TeamViewer Study signifies remote working is good for environment

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Greentech Lead America: Remote workers – those working from home – are more committed to adopting environment friendly measures than their counterparts working in offices, according to a survey conducted by TeamViwer.

TeamViewer Telecommuting for Earth survey was conducted online by uSamp in April to determine the environmental impact of working from home.

The survey found that majority of Americans say they take proactive actions at home that they don’t take at work to save the environment, recycling and conserving things they don’t bother with in the office.

For example, 74 percent of them turn lights off when not in a room, 60 percent prepare their own lunch at home, 56 percent keep heating and air conditioning low to save energy, 53 percent print minimal amount of paper, 50 percent power down computer at night, 39 percent perform various types of recycling and 34 percent avoid bottled water. The behavior is most pronounced in women.

In addition to the behavioral differences, working from home also results in a reduction of employees’ use of planetary resources including gas, electricity, printer paper, shower water, stationery, and more. While 31 percent say they use less printer paper when they work from home, overall paper waste is a long way from being eliminated.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says that we use about 71 million tons of paper every year. In fact, more than half of the survey respondents said they print more than 20 pages per day, and a further 20 percent say it’s more than 50.

Beyond the environmental impact of telecommuting, the study also showed that employees stand to save a significant amount of money when they are able to work from home. 42 percent say they save $1 – $20, 38 percent say they save $21 – $40, 19 percent say they save more than $40, and an additional 6 percent say they save in excess of $80 per day when they work from home.

When asked how strongly environmental concerns weigh into the decision a boss makes on whether or not to allow telecommuting, surprising numbers of them say it matters: 42 percent say the planet weighs strongly or very strongly into the equation while 62 percent say at least somewhat strongly.

“The study shows that not only do employees stand to save money when they are able to work from home, but the specific behavioral changes that people exhibit contribute significantly to the conservation of our environment,” said Holger Felgner, general manager at TeamViewer.

picture source: teamviewer.com

editor@greentechlead.com

 

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