In at least one respect--climate impact--the idea of widespread teleworking is not nearly as great as it sounds, says .

According to Martina Bisello's study, the covid crisis has accentuated territorial inequalities: "teleworkable" jobs are found much more in the big cities and relatively little in the countryside. With the possibility of working more from home, employees are increasingly considering moving away from the city and its suburbs to more pleasant areas and, above all, where property prices are much lower.

One in two commuters willing to move away from the office

In Dublin, 8% of employees have done so during the crisis and one in four are planning to follow suit, taking advantage of Ireland's 'Making Remote Work' strategy launched in January 2021. More than one in two commuters in the US are willing to do the same, according to a US study.

But a home that is further away from the office also means a longer commute to the office when the employee does come to work. Commuters seem more willing to accept this. But, whereas the employee used to take their children to school, do sports, run errands on the way to work, they will now have to do all these things separately. This could lead to having less time and using more fuel.

The cost-benefit assessment should be based on four elements, say the researchers: the frequency of teleworking, the mode of transport, the distance of the trip and the use of the employee’s vehicle when they don’t rely on public transport.

Hot weather on the heating, cold weather on the air conditioning

Another element that puts the idea of teleworking as a green gesture in perspective is energy use. 

While the extent of usage depends on the location, “in summer, offices have higher energy demand compared to homes, on average, when cooling may be necessary. In contrast, heating in winter is more efficient in office buildings due to centralised systems and the proximity of employees,” researchers say. “In contrast, heating in winter is more efficient in office buildings, due to centralised systems and the proximity to other employees. As a result, heating homes during winter is particularly energy intensive, given that heating consumption is generally dominated by oil and gas.” The fact that the employee would likely not have heated their home in their absence adds to the balance. 

Further logistics complicate the math

But the company will have to adopt a policy of managing its premises carefully enough to accommodate all those who do not telework at the same time and not to heat or cool its premises when half or a third of them are empty. This implies a hot desk and technological or human resources associated with the management of smaller offices... or to take an interest in short-term office rental, as announced by a new Luxembourg start-up, Fiveoffices.

"It is also essential to continue supporting improvements to the energy efficiency of buildings, shifting to low-carbon means of transport and transitioning to renewable energy sources. In this regard, the ambitious REPowerEU Plan recently unveiled by the European Commission and complementing the European Green Deal goes in the right direction, as it will help to fast forward the transition to clean energy," says the Eurofound.

While citing a study by Ademe that points to the cost per minute of videoconferencing, the authors of the European Foundation's report are much more cautious about the environmental cost of the increasing use of technology to work, whether directly by the worker or indirectly in the context of data storage. This is an issue that deserves to be better documented, they say, aware of the controversies surrounding certain calculations.

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