More than half (54%) of PwC’s 2,980 employees in Luxembourg are cross-border workers, leaving a substantial carbon footprint. "Mobility represents about 72% of our total CO2 emissions," said Anne-Sophie Preud'homme, operations leader at PwC Luxembourg.

In addition to its main office Crystal Park--30,000m2 on six floors in Cloche d’Or--the firm already has four satellite offices. And it will be opening a fifth at the start of 2022 in Mondorf-les-Bains. This will be a 400m2 office within the local spa centre. It will be able to accommodate 60 people, who should all be able to park there.

The first satellite office, of 90m2, opened in June 2019 in Wemperhardt, in the north of Luxembourg--intended mainly for employees from the Liège region--followed, the same month, by the one in Oberpallen, on 390m2, for Belgians from the south. Then those in Esch-Belval on the French border (380m2) and Biwer-Wecker across from Germany (170m2) opened in January 2020.

"About 60 people can work and park in our offices in Esch-Belval and Oberpallen. 30 people can work in Wecker, and 12 people in Wemperhardt", said Preud'homme. "Anyone, whether a resident or a border worker, can use these offices, and no dedicated team is assigned to them."

The satellite offices opened just before the coronavirus pandemic with the option to work remotely making it difficult to assess occupancy. "Oberpallen has reached about 50% occupancy," Preud’homme said. "Based on recent employee surveys, we expect these offices to be used even more: people want to spend less time travelling and find a way to avoid the tax constraints that limit working from home."

There is a limit on the number of days cross-border workers from Belgium, France and Germany can work from home or risk being taxed in their country of residence and lose their Luxembourg social security affiliation. This cap has been lifted since the start of lockdown in March 2020 but is likely to be reintroduced at some point, potentially with the start of the new year.

Combined with teleworking, the satellite offices allow "a clear reduction in travel time and distance, and clearly contribute to limiting CO2 emissions,” the operations leader said.

For the time being, and until the end of the year, employees have to come to the headquarters five days out of ten. "We are working on new rules that will come into force on 1 January 2022, if health conditions continue to improve."

This story was first published on . It has been translated and edited for Delano.