Reducing Our Commutes Also Reduces Our Impact on the Earth
By Milica Kostic
COVID-19 has created an upheaval across the globe. Many business owners took the biggest hit as they were forced to close their companies for now. Many job positions, unfortunately, require stepping out of the house, which left many without a way to earn money from home.
Remote work, for freelancers or company employees, works well for this kind of situation. While there were over 50 million freelance workers in the U.S. alone before the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of people working off-site has climbed dramatically.
While many are talking about the negative side of our current situation, there’s is a benefit to this sudden shift to telecommuting. Namely, the environmental impact of everyone staying at home and working from home could be a much-needed one. What does this impact entail? Here’s the rundown.
Reduced Fossil Fuel Consumption
The U.S. consumes a huge amount of fossil fuel. In fact, reports from 2019 revealed that the country used up a whopping 142.23 billion gallons of finished motor gasoline that year. Much of that consumption comes from the daily commute, especially for those who travel long distances, and leads to a lot of gas emissions that create environmental problems.
But with remote working, commuting doesn’t exist. As such, the telecommuter’s emission rates are far lower than those of the average office employee. And having in mind that the coronavirus has forced most people to work from home, we should see a massive decrease in fossil fuel use in the following months.
Fewer Greenhouse Gas Emissions
As a positive side effect of the point mentioned above, the amount of greenhouse gas emitted will go down more than just a little bit. Global Workforce Analytics estimates that remote work reduces as much as 54 million tons of these harmful gases annually.
That sounds like quite a lot, doesn’t it? Well, it seems like a lot, even more, when you consider that this number applies to remote work for only half a week. And the fact that people will have to work remotely right now should bring about even better results.
Leaving the Office
Your typical office needs quite a lot of things to run smoothly. This includes a range of necessities, from power and heat, all the way to office supplies. We know that all of those things are necessary when you’re running a brick-and-mortar business. Still, they are inevitably doing harm to the environment, from deforestation to power consumption.
By working from home, telecommuters only use what they personally need, which is but a fraction of what’s necessary for any office. Even allowing a single week of remote work every few months can make a huge difference over time.
An Unexpected Benefit
The coronavirus pandemic is undeniably a terrible thing. But what we can do (besides being socially responsible and maintaining good personal hygiene) is to look for the silver lining. And one of the unexpected positives is that physical distancing has increased the number of us working remotely—and reduced our typical impact on the environment.
A version of this article was originally published by Conscious Company Media. B the Change gathers and shares the voices from within the movement of people using business as a force for good and the community of Certified B Corporations. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the nonprofit B Lab.
3 Ways That Working Remotely Aids the Environment was originally published in B The Change on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
