Environmental Information and Fact Sheet
Click the logo for the latest Clean
Air news and announcements
U.S. Department of Transportation,
Federal Highway Administration
Quarterly Newsletter, Winter 2006
Journal of the American Medical Association, November 17, 2004
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Participation in eCommute is FREE. It is a pilot program authorized by Congress
and supported by the Department of Transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency.
It offers FREE consulting and training services to organizations in the pilot regions
implement new or enhance existing telecommuting programs. The eCommute program
measures the effectiveness of reducing vehicle trips and mobile emissions through telecommuting.
In this unique program, less vehicle trips equal emissions saved which translate into pollution
credits that can be used in a variety of ways to benefit an employer's bottom line, the environment,
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Aims to Reduce Automobile Emissions
5/27/2004
State of Idaho, Department of Environmental Quality
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Environmental Fact Sheet
Telecommuting and its Environmental Impact - Fact Sheet
Reduced commuter traffic helps our environment in three ways:
It reduces toxic gases and dust particles spewed into our atmosphere,It reduces chemicals washed into our waterways, wells, rivers & estuaries,
It reduces the need to have to find new sources of oil.
Every week 32,000,000 Americans could be telecommuting at least one day. They would not drive 1,260,800,000 miles (equal to 51,000 times round the Earth); would save 74,164,700 gallons of gas, worth $111,247,050.
POLLUTION SAVINGS would be 1,081,955,230 lbs, or 540,978 tons. The pollutants saved would be Carbon Monoxide, Carbon Dioxide, Nitrogen Oxide, Particulate Matter and Hydrocarbons.
Additionally, by not wasting time in traffic, telecommuters could be MORE PRODUCTIVE for the equivalent of 4,000,000 extra workdays every week. Productivity increases, typical for telecommuters, would provide a bottom line benefit to the economy of $311 billion yearly.
In the D.C. Metro Region alone, 850,000 employees say their job activities could be telecommuted, and that they would telecommute if allowed to. However, only 380,000 do telecommute currently. The UNSATISFIED DEMAND is thus equal to 14,570,000 commute vehicle miles that have the potential to be avoided every week (586 times round Earth) - 857,058 gallons of gasoline saved - 368 metric tons of pollutants.
On average, at the personal level, a 30 miles round trip commute = 1.5 gallons saved = $2.25 saved in gas costs alone, or $15.06 in terms of REDUCED TOTAL COST OF VEHICLE OWNERSHIP (repairs, Insurance, depreciation, gas etc) Also, 25.7 LBS. OF POLLUTANTS WILL NOT BE EMITTED into the air that we all breathe. Multiply all #s by 48 to get yearly savings - 52 weeks less holidays etc. Assumes 1 day/wk telecommuted.
