green Business: Telecommuting and Remote Employees September 26, 2008

I wrote a couple of short articles a week ago about telecommuting.  Today, I was discussing the telecommuting/remote employee concept with a friend and he said that it is a “green initative” at a consulting company that he works with.  Although I had thought about the impact of not having to drive to work everyday, I hadn’t really thought of the green concept of it.  When you think about the topic it is a very green concept. 

First of all, think about how much gasoline/oil would be saved with telecommuting.  It impacts this in a couple of ways.  In your car there would definitely be an impact.  Also, with fewer cars on the road every morning there would be less traffic.  This could potentially mean less stop and go traffic and less gasoline burned waiting in it.

With a larger scale implementation of the telecommuting concept it could also begin to decrease the constant need for more and larger highways.  Most of the highway capacity is designed to get people in and out for work purposes.  It is not designed for when people run to Target or WalMart.

Next, how much energy is needed to heat, cool, and light the office buildings that people are in?  You are already heating and cooling your home and the lighting impact would probably be pretty small working during the day at home.  On top of that, how much impact does it have to be constantly putting up new office buildings?  With increased telecommuting would come decreased demand for building more and more office buildings (sorry developers). 

Obviously, there are downsides to the topic and the impact would take time to be felt.  I just found the idea to be thought-provoking and I thought I would share it.  This is an example of making business more efficient while also making it more green.  Very interesting.