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Leader: How green is your (silicon) valley?
Working from home isn't the no-brainer some might think...

By silicon.com

Published: Thursday 05 July 2007

A report by the Energy Saving Trust has questioned the 'greenness' of working from home (WFH). It's a subject that needs addressing.

There is a line of thinking that equates WFH with less travel, so it must be better for energy consumption and thus the environment.

But it isn't a straightforward equation.

For one thing, not everyone drives to work. If an employee usually takes public transport it is unlikely a bus or train won't run because that person isn't on it. Of course, over the long-term, we could see timetables and general frequency change - only don't go betting on that being a response to mass WFH.

More important, however, are the resources used to heat or cool a house and the electricity that fires up the relevant IT kit at home - a PC, printer, router, maybe even a small server. You get the picture.

If you have a hundred staff and 60 per cent start working from home regularly, that means 61 buildings that have to heated, cooled, kept buzzing with IT and so on (assuming no cohabitation).

And if you have an office that would have been used by all 100, what's the chance it still takes the same level of heating and lighting, though we can hope fewer IT resources such as PCs and monitors are used in the absence of individuals?

Does this mean we should shrug our shoulders when someone advocates more flexible forms of working? No.

But let's look to progressive organisations and how they do it. If you only have around 40 per cent of your staff in the office at the same time, why not try to shift to hotdesking where it makes sense? That building housing 100 could soon be kitted out for 50.

We've even heard of readers who then sublet the remaining half of premises.

There are other options too. Do you employ energy-saving settings on devices such as monitors and PCs? Do staff use a single laptop at work, at home and on the road, so ruling out the 'PC left on constantly in the office' syndrome?

How about encouraging homeworking more in the spring and autumn, when heating or air-conditioning bills don't come into play as much for households? (Though we accept seasonal boundaries aren't as clear-cut for all of us, judging by the latest London weather.)

This isn't an easy shift to make. But it's clear the world of work has much to do - and think about - to make sure its environmental footprint is lighter.