How to Green Your Telecommute

Tips to make working from home even greener.

Michael has already explored whether telecommuting is really green - and the resounding answer was yes. After all, transportation is one of the biggest work-related impacts - and even telecommuting two and a half days a week can save the average worker $1700 a year. (And that amounts to a lot of gasoline and a lot of CO2 not going up in smoke!)

But once you've made telecommuting part of your schedule, or even found a work-from-home job - what can you do to make sure your telecommute is as green as it can possibly be? Here are a few ideas:

• Watch the HVAC: If you're the only one staying at home, do you really need to cool the whole house in summer, or heat it in winter? Why not use a fan in your office, or wear a few extra layers?
• Combine Trips Out: Every home worker needs to escape to the coffee shop occasionally. But if you're driving into town, try and consolidate your "days out" with other errands - like buying groceries or visiting friends. Or you could even catch a ride with a family member or partner who works away from home.
• Avoid the Vacation Home: I have met home workers who get all excited because they can now work from their second home in France for the summer. It might be pleasant, but if telecommuting encourages more global mobility - you can bet the carbon savings will be lost pretty quick.
• Eat Green: One of my favorite things about working from home is that I can fix my own lunches. And I often make use of last night's dinner. So take advantage of it. Plan some tasty, easy and green lunches - and you can even experiment with solar cooking.
• Sit in the Corner: Do you really need a dedicated home office? If you can make it work, using a corner of a guest room can save space - and saving space means we can all live in smaller houses.
• Use a Laptop: Does anyone use a desktop anymore? I often think that an undervalued aspect of the home worker is the fact that they are more likely to use a laptop - and a laptop uses a fraction of the energy of a desktop.
• Go Virtual: If you are working for a company with physical offices, see if you can encourage the entire outfit to work from home. Saving money on office space is good for the bottom line - but if we start creating an economy that needs less office buildings to house workers, and less roads to get them from home to the office, that's when telecommuting will really hit the green pay-dirt.
  

-planetgreen.discovery