People who work from home all the time ‘cut emissions by 54%’ against those in office::Study in US shows one day a week of remote working cuts emissions by just 2% but two or four days lowers them by up to 29%

  • fubo@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Commuting by car is really, really expensive – to the worker (in fuel, time, and stress), to the polity (in road maintenance, traffic collisions, etc.), and to the environment as well.

    Most of the costs are borne directly by the worker without compensation. Although a worker is required to commute to work, commute time is not considered part of an hourly worker’s working hours, nor is it considered a tax-deductible business travel expense.

    • Kit@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      10 months ago

      Ironically I think that would be a great approach - give tax breaks to businesses that have fully remote workers. It would save the environment, reduce traffic, reduce the cost of renting an apartment in downtown areas, bolster suburban and rural towns, and provide a higher quality of life to the middle class. The only way to get businesses onnoard willingly is by offering a monetary incentive.

    • Mojojojo1993@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Yup. Honestly if the world wasn’t run for the money makers.

      We could really engineer it to work for the betterment of the planet and us.

      We could optimize our system so we don’t waste so much and save ourselves money. Money which in turn is our life span.

      If only

  • GreenBottles@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    gee who would have thought people that don’t drive vehicles reduce emissions compared to people that drive vehicles

    • Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz
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      10 months ago

      In other news: Scientists have discovered that people who don’t smoke, are not exposing their lungs to carcinogens anywhere near as much as those who do smoke. What a stunning revelation!

  • eee@lemm.ee
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    10 months ago

    But how can real estate companies make money off peasants if the peasants don’t suffer needlessly?

  • RojoSanIchiban@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    “You’re welcome, Gen Z!”

    -Permanent WFH GenX

    P.S. Sorry you can’t buy a house, but I’m not taking credit for that one.

    • Muffi@programming.dev
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      10 months ago

      It’ll be “Work from your parents home” for Gen Z until the housing market collapse

    • ccunix@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      I think we can blame our parenta for that (at least I do).

      My dad criticised me for years over not buying. When I did, he did not believe how much my mortgage repayments are. I would have paid of his house in less than 2 years!

      • bob_wiley@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        I just bought a home in 2021 and paid it off a couple weeks ago. It took 2.5 years. It still happens. Working from home helps, as I don’t feel the pressure to be in an area with insane home prices in the name of job opportunities.

        • gornar@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          Considering the decimal place is off for most other mortgages I’ve ever seen as a genxer, you must have a great combo of massively high income and low housing cost, holy crap. Good on ya!

          (My children will inherit my mortgage, I done fucked up)

          • bob_wiley@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            Thanks! It’s probably the single greatest accomplishment of my life and it still hasn’t totally sunk in.

            My first post may have been misleading in terms of the overall timeline. I’m not 22 pulling this off, I’m closer to your age (xennial). The mortgage was paid off in 2.5 years, but there was 16 years of renting and saving that came before that… not to mention a house I sold after owning it less than a year, because I was drowning (shit got dark). I learned a lot from that and rented for several more years as a result. I kept my emergency fund, but pretty much liquidated all my non-retirement funds to knock it out, then used about 70% of my income for 2.5 years to finish it off. People can argue if liquidating those funds for the mortgage was smart or stupid, but it felt right for me.

            I think by this age most of us have fucked up in one area or another. I sure have, and still am. I’m hoping I can shift focus and it’s not too late to right the ship on some key areas of life I’ve completely ignored.

  • cheese_greater@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Theyh it is. Fuck back to office

    Edit1: is that how you “spell” that? Doesn’t look ot feel right to me

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    10 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    People who work remotely all the time produce less than half the greenhouse gas emissions of office workers, according to a new study.

    Employees in the US who worked from home all the time were predicted to reduce their emissions by 54%, compared with workers in an office, the study found.

    Wider emissions reducing benefits of working from home include the easing of vehicle congestion during rush hour in commuting areas, which is likely to improve fuel economy.

    According to the study, this could result in longer commuting distances for hybrid workers and a greater carbon footprint due to the increased use of private vehicles.

    The authors said: “While remote work shows potential in reducing carbon footprint, careful consideration of commuting patterns, building energy consumption, vehicle ownership, and non-commute-related travel is essential to fully realise its environmental benefits.”

    While the findings do not apply to workers in many sectors – a bus driver, for example, cannot work from home – it provides pointers on how office-based employers can reduce company emissions.


    The original article contains 591 words, the summary contains 171 words. Saved 71%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

  • ours@lemmy.film
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    10 months ago

    Or in some countries, alleviate the pressure on an overloaded public transport system. Which in turn cuts emissions.

    • Album@lemmy.ca
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      10 months ago

      I love that they haven’t really fucked with it too much. It’s still the same basic design principles modernized over time. I was worried Lenovo would ruin the line but personally I feel they’re still some of the best machines out there…

  • markr@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Talked to a former coworker who goes into the office now a couple of times a week to sit in a shitty open office workspace to go on teams to ‘interact’ with his colleagues. It’s just fucking stupid. Also the company sells remote work enablement tools.