Working from home can reduce an individual’s overall greenhouse gas emissions and may carry other advantages such as improved work-life balance; However, in some cases, remote working can lead to feelings of isolation and the development of physical and mental health issues and so employees must be supported to create healthy workspace set-ups and stay connected with colleagues; Hybrid working policies may offer the advantages of increased flexibility, whilst alleviating feelings of isolation that may arise from working at home full-time, and can still result in a reduction in emissions.

This is the second in a three-part series on whether remote working is better for the environment than office-based working. The first article in the series discussed how remote working could reduce emissions from the daily commute. In this article, we weigh up this reduction in transport-related emissions, and any possible reduction in office-related emissions, with the increase in domestic-related emissions from heating and electricity that occurs as a result of working from home. The studies indicate that, on average, reduced emissions from commuting will outweigh increased domestic-related emissions, making remote working an environmentally friendly step to take [1,2]. However, in certain limited scenarios, travelling to work via less carbon-intensive modes of transport may result in lower emissions overall than working from home.

Remote working can have a positive impact on the environment through reducing transport-related emissions. Although these reductions are likely to represent only a small proportion of transport emissions as a whole, working from home could be one part of a package of policies aimed at reducing transport emissions.