Some of the main reasons that companies are moving towards remote working is that, by removing the daily commute and having fewer employees in the office, they are able to reduce their carbon footprint. However, what about the carbon footprints of the employees themselves? According to new research carried out by London based engineering consultancy WSP UK, working from home in the UK may only be environmentally friendly in the summer months! This is because each remote worker will likely be heating their own home during the winter, rather than working together in a single heated office. “Energy management in buildings is generally more sophisticated than at individual homes,” says David Symons of WSP UK. Even when taking every employee’s commute to work into account, it still seems that working from one office during winter has a smaller environmental impact. It seems that it’s not only more environmentally friendly to share an office during the winter, but more economically sustainable for employees too.
By working at home, they must pay higher energy bills, which is a factor they don’t have to worry about while at the office. The situation changes in the summer of course. In the UK, people rarely use air conditioning as it rarely gets too hot, so the daily energy consumption falls. In fact, air conditioning consumes even more energy than home heating! It seems then, that the answer is to work remotely when the weather is mild, and work in the office when it’s cold!
