Dr. Lucky Tran 
A new study suggests that fully remote workers may produce less than half the climate-warming emissions of people who spend their days in offices.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2023/09/18/work-from-home-carbon-footprint/
Working from home can reduce climate emissions.
Working from home keeps employees and their families safer from COVID-19.
But CEOs are forcing workers to return to the office so that they can protect real estate profits.
Bob Mottram :debian:@luckytran I think it's not only about real estate. It's about control. Being able to intimidate an employee in an office is far more effective than sending them a shitty email. The email also creates a trail of legally actionable evidence which can backfire.
Jonathan Schofield@bob @luckytran as well as the downsides, there are obvious benefits to working in the same physical space.
Trouble is, we’ve been running a kind of #netzero for a very long time – an economic system which has net zero price signals for ecological concerns 🤷🏼♂️
Unlearning Economics: Jon Erickson, Josh Farley, Steve Keen, & Kate Raworth | Reality Roundtable #03 — The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens
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@urlyman Similar to the benefits of physical conferences or festivals. But these benefits typically only work for creative endeavours, and most office work is the opposite of creative.
lachlan slowly taming rust@luckytran That's not entirely fair.
They're also protecting their panopticon.
They're also protecting their panopticon.
Voron@luckytran so 🤔 umm any Dems putting forward proposals to penalize work at the office jobs that have proven can be done just as well at home?
Call it a carbon tax or a health risk tax 🤷♂️
Call it a carbon tax or a health risk tax 🤷♂️
Mike@luckytran That's because we under the yoke of a death cult.
Jaelyn 🏳️🌈@luckytran If they want to protect real estate, they might want to stop building new offices when we're at such a high vacancy rate. I've no idea how they think putting up even more skyscrapers (which don't even give cost effective office space) will help the market rate of their properties.
Matteo Cesari 
@luckytran Nice, but it implicitly assumes the same resulting productivity. It would be great to also consider which of these models is the most eco-friendly and productive. After all, we work to produce, not only to preserve the environment...
Cassandra -2024@luckytran
I always thought the return to office movement was about commercial real estate, but now I gotta wonder if fossil fuels are involved as well.
I always thought the return to office movement was about commercial real estate, but now I gotta wonder if fossil fuels are involved as well.
Claudio Zizza 🦜@luckytran We should all already know that companies and politics don't care for people. Not even their lifes. But everyone seems fine with this.
Autistic Innovator 
@luckytran I had a crappy job with a small business that let me work from home during covid since I’m so high risk. After I got vaccinated they made me come back to the office. While at home they monitored me all day to see if I was working. But in the office they just assumed I was working so I went unmonitored. My job took me 30-60 min a day to do. Built my first store while at the office, wrote articles, etc. The old people liked coming into the office so they made us all come in.
Jari Nikkinen@luckytran No need to commute, so that makes sense.
dragonfrog@liberalpirate @luckytran it looks like the bigger difference is in "office" emissions - climate control and lighting mostly I imagine.
Fey 
@luckytran I've been doing my part, working from home full time since 2009. (Yes, that's 2009, not 2019.)
Cat West@luckytran Let’s vacate those over priced office buildings and convert them into housing! We can have retail shops on the bottom level, and residences throughout! Little cafes we can walk to! Housing prices will crash to a reasonable, affordable rate, people won’t be homeless, and cities will thrive, humming with vibrancy, diversity and life!
tootbruteinteresting study. non-paywall link.
Carighan Maconar@luckytran The part I really don't get is why bosses don't immediately jump on the massive money-saving potential of closing down and selling off most of their office infrastructure.
It's a ton of money they're spending on them. And in the vast majority of IT cases, these workers would be just as or more productive remotely. Exceptions apply, but then a way smaller office or shared coworking space can easily do it for your marketing/frontend/design teams.
It's a ton of money they're spending on them. And in the vast majority of IT cases, these workers would be just as or more productive remotely. Exceptions apply, but then a way smaller office or shared coworking space can easily do it for your marketing/frontend/design teams.
Condalmo.@luckytran This is exactly where Big Oil companies would like us to focus our attention.
@luckytran
The real state bussiness and the automovile industry must go on.
So life in planet earth should be sacrified.
Ivan Moscoso@luckytran the difference between 3 days remote (a common ask) and full-time remote is interesting..
Oskar Murand@luckytran interesting cliff at the 0-1 point. Presumably due to the office not being there in the first place?
Squiggle@luckytran Why such a huge difference between 5 days remote and 4 days?
Adron 🤘🏻@luckytran @taylor_atx another reason I feel like those demanding RTO aren’t just Jack asses that failed to modernize but are also enemies of humanity and net positive progress!
