Remote work could boost a company’s efforts to reach net zero on their carbon emissions, data has shown; however, senior leadership doesn’t seem to take the environment into consideration when mandating a return to office work.
Thanks to a lack of commuting and a decrease in travel for many office workers, global carbon emissions dropped 7% in 2020. However, when daily life began to return to normal, those emissions came roaring back. Commuter travel is grouped into “Scope 3” emissions, which refer to indirect sources that represent an average of 75% of the business world’s emissions—but are often ignored.
A study published in Nature Cities recently determined that if just 10% fewer people worked remotely, carbon emissions would decrease by 192 million metric tons each year. The research validates another study published in PNAS late last year, which found that a switch to remote work can drop a single person’s carbon footprint by 54%.
“It seems like a very obvious solution to a very pressing and real problem,” said Curtis Sparrer, a principal and co-founder of the San Francisco-based PR agency Bospar. “And I am concerned that this whole ‘return-to-office’ thing is getting in the way.”
