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- Title
Pilot study to measure the energy and carbon impacts of teleworking.
- Authors
SIMON, SHARANE; O'BRIEN, WILLIAM
- Abstract
Teleworking offers various socio-economic benefits to the workforce, especially during major disasters. However, the holistic net energy and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions impacts of telework remain poorly understood. This paper develops and tests a longitudinal mixed-methods approach to estimate energy and emissions in three domains: home office, transportation, and information and communications technology (ICT). A pilot study of 11 participants from Ottawa, Canada, is used to evaluate the method, while generating a rich dataset and new insights. The results show transportation, home heating and cooling account for > 94% of telework-related energy, while home office equipment, lighting and ICT account for the remaining 6% (and < 2% of GHG emissions). Not including employer offices, teleworking will likely yield a net reduction in energy and GHG emissions compared with conventional working arrangements, but this result is dependent on personal choices, routines, purchasing decisions and household structure. The paper concludes with a discussion and future recommendations for the developed method based on the lessons learned.
- Subjects
TELECOMMUTING; LABOR supply; GREENHOUSE gases; INFORMATION &; communication technologies; URBAN sociology
- Publication
Buildings & Cities, 2023, Vol 4, Issue 1, p174
- ISSN
2632-6655
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.5334/bc.271