Telecommute on Earth Day

Our research, just released, shows that if U.S. employees with telework-compatible jobs worked at home on Earth Day—this coming Wednesday, April 22—the environment would be spared 1.5 billion pounds of greenhouse gases—the equivalent of taking 127,000 cars off the road for a year.

Nationwide, less than six million Americans consider home their regular workplace, but more than 50 million hold jobs that are telework-compatible.

On an annual basis, if those who could work from home did so just half of the time (roughly the national average for those who already do), the greenhouse gas savings would total 84 million metric tons. The reduced driving would allow us to cut our Gulf Oil imports by 57%. It could increase U.S. company profits by over $550 billion a year—the result of lower real estate, electricity, absenteeism, and turnover costs together with increased employee productivity. And it would save individuals between $2,500 to $11,000 a year. The commuting time they’d avoid would total 2.5 workweeks of free time a year.

Using the latest U.S. Census American Community Survey figures, and data from dozens of authoritative studies, we developed the Telework Savings Calculator to quantify what every city, county, region, Congressional District, and State in the nation could save through telecommuting / work-from-home initiatives. It’s available free for public, corporate and government use. A customize option allows you to change more than a dozen variables to model your own company or community savings potential.