Sustainability at work: is it better for the environment to work from home or in the office?

More and more companies in recent years have decided to introduce the possibility for their employees to work from home. In Italian SMEs, it is estimated that about half of the employees have the option of working remotely. 

Although this mode of work was initially introduced forcibly because of the pandemic, many companies have decided to keep it or introduce it for the first time. This is because it brings with it numerous advantages, especially from the point of view of environmental emissions.

Ma quanto impatta esattamente lavorare da remoto piuttosto che in ufficio? A quali condizioni? In questo studio troverai le risposte a queste domande, con qualche consiglio aggiuntivo su come ridurre le emissioni mentre lavori.
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Office work

Clearly, if you go to work every day in the office, the main cause of emissions production is the use of transportation to get to work.

In fact, commuting is responsible for as much as 64.1 percent of the total emissions from working in an office. It is followed in order by home heating, lighting, office heating and PC use.

So how can you do to reduce your emissions? Here are 3 tips you can apply right away:

• Walk or bike to the office whenever possible, or use public transportation. If the office is far from home, consider driving just a short distance and taking transportation as soon as possible;

• Ask for employee car sharing initiatives to be introduced, or take the initiative and organize independently with your colleagues to go to work together;

• Reduce e-mails, attachments, and calls with the webcam on. Since you're in the office, take advantage of it to have in-person meetings.

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Remote work

Now let's see how your emissions change if you work remotely, particularly in the case where you rule out going to the office altogether.

He thinks that a company that does not have a physical office can save up to 48 percent of its emissions. 

So yes, to the question, "Is it more sustainable to work from home or in the office?" the answer is: without a doubt the first option. 

In this case, there are only three factors affecting the production of emissions:

• lighting in the home, which accounts for 58.8 percent of total emissions;
• heating;
• PC use.

And here are 3 more simple tips to help you decrease your emissions:

• Consider lowering the temperature by 1 or 2 degrees. You can opt for an extra sweater (or a nice soft blanket over your legs);
• Keep the lights on only in the room where you work;
• Opt for calls without video and avoid overly heavy attachments in e-mails.

We have seen some differences on_CO2 consumption in two cases: the case when working exclusively in the office and the case when working exclusively from home.

But we know there is another popular option: hybrid work.

In this case you have the choice of working from home or going to the office, perhaps choosing to do 50% one and 50% the other.

Are you curious about how your emissions change while working in hybrid mode? Would you like more tips on how to decrease your emissions and much more data about it?

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Allora compila il form qui sotto e scarica gratis la nostra infografica, in cui troverai ulteriori dati e consigli riguardanti tutte e tre le modalità di lavoro: 100% ufficio, 100% lavoro da remoto e lavoro ibrido.