Work in Your PJs, Save the Planet

Wanna play a vital role in saving the planet? Then let your employees telecommute. Or so says a new Cisco Systems Inc. survey of 2,000 individuals around the world suggesting that remote workers are happier, more-productive and save employers money (all while reducing carbon emissions), recently reported by Fast Company. This is not a new revelation, but Cisco's survey is yet another encouraging bit of data.

The big disclaimer is that Cisco sells all kinds of technology used by remote workforces, so it stands to benefit handsomely from the telecommuting trend. The San Jose-based networking powerhouse makes no attempt to obfuscate its own agenda, though, as you can see from its press release about the survey:

"In addition, with the steady adoption of enterprise-class remote connectivity solutions like Cisco Virtual Office, the recently announced Cisco OfficeExtend, and virtual collaboration tools like Cisco WebEx, Cisco anticipates that employees and employers will continue to see a rise in the benefits associated with telecommuting."

Still cynical about Cisco's admittedly self-serving observations? Other surveys, studies, research reports and white papers from a variety of organizations arrive at similar conclusions. The obvious cost-savings include money spent maintaining and fueling an automobile, lunch expenses, work attire and extra time and money spent juggling childcare responsibilities. For employers, the energy drain and money spent on maintaining a large office is the biggest source of savings.

But now that being green is serious business, companies can tout their commitment to environmental stewardship as well, even if it is all for show. Just the widely known fact that personal transportation (especially given the "norm" of one person per vehicle, driving increasingly longer distances for work) makes up 50 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions should give an indication of how beneficial telecommuting can be.

A blog post by IT consultant Tom Worthington last year details some of the advantages of telecommuting, including its environmental perks:

"Assuming fuel efficiency of 21 miles per gallon, commuting to work using personal vehicles consumes 44 billion gallons of gasoline per year. In terms of greenhouse gasses, private vehicles used during commuting release 424 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year. In addition, other emissions include 23 million tons of carbon monoxide, 1.8 million tons of volatile organic carbons and 1.5 million tons of oxides of nitrogen each year."

Looking at figures like these, it's not too difficult to make the argument that for those positions where it makes sense (i.e. you can't perform surgery or wait tables from home), telecommuting just makes sense for everyone, including Mother Nature.

Of course, Cisco would be more than happy to sell you some of their latest and greatest gear to help you make the transition. And let's not be so naive as to forget that the Internet runs on electricity, which is produced from burning coal and natural gas -- or by splitting atoms.