Researchers: Flex Schedules Favor the Environment

Flexible and Socially Responsible: Corporate social responsibility is getting a lot of attention. Exhibit A: by enabling more employees to telecommute, U.S. corporations could put a dent in the nation’s heavy dependence on fossil fuel. So say researchers Kate Lister and Tom Harnish, who analyzed data from several sources, including the federal Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Transportation, and determined that “telework” not only could reduce Persian Gulf oil imports by the U.S., but also “reduce greenhouse gases by up to 67 million metric tons a year, and save as much as 7.5 trillion gallons of gasoline each year—a savings of $110 million a day.”

Lister and Harnish say roughly 40 percent of the U.S. workforce occupies jobs that could be adapted for telecommuting. In addition to cutting fuel consumption and potential environmental benefits, organizations would benefit as workers avoid “wasteful commutes,” thus accumulating “the equivalent of five workweeks of free time a year.”

Employers appear to be warming to flexible schedules. According to Lister and Harnish, who are authoring “Undress for Success—The Road Less Traveled Is Your Way to Work,” the use of telecommuting has increased 39 percent since 2002, including a 10 percent jump in 2007.