I've riffed in the recent past about the craziness of gas guarantees for employees in the face of rising fuel prices. Not exactly the most progressive way to handle the cost of energy. With that said, here are some cool stats on telecommuting from Sun Microsystems as reported by Green Car Congress (hat tip to Kevin Grossman at HR Marketer):
Employees saved more than $1,700 per year in gasoline and wear and tear on their vehicles by
working at home an average of 2.5 days a week. Office equipment energy consumption rate at a Sun office was two times that of home office equipment energy consumption, from approximately 64 watts per hour at home to 130 watts per hour at a Sun office.
Commuting was more than 98% of each employee’s carbon footprint for work, compared to less than 1.7% of total carbon emissions to power office equipment.
By eliminating commuting just 2.5 days per week, an employee reduces energy used for work by the equivalent of 5,400 Kilowatt hours/year.
Working from home 2.5 days per week saved the employees in the study an average of 2.5 weeks of commute time (8 hours/day, 5 days/week).
Through this program, Sun has nearly 19,000 employees around the world work from home or in a flexible office, representing more than 56% of Sun’s employee population.
WOW. Compelling stuff. Add to that tally, as I'm reminded by Kevin, the increase that can occur in productivity if employees treat the arrangement professionally, and the business case is strong.
While we have some telecommuters, I've been working on something to help institutionalize the approach. I need to wrap that up and get it to market, ASAP...
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