People who work from home all the time ‘cut emissions by 54%’ against those in office
People who work from home all the time ‘cut emissions by 54%’ against those in office
True story:
I started working from home following a heart attack and open heart surgery at the end of 2018. 2019 was one complication after another, but I was finally cleared to return to the office in 2020 - just in time to go back home for covid.
This month is 5 years WFH. I drive 1 day a week for groceries, prescriptions, and comic books.
After doing it for 3 years, I had saved enough money to buy a house. Got that sweet 3.25% interest rate too!
So, yeah, bad for commercial real estate, for me it was pretty good for residential real estate. ;)
I drive 1 day a week for groceries, prescriptions, and comic books.
I mean you have to pick up necessities.
Also, groceries and prescriptions.
Well, they aren't going to buy themselves. :)
I've been fully wfh since 2015. I do miss the social interactions but I'm much more productive at home.
I don't, but then I'm antisocial. ;)
And yeah, you do get more done when you aren't pulled into meetings that could have been emails.
I would love to miss the social interactions. I am out on FMLA after being obviously sick for months. Did one single person at the office other than my boss even say "get well soon?" Fuck them.
Same. I miss donuts in the break room.
WFH not only cuts emissions. It also helps the worker spend way less money that would otherwise be spent in food, gas and other. It also saves a lot of time commuting from home to work.
As long as there is a life - work balance, and there is no effect in mental health, WFH is a blessing in more than one ways
It's worth keeping in mind too for the mental health that your situation in the office may have been deceptive. My first job, I had a very close knit and friendly work group, but we only very rarely met up after work or on weekends. There were a handful of people, sure, but at the end of the day I was still lonely, and drinking to fill that hole.
I may not have made many friends while working at home, but I can at least deepen the friendships I do have with my college friends and try to chat with people casually at coffee shops. And work from coffee shops too.
Yeah there is something to be studied about people who yearn to return to office for bonding reasons. I think there’s some deeper issues with people who find their work is the only way to keep/make friends. Or confuse a coworker relationship as a definition of ‘friend’ when the dynamics are actually very different from an intimate friendship dynamic. Not saying that you can’t build a work relationship into a friend but it runs a high chance of not being a sustainable friendship as a family or organically formed friendship that is based on who you are as you not who you are ‘as a work colleague’ which only stretches as far as having someone’s back with a client. (It’s a service relationship that is already about someone benefiting off what you do and not about who you are underneath that)
If anything a healthy interaction benefits from more time away from work (not travelling to) to interact more with family and more organic friends.(and also why I’m always suspicious of people who do want you to travel and start micromanaging how you travel) cuz their lack of care for their own mental health is being unleashed onto others impacting their lives in a negative way.
I think this is why in therapy they ask you to define yourself they are looking for the definition of you that you’re not servicing someone else(hence is the issue with work relationships). As that has lots of problems with it on the ground level of mental health.
and there is no effect in mental health
I'm curious about this. Do you have any information I can dive more deeply into when it comes to WFH and mental health?
Praise the sun
Solar punk is the future I want for the people I love. ❤️🌄🌈
What about the people you hate? 🤔
In other news, water is wet.
Let's be honest here, it's managers who are forcing employees to commute into the office for no reason that are raising emissions.
Not my personal emissions. Now they are released more freely.
does this mean i can eat still eat the cows
Is that all? I would think it would be more.
70% of all microplastics in the ocean are probably from tire dust. This would help reduce that.
https://e360.yale.edu/features/tire-pollution-toxic-chemicals
This is the best summary I could come up with:
People who work remotely all the time produce less than half the greenhouse gas emissions of office workers, according to a new study.
Employees in the US who worked from home all the time were predicted to reduce their emissions by 54%, compared with workers in an office, the study found.
Wider emissions reducing benefits of working from home include the easing of vehicle congestion during rush hour in commuting areas, which is likely to improve fuel economy.
According to the study, this could result in longer commuting distances for hybrid workers and a greater carbon footprint due to the increased use of private vehicles.
The authors said: “While remote work shows potential in reducing carbon footprint, careful consideration of commuting patterns, building energy consumption, vehicle ownership, and non-commute-related travel is essential to fully realise its environmental benefits.”
While the findings do not apply to workers in many sectors – a bus driver, for example, cannot work from home – it provides pointers on how office-based employers can reduce company emissions.
The original article contains 591 words, the summary contains 171 words. Saved 71%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
This should be obvious.
Make people travel sometimes dozens of miles twice a day every day, and of course there's a carbon cost to that. Not to mention a health cost to the worker (less sleep for commute time), a mental health cost (less personal/family time), and an overall better deal for the employee (less money spent on transportation related expenses).
Plus there's other benefits that are considered 'bad for the economy' but are usually good for the worker- for example easier to make breakfast and coffee at home instead of getting Starbucks.
My work wants us to work at the office 4x as much next year.
Yes, but have you considered the long-term contract the company has signed with the land leasing agency and the payouts to the construction company that new building and the architecture firm that designed it? Because the company put a lot of work into all of that and you seem ungrateful. Now please ignore the smog warning, you're an essential worker, and come into the office you definitely need to be in where you will definitely be more productive. Remember, there's a pizza party on Friday for all employees. You can donate to the pizza party fund straight from your paycheck!
That's why I'm glad the Biden administration is pushing to have business space converted into residential space.
Yes, but the Biden administration is also forcing federal workers back into the office sooooo...
So the billionaires can grift more US dollars? Ugh
But the pizza party doesn't start until 3pm so don't think about trying to beat traffic.