Telework Could Save America $750 Million a Day

February 9, 2011 – According to the Telework Research Network, if the 41 million Americans with telework-compatible jobs worked from home just one day a week the U.S. savings would total $772 million including:

• $494 million in commuter costs
• $185 million from 2.3 million barrels of oil saved
• $  93 million from 775 fewer traffic accidents

Plus the environment would be spared 423,000 tons of greenhouse gas-the equivalent of taking 77,000 cars off the road for a year.

Inspired by then Virginia Governor Tim Kaine in 2009, advocacy organizations throughout the country have joined the effort to raise awareness of the environmental, economic, and societal benefits of telework. Over 14,000 have already   pledged to participate.

“The savings above are just the tip of the iceberg,” says Kate Lister, principal researcher of the Telework Research Network an organization that specializes in evaluating the financial impact of workplace flexibility. “If you add the many employer, employee and community benefits, once-weekly telework could save the nation $350 billion a year and potentially eliminate our oil imports from both Libya and Kuwait.”

For companies, those benefits include increased productivity, reduced office space, and lower turnover and absenteeism. The Telework Research Network’s web-based Telework Savings Calculator, shows that companies could save over $6,500 per once-a-week teleworker. “We’ve built a conservative model,” says Tom Harnish, senior scientist at the Telework Research Network. “The assumptions are based on a synthesis of hundreds of studies and real life examples. They recognize that not everyone wants to or can work from home, that not all driving is eliminated, that home offices use energy too, and that occasional telework offers only minimal office space savings.”

Editor Notes: Regional impacts by city, county, or state are available on request. See: www.Undress4Success.com

Contact:
Kate Lister
TeleworkResearchNetwork.com
Kate@TeleworkResearchNetwork.com
Telephone: 760-703-0377 or 760-473-2574 (Pacific)Relevant White Papers:
Workshifting Benefits: The Bottom Line (download 2.3 MB)
- This 23 page paper examines the bottom line benefits of telework for individuals, communities, companies of various sizes, and the U.S. as a whole.

Broadband and Telecommuting: Helping the U.S. Environment and the Economy

December 2010

Joseph P. Fuhr,
Economics Widener University Chester, PA, USA, and The American Consumer Institute, Washington, D.C., USA.

Stephen Pociask,
The American Consumer Institute, Washington, D.C., USA.

ABSTRACT
This study examines how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. through the widespread delivery of broadband services and the expansion of telecommuting. Telecommuting can reduce greenhouse gas emissions over the next 10 years by approximately 588.2 tons of which 247.7 million tons is due to less driving, 28.1 million tons is due to reduced office construction, and 312.4 million tons because of less energy usage by businesses. This paper explores these broadband services and their effects on the environment, specifically as a means to achieve better and cleaner energy use, while enhancing economic output, worker productivity and the standard of living of American consumers.

Click here to read the entire report: Broadband and Telecommuting _ Helping the U.S. Environment and the Economy

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, and 368 metric tons of pollutants.

On average, at the personal level, a 30 miles round trip commute = 1.5 gallons saved = $6.00 saved in gas costs alone, or ~ $20.00 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).