Many companies have more employees working at home remotely, but they forget to calculate the carbon emissions created by working from home. While it’s true that businesses have seen their overall direct emissions fall in the office, their emissions have not actually been reduced. It’s essential for a company to take into account the carbon impact of their employees working from home.
Remote Working & Carbon Emissions
Businesses are changing to hybrid and remote work, with many of their employees working from home part-time or full-time. That means these businesses are increasing their emissions. But why is it essential to calculate carbon emissions from remote employees?
Companies dedicated to reducing their carbon emissions should include the greenhouse gases produced by the employees working from home. These emissions could become a significant portion of a company’s overall carbon footprint.
The Importance of Measuring the Carbon Emissions of Remote Workers
Measuring carbon emissions produced by remote workers is essential for any business that’s concerned about its sustainability and reducing carbon emissions. Businesses that don’t calculate their remote teams’ carbon emissions are not seeing the full scope of their emissions.
It’s not very realistic to go door-to-door conducting an energy audit of each employee’s home. However, there are calculations that can help each business gain a better insight into remote workers and their impact on the company’s carbon emissions.
How to Measure the Impact of Heating & Electricity Used Working from Home
Here are some ways to calculate carbon emissions for your company’s employees working from home.
1. Electricity
When employees work from home, they will use more electricity than normal. Electricity use can include charging devices such as phones, laptops, and more. It can also include the use of lights. And more electricity can result in higher emissions.
Studies have shown that the average laptop or computer uses about 140 watts of electricity, while lighting can use about 10 watts. To calculate the total amount of electricity used by your company’s team, it’s necessary to multiply this by the number of employees working from home and the number of working hours a month.
When you’ve worked out the number of kWh (kilowatt hours) your remote employees have used, you’ll need to multiply this by the emissions factor for electricity, which is 0.256 kg of CO2e per kWh. This number is based on the average home that has not switched to a renewable electricity supplier.
Here’s an example for a company that has 1,000 employees, each working 40 hours a week:
- Laptops: 140 watts x 1,000 employees x 160 working hours a month = 22,400 kWh electricity
- Lighting: 10 watts x 1,000 employees x 160 working hours a month: 1,600 kWh of electricity
- Together, that’s 24,000 kWh of electricity each month for all employees working from home.
- 24,000 kWh x 0.256 kg of CO2 = 6,144 kg of CO2.
2. Heating
Working from home also means employees may need to use more heating, too. 85% of homes in the UK use natural gas for heating, so when the weather’s cold, CO2 emissions rise.
Research has shown that it takes about 5 kWh of gas to heat your home for an hour. This comes to about an extra 800 kWh to keep each employee warm for a month, figuring that heating lasts between October and March each year and that the heating isn’t on for 24 hours a day.
Studies have shown that about 1/3 of employees have another person at home with them during the day. So, to work out how much energy is used to heat the homes for remote working, multiply the number of employees working from home by 66.7%. That number is multiplied by 800 kWh and results in the amount of heating used by all employees each month.
Multiply your total by the emissions factor for natural gas, which is 0.184 kg of CO2 per kWh. That’s the carbon emission for heating your employees’ homes as they work.
Here’s an example of a company with 60 employees, each working a 45-hour week.
- 800 kWh x (66.7% x 60 employees) = 32,016 kWh more heating each month for all employees
- 32,016 kWh x 0.184 kg of CO2 = 5,890 kg of CO2.
3. Cooling
Home cooling is another category of carbon emissions that can be caused by employees working from home. However, many homes in the UK do not have air conditioning. So, the carbon impact won’t be as great as in other parts of the world. However, if your company has international workers, you may want to consider calculating the carbon emissions caused by cooling their homes during work hours.
Does Remote Work Fight Climate Change?
It’s essential to understand the complete impact that remote workers have on the climate and carbon emissions. There are several factors to consider, along with electricity and heating use:
- How employees get to work on the average commute
- How far employees travel
- How much commercial and residential electricity use changes
- Where does the electricity come from?
Working remotely can be good for the environment when it replaces the need to commute to work each day. However, if remote work leads to increased energy use in an area that relies on fossil fuels or natural gas to produce electricity, remote work can be more damaging to the environment.
How to Make Remote Working More Sustainable?
The next step in making remote working more sustainable is to see where employees’ electricity comes from and encourage employees to invest in their own lower-emissions infrastructure.
Some of the carbon emissions produced by remote teams can be offset by limiting business travel; educating employees on the importance of reducing their emissions and the methods they can use to accomplish this; recycling office furniture (at the office) that’s no longer needed, and more.
Summing It Up
When calculating your company’s carbon emissions, it’s essential to remember to include the carbon emissions produced by remote employees. Once you’ve measured your remote team’s carbon emissions, the next step is to reduce these carbon emissions as much as possible.
