Potential carbon savings from home working could lead to a far greener Europe, but only if policies are tailored to the needs of individual countries, according to a new study conducted by the Carbon Trust on behalf of the Vodafone Institute for Society and Communications. The Homeworking report analyses the carbon savings of teleworking pre, during and post the pandemic, with projections on carbon savings from expected changes to working patterns in the post-Covid future in the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden and the UK.
It found that a hybrid working model could save up to 12.2 million tons of CO2 emissions per year in Germany alone, equivalent to 83 million flights from London to Berlin, on the assumption that around 17.5 million jobs in the country will be 'teleworkable'. The UK also has a relatively high number of teleworkable jobs (15.1 million) but could save significantly less carbon with 4.1 MtCO2/year, while the Czech Republic with 1.7 million teleworkable jobs has a carbon savings potential of only 0.1Mt/CO2 per year.
The main driver for carbon savings were the avoided office emissions by teleworkers, which are higher than the avoided emissions from commuting and are not counteracted by any rebound effects of additional domestic energy consumption, said the report. Only in Sweden was commuting the higher factor in carbon savings.
The report also shows that the impact of seasonal, regional and individual behaviour patterns leads to different scenarios on carbon consumption. In Spain, for example, the widespread domestic use of air conditioning in summer leads to increased carbon emissions making office work more climate-friendly, especially when commuting by train (office emissions come to 3.49 kgCO2 a day per teleworker while home office emissions are 5.78 kgCO2 a day).
Based on the findings, recommendations for businesses and governments
include helping to accelerate the rollout of connectivity and ensuring everyone has access to fast and reliable internet whether they work remotely in rural or city areas; increasing the energy efficiency of homes and buildings; incentivising low-carbon movements by implementing e-mobility or hybrid company car policies; and anticipating how migration from urban to rural areas could impact the power grid.
