On the face of it, working from home is the eco-friendly way to do the nine-to-five. There’s no commute, no office energy consumption, and everyone is in control of their own energy efficiency. This also seems to have been proven by the fact that air quality improved massively when we were all locked down in 2020.
But the reality isn’t quite that straightforward. And what about those soaring household energy bills being added to by the extra burden of running work equipment during the day?
What’s the carbon foot print of your daily commute?
Have you ever stopped and wondered what the carbon footprint of your daily commute is? Whether it’s car or bus engines constantly running or the amount of electricity it takes to run a train, we all use a lot of energy and produce a lot of CO2 on the runs to and from work.
And then when you eventually do get to work, your working day is one of office heaters, lighting and computers running all day, along with the constant clicking on and off of the kettle.
Sustainability relies on everyone cutting their carbon footprint and reducing the emissions spewed out by petrol and diesel engines and the huge amount of energy office buildings use just to keep ticking over each day.
Working from home effectively eliminates all this and, when working from home, everyone is more likely to conscious of their own energy efficiency, not least because they’re paying for the power themselves.
It should be a no-brainer that working from home is the more eco-friendly option, but creating a more sustainable future of work isn’t quite that simple.
Why working from home isn’t quite so eco-freindly
Research from WSP UK, a London-based consulting firm specialising in engineering, shows that remote work in the UK may only be more environmentally friendly in the summer. Examining the carbon output of 200 UK-based workers across different locations, researchers found that the environmental impact of remote work was higher in the winter due to the need to heat individual workers’ buildings versus one office building.
Whereas we’ll all have the heating on at home all winter, not many of us have air conditioning for the summer, so energy usage falls dramatically. And the cumulative effect of everyone heating their home for more hours each day means more energy is used than if we all turned up at the office.
David Symons, Future Ready Lead and Director of Sustainability at WSP UK., said: “Energy management in buildings is generally more sophisticated than at individual homes. We don’t have air con in the UK, so as a result it’s much more carbon efficient to work from home in the summer because you haven’t got heating.
On the other hand, cutting out the emissions from the daily commute can’t be underestimated, so it could come down to how energy efficient we are when working from home.
How to save energy when working from home
There are all sorts of ways to save energy when working from home, but here are a few simple changes you can make to cut your carbon footprint and your energy bills:
- Only heat the room you’re working in
- Never leave lights or electrics on when not in use
- Turn the thermostat down – wear more layers, if necessary
- Only fill the kettle with the water you need, and don’t reboil
How to claim tax relief for job expenses
If you’re working from home instead of in the office, you’ll need to shoulder the cost of having the lights and heating on during the day as well as the added cost of running laptops and any other devices needed to do your job.
In some instances, you can claim tax relief on business expenses such as phone calls and energy.
If your job requires you to live far away from your office or your employer doesn’t have an office, you can claim £6 a week on costs, for which you’ll not need to keep evidence of the extra costs. Or if you have receipts, bills, or contracts, then you can claim back the exact amount of extra costs you’ve incurred above the weekly amount.
You’ll get tax relief based on the rate at which you pay tax.
You can’t claim if your employment contract means you work from home some or all of the time, or if your employer has an office that you sometimes can’t use because it’s full.
Check out the government website for more information.
How to keep in touch with colleagues when working from home
If you’re not at the office while others are, you can quickly find yourself out of the loop if you miss out on vital meetings. That’s where ConferenceCall.co.uk can help. Here are six good reasons to use our service:
- You can set up a conference call in less than 5 minutes
- You don’t need to make a reservation.
- You never need to make a cancellation with us.
- You can use our service 24/7
- Add up to 100 participants on a single call
- Dial-in numbers for more than 70 countries