Carolannie@luckytran Before I retired I worked for a large multinational construction and engineering company that, even before the plague, was reducing its office foot print, and onboarding a lot of remote workers They were highly productive and competitive. They could see that having remote workers enhanced their flexibility. They could send out crews to sites, or base them temporarily in overseas sites, and the crews were used to and highly efficient in remote work. So even complex tasks can be done remotely, it just takes a little planning
Glenn@luckytran The lack of commuting to an office will do that.
FunkETown@luckytran If we tied allowable corporate profits or ceo compensation to verified lower co2 emissions, I bet you'd see a change.
Mx. Vero MLIS@luckytran The one question that comes to mind here is: Isn't the office energy expended whether you're physically in your office or not? In my own instance, the lights will still be on, the HVAC will still be running, I just won't be present. That energy will still be used.
𝓐𝓷𝓭𝔂𝓣𝓲𝓮𝓭𝔂𝓮 𓀤@verolynne @luckytran Not if you are fully remote. Then there is no office.
@andytiedye @luckytran but it holds true for every step until fully remote.
@verolynne @luckytran Not necessarily. Workers who are mostly-remote often don't have an office assigned to them, but have to vie for one of the "telecommuter cubes" (if they even still have cubes) when they come into the office.
CHB@luckytran I can’t access the article so I am just asking here: What type of mode of transportation has been used as factor regarding the commute?
I bet different modes of transportation have massive effect on that factor. Compare a car with a bus/metro or even bicycle would logically alter the result. It would be interesting to see the basic comparison with examples of different mode of transportation.
Desert@luckytran but our employees can't catch covid if they are full remote! -bosses everywhere /s
joséSo how about some tax policies here?
• Give an employee a tax credit for working from home full time.
• Tax employers on a per-mile basis for its employees commute, with the value starting small by growing exponentially year after year.
Oh.
I forgot.
Tax policy is set by the ultra-corrupt corportatists, and this would be substantive rather that the preferred greenwashing.
Andrew@luckytran is there a breakdown on what “office energy usage” is? I’m guessing it’s mostly HVAC?
Flaming June@luckytran No shit?
Roy Brander🍁The delta between four and five days at work is very small, suggesting the actual commute is not the issue.
The delta between zero days in the office and one is very large - confirming that the calculation is charging you for the carbon footprint of the office, whether you are there one day or seven.
This isn't about commuting. It's about office buildings.
Dr. Jürgen Knödlseder@luckytran I’m wondering whether the faster decrease of office energy with respect to the lower increase of home energy with rising numbers of days worked at home is due to underlying assumptions that may bias the study. At first glance you would expect that total energy remains constant or even increases with more home working due to empty offices being still powered for the other employees. 🤔
Sallyd@luckytran
Plus no travel, low risk of covid, better peace of mind.
I used to commute 1.5 hours each way, then got a local job then went mostly remote. The only winners are commercial real estate owners.
Plus no travel, low risk of covid, better peace of mind.
I used to commute 1.5 hours each way, then got a local job then went mostly remote. The only winners are commercial real estate owners.
Flávia Feijó
Bjornsdottirs@luckytran interestingly the IT margin is about the same either way
Raven Onthill@luckytran that … doesn't look very plausible. It's more likely the office energy consumption is lower than the home energy consumption.
Diego@luckytran Why is the office energy use so much higher than home energy use? Shouldn't it be the opposite, since there's a higher density of people in an office.
Amanda Clark@luckytran that darned commute that no one enjoys.
onreact@luckytran Haha. What a surprise. As if the pandemic era drop in emissions hasn't proven this already.
Michael Dexter@luckytran
It took HOW many years for someone to ask this simple question?
It took HOW many years for someone to ask this simple question?
2¢@luckytran we needed a study?
🌊 Tempest 
@luckytran Who would've thought that not needing to commute, especially long distances via car (like you have to do in most of the US) would result in less emissions? 
Andy Nonimose
IAmPaws@luckytran Well, I know I'm saving on driving 1.5 hrs to and from work. I'd think that would make little impact but if more people could work remotely and save on commuting, it adds up.
I don't understand why more workplaces are not allowing remote work wherever possible, especially with today's technology. We don't need to have a ball and chain hooked to a desk in unhealthy environments (ppl going in sick all the time) for us to be productive.
Interpipes 💙@luckytran @ifixcoinops sure is a shame mega-polluting corporations have spent the last few decades effectively spreading the message that only private citizens have to change their behaviour to save the planet huh
“Wait no, not like that”
Cavyherd::smug::