As the world grapples with climate change and rising greenhouse gas emissions, researchers believe there is a possible way to reduce our carbon footprint: remote work.
Researchers from Cornell University and Microsoft published their findings Proceedings of the National Academy of ScienceWhich indicates that employees who work from home can have a 54% lower carbon footprint than employees who work in an office.
Hybrid working can also help reduce one’s carbon footprint. Working two to four days a week helps reduce carbon footprint by 11% to 29% compared to onsite workers.
It was believed that working from home one day a week had a negligible impact on one’s carbon footprint.
Apart from travel, remote workers don’t have the same need for office energy use, the researchers said.
However, remote and hybrid work may have some drawbacks in reducing one’s carbon footprint. Researchers found that hybrid workers are more likely to be away from the office than onsite workers. The researchers also said that as the number of remote work days increases, social and recreational activity trips become more important.
The researchers also noted that remote workers increase their residential energy use compared to those who work in-person.
“Remote work is not zero carbon, and the benefits of hybrid work are not completely linear,” Fengqi Yu, senior author of the study, said in a press release. “Everyone knows that by not traveling you save transportation energy, but lifestyle effects and many other factors are always involved.”
Despite potentially higher residential energy use at home, researchers said the benefits of remote work outweigh the drawbacks when it comes to carbon footprint.
“Remote and hybrid work show great potential for reducing carbon footprint, but what behavior should these companies and other policymakers encourage to maximize benefits?” said Longqi Yang, principal applied research manager at Microsoft and corresponding author of the study. “The findings suggest that organizations should prioritize lifestyle and workplace improvements.”
The US Census Bureau reports that by 2022, about 15.2% of the workforce is remote, down from 17.9% in 2021, but up from 5.7% in 2019.