Does Working From Home Reduce Carbon Emissions?

In optimal conditions, working from home can help reduce your company’s carbon emissions but in the vast majority of cases, a true reduction of emissions is unlikely. That said, if your business is trying to get a handle on and reduce its carbon emissions, working from home is an important element to include in your calculations.  This article will take you through some of the potential carbon savings and pitfalls of a work from home policy, what you can do to encourage low carbon working from home practices, and how to calculate working from home emissions.

Working from home generates less travel related emissions.

No commute = less emissions

Unless your team is cycling or walking to work, then on the face of it more working from home means less carbon emissions and a cleaner atmosphere. According to statista.com the average commuter drove 782 miles (1,259 kilometres) in 2019 which equates to around 233 kgs of CO2e that might be saved thanks to home-working. If your team is taking public transport, there is still a saving, but this is much reduced.

Less takeaway food

Another benefit of working from home is that your team is likely to be buying less convenience / takeaway food. Preparing food at home generally involves less carbon emissions. For example a homemade ham and cheese sandwich comes in at 0.62 kg CO2e compared to a shop bought one at 1.35 kg CO2e and uses less single use items. Ok, we know these numbers are tiddly, but we thought you’d find them interesting. Over a workforce of thousands, they do add up. That said, nobody generally goes into this level of granularity when calculating working from home emissions. If we considered every cup of tea, coffee and chocolate biscuit consumed, we’d have grey hair (not to mention a ravenous hunger) before the calculations were complete.

Eating homemade lunches is less carbon intensive.

Working from home energy consumption

Working from home transfers your employees’ energy consumption from the office to their home. If they get their electricity from a renewable energy provider then you’re winning, but if you are heating and lighting your offices at the same time there will be a double emissions cost to take into account.

You also need to consider what type of heating or cooling systems employees have at home and how these are powered. In an ideal world they’d have a well insulated house/flat with an air source heat pump powered by renewables, but this isn’t always the case, particularly in the countries where gas and/or oil heating is prevalent.

The country your employees are based in will also have a bearing on their energy consumption. Electricity emissions vary by country according to their renewable / fossil fuel energy mix. Milder climates also need less heating / cooling.

The work from home digital carbon footprint

Whilst your employees’ commuting footprint might be drastically reduced, working from home or on a hybrid basis could cause an increase in their digital carbon footprint. This comes in the form of video calls (although these emissions are tiny in comparison to travel) as well as additional computer hardware like laptops, headsets etc. In a hybrid working environment duplicate devices is a common phenomenon eg. a desktop computer at the office and a laptop at home.

So does WFH reduce your company’s carbon footprint?

Our work suggests that average working from home emissions are largely similar to those of employees’ commute so no, not really. That said, there are actions you can take to help your employees reduce their carbon emissions if they are home-working.

Making working from home more sustainable

Our first piece of advice is to educate your employees. Help them understand that you have a strategy to reduce carbon emissions and how they can contribute. One way of doing this is by providing Carbon Literacy Training (we can help here).

Secondly, introduce policies to help your employees switch to a renewable energy provider, change oil or gas heating to electric or make their home more energy efficient. 

Helping your employees switch to renewable energy will reduce their WFH emissions.

There is no ‘one approach fits all’ solution. Depending on where and how your employees live, will necessitate different policies and support. Speak to your team, understand their needs and their sticking points and provide the education and support they need.

At the same time as helping your employees work from home more sustainably, consider ways that you can reduce the carbon footprint of your office to reflect any new work from home or hybrid working patterns. Do you need the same space as you did before? Could you downsize or move to a co-working space?

Finally, Is your office easy to commute to using low carbon forms of transport ? It it accessible by public transport? Is there secure bike parking?

How to calculate working from home emissions

When it comes to calculation there are 2 schools of thought. 

DEFRA's 2022 conversion factors spreadsheet has a section that covers home working but it only covers heating and office equipment and is therefore relatively low.

At ecollective we base our calculation on how many days each employee works from home each year, what country they are based in and and which company they buy their energy from.

The average UK employee working from home has emissions of around 500 kg of CO2e per year. If their electricity is renewable this number comes down to 450 kg of CO2e. The reason it only drops a little is because most people in the UK heat their homes using gas.

Conclusion

Working from home can reduce your company’s carbon footprint if it means you downsize your office and introduce policies to help your workers reduce their carbon emissions at home. It’s up to your business to measure and identify the best way to make reductions. If you need any help with this, you know where we are.