Dan LykeYeah, I know, everyone else is sharing the article, but we need this message in the public consciousness: Working from home may reduce a person's carbon footprint by 50%.
Steven Bodzin@danlyke Please read the original study. Among other findings: "decarbonizing office energy may make light remote work more carbon intensive than onsite"
https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2304099120
There are so many harms to remote work. The authors identify some of them. One impact they completely ignore is that remote workers have been buying bigger and bigger homes to accommodate home offices. This almost certainly swamps any climate benefit from remote work.
@danlyke I am a fan of remote work and have been doing it for decades. But it's silly to think that running the A/C in a largely empty office while also cranking it in an ever-bigger, ever-more-distant suburban home is somehow better than just having people gather in one place for work, thereby clustering them more and letting them live in more modest homes.
mike805@guacamayan @danlyke Yes this. I got clobbered by the electric bill while working at home. Now if they'd get rid of the office and let me work at home all the time that would be good. But having to go in two days a week, while the other three running the A/C both at home and at work, is not economical.
When at the office, I get home to an 85-90 degree F inside temp and turn on a big box fan (100 watts) to air the place out, versus 2kw for the air con if working at home.