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Home Working and the Carbon Footprint  Are we saving the world?

Home Working and the Carbon Footprint  Are we saving the world?

The green brigade tell us with monotonous regularity that our simply breathing in and out is bad for the planet, but when we put aside their prejudices and look deeper into the issues, we realise that what they are talking about often makes sense. If we drive smaller-engined cars, have more people per car, turn off devices instead of relying on the omnipresent standby mode, the cumulative effect will logically help the environment.

To use the example of the car, though, and multi-occupants therein, is it better (overall) to stay at home and work, or to go to the office and share collective overheads such as air-conditioning, lighting, heating etc. In other words, does the higher density of people in an office environment mean that, on a per-person basis, it is a greener solution?

Obviously the above question is not going to be fully answered in a brief informal article such as this; what we are trying to do here is to throw in questions to provoke thought, and perhaps (tentatively) give our opinion as to what might be the right answer.

Location, Location, Location

Clearly, the argument FOR the home-worker focuses initially on dispensing with the need to climb into whatever pollution-making device passes for transportation into work, hoping to score an early point against the office solution. Now, this argument is undoubtedly true, but its true weight depends on several factors:-

1) Obviously, the saving is dependent upon the number of people usually travelling in the car  especially so if the potential home-worker is one of the very few people in the universe who still use public transport. 2) The distance to the place of work. 3) The fuel type (Petrol, Diesel,LPG?) 4) The size of the engine in the vehicle in question

Unfortunately, and to the detriment of this articles clarity, the above factors can result in hugely variable results. Man A gets into is 5.0 litre American 4x4 and deploys its 13mpg engine to carry him 2 miles to work. What we dont see initially, though, is that he is also taking 4 colleagues to the office, effectively converting his engine into a 65mpg green machine (multiply 13mpg by the number of people in the car). Then theres Man B, who has a 2.0 diesel car, but who travels 30 miles each way, on his own! Yes, hes the more conscientious of the two, but total environmental damage must still be weighted more towards him than Man A. Clearly its a first win for the home-worker, but really we expected that didnt we?

Divide and Conquer

So the home-worker, having had his cornflakes and avoided the rat-run pollution contest, settles down to his workstation to commence the days work. Does he have a PC or laptop? If its a laptop, does he use a secondary screen? Does he use the older CRT monitor(s) or does he have LCD panels? We can logically assume that, being a technologically aware individual, he will likely have LCD... but that is just an assumption.

Glancing up at the sub-title here reveals the true argument against the home-worker. Lets fast forward 30 minutes; he decides to have a coffee. His wife has taken the kids to school and the house is empty, so the kettle is boiled for just one person. The office coffee-run might, by contrast, consist of 6 or 7 mugs of Brazilian delight!

Its the same story for heating, lighting and, if the home-worker is comfort-oriented, air-conditioning. Of course some of the costs are on a simpler per-person basis, such as the PC / laptop itself.

Conclusion

The author has tried to present a balanced view of the two approaches, but during the writing of this article has found himself leaning very much towards the home-working argument. Its not as if you can even consider the file server in the office as a shared resource that would reduce individual carbon footprints, because the home-worker can access that device just as easily as the person in the office. Also, we must bear in mind that the home-workers home would generally be heated and to an admittedly lesser extent lit, irrespective as to whether or not the home-worker was working there. Reader, just ask yourself this question  would the 8.30am road scene be a more pleasant place to breathe in and out (as long as the green police say you can!) if everyone worked from home? The author suspects he knows your answer.

Neil Robinson B.Sc. (Hons) is the Technical Director at Nemark Professional IT Services Ltd, a firm specialising in home-working solutions!

neil.robinson@nemark.co.uk www.nemark.co.uk

Neil is a Director of Nemark Professional IT Services Ltd, a company specialising in networks (local and remote) as well as servers, email, internet and security.

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