Save the planet, stay remote (Go FAR)
Intro
In 2020, the year of clear vision, due to the Covid government shutdowns, something unexpected surfaced. Remote work became a norm for a multitude of professions (IT, Accounting, Finance). It seemed that the World was prepared, as VPN solutions were able to handle corporate network traffic from remote home locations, the remote solutions were just enough to foster collaboration outside of an office.
Millions of people realized that they can do their work remotely, and do it well, or even better without the usual cantina talk and the life-consuming commute. It felt like a revolution, even though it was all possible at least ten years earlier, with the progressive growth of technology and network reliability. It was just the shutdown that created “a nudge”, a light force to push everyone remote.
Yet a few years later, there is steady push from corporations and governments alike to return workers into office spaces, small, distant, but with free breakfast and coffee benefits. Sometimes there is free parking for the executive suite. And pretax dollars for public transportation for the all. That is almost all the benefits workers get, besides salary and taxes. And the ability to brainstorm in a room with.. a collaboration technology platform, connecting them to coworkers living in distant cities. And commute.
People are prepared to commute long distances if they are desperate for work. (Oxford)
It is only natural that some professions cannot be fulfilled working remotely, and that certain people are unable to function without supervision. It is arguable whether in-person enables better functionality or just covers incapabilities. It is also difficult to analyse the ability and quality of management when in-person vs remote. Does everyone need to be monitored?
The truth is that the majority of remote workers in specific professions thrive, have better results, and are able to help faster and better from wherever they reside in the World. Remote work brings savings to multi-national corporations by allowing them to have less supporting personnel in each site. But this is not a topic of this paper.
This document focuses on the environmental, economical and social benefits of remote work.
There is still opportunity for Common Sense to prevail.
Join the Remote movement! Don’t wait!
Free, Able, Remote
For our Planet, for Us, We go FAR!
Let us begin! Let us not stop and forget 2020 and 2021
Less commute, less carbon emissions.
Fuel burning creates energy and releases CO2 in the air. This includes public transportation and electric cars, as electricity is produced at power plants which primarily use either fossil or nuclear energy. In the future, when wind and solar energy production exceeds the output of fuel derived energy, electric vehicles, trains and craft would pollute the environment less.
Less commute reduces car industry pollution.
Used engine oil. Every 5K to 10K miles or every 6 months, 4 or more quarts (liters) of engine oil is removed from cars and needs to be properly disposed of, at additional cost to tax payers and burden of nature. Improper oil disposal creates soil and water contamination, air pollution and damage to life.
About 16% of consumer auto and 22% commercial auto oil is lost in use, which means it has immediately become a contamination. Total U.S. lubricant consumption is just under 2,500 Million Gallons Per Year. That is 2,5 Billion Gallons Per year. (Source)
Tire wear is one of the main contributors to ocean contamination. As tires wear, the rubber particles travel via stormwater paths to rivers and oceans. The average tire loses 8lb (4 kg) over its lifetime. About 6 million tons of tire particles are emitted annually. (Source).. Then we eat the fish which consumes those rubber particles..
And there is more – Researchers have genetically engineered a marine microorganism to break down plastic in salt water (but not rubber). This achievement cost 2 million to date. It is not clear what is the byproduct of eating the polyethylene terephthalate. (Source) What would it take to have a rubber eating bacteria one day?
Auto maintenance would cost owners much less and will prolong use of vehicles. The less miles we drive, the less repairs and new cars we will need. This may also make car purchases more affordable for workers, who need cars the most, and enable the car industry to focus on more efficient vehicles.
Lesser risks, but significant contributors to elevated costs are dents, windshield repairs, Statistics: assuming 15,000 vehicle-miles per year, cost of maintenance is $12,000 per Insurance agencies
The less we drive, the less we risk life and property damage. Lower risk due to less driving lowers insurance companies’ spend, which should lead to lower insurance premiums. Insurance payments can be redirected to areas where they are needed the most – hurricane, flood or tornado prone areas. Statistics: A total of 40,901 people died in motor vehicle crashes in 2023. The U.S. DoT’s estimate of the annual economic cost of crashes is $340 billion (Source)..
The less overloaded the highways are due to remote work options, the better commute is available where driving is a necessity. This is even more applicable in extreme conditions.
Roads and highways overall wear can be lowered if not used as often by remote workers. The extended life of lesser used roads can save millions of dollars if repair costs can be pushed with any number of years. E.g. if road repair happens every 20 years instead of every 10, this is half the spend of taxpayer money
Less commute reduces public transportation maintenance costs,
Statistics: Yearly cost of repairs
Lowering these costs lead to less burden on tax payers (who anecdotally will get better work-life balance in addition to lowering their taxes)
Cost of expanding transport options- It would cost trillions of tax dollars to repatriate and extend transportation options.
In the US, only New York has a functional and usable (albeit aging and costly to maintain) transportation system.
Largely populated areas such as Washington DC have limited areas with transport options not dependent on car/truck/bus traffic. E.g. he rail system begins close to the city, requiring commutes exceeding an hour, just to reach the rail transportation.
Import-export benefits or lesser commute and remote work
The lower fuel and engine oil consumption on national level will lower dependency of Middle East fuel moguls.
The lower need for tires, spare parts, supportive tools, machinery and gadgets will lower dependency on large producers of goods countries, while giving the latter a breather and ability to implement more efficient manufacturing equipment and offer better work-life balance to their citizens, too
All industries overall can redirect capital to more critical solutions
Building space in downtowns is limited, Parking space is limited. Ownership is fairly monopolized.
Corporate office spend can be greatly optimized or even eliminated if using shared work spaces with pay-per-use cost model
Building owners in big cities will have an opportunity to re-accommodate some of the commercial space to residential properties with more reasonable costs, effectively resolving a large portion of the housing issues.
If housing in downtowns is made more affordable, it will allow for a large number of people to start living nearby their workplaces where required, which will lower traffic and transportation needs further
Improved traffic from excluding remote workers will allow professions who are required to be onsite to travel faster and easier, additionally improving fuel consumption and air pollution. Such professions can be top secret government employees, builders, caterers, transportation drivers, police patrols, firefighters etc
Electrical grid is overused in city centers but is distributed for remote workers.
Centralized heating and cooling in city centers buildings comes with significant power consumption which greatly affects the environment:
CO2 emissions from fossil fuels used for heating is increased, as 50 to 100 floors are heated in winters. Around 28% of global CO2 emissions come from building operations, due to the energy used for heating, cooling and power. (Source tba)
Nuclear waste from power plants. Very limited options to store radioactive waste, but there is a plan! (Siberia?) Until then, humanity can lower consumption, if not absolutely necessary (working remotely where possible)
Heat generated by coolers adds to global warming. Giant fans cool giant compressors, to cool giant spaces in high rises.
If part of the commercial space in downtowns is repurposed for housing, cooling and heating will only be needed on micro level (per apartment, per room etc.) and only at times of use, vs climate controlling large spaces regardless of utilization
Maybe the global warming caused by cooling will negate the CO2 emissions for heating in 100 years, because there will be no winters then.. But we can work remotely to help with both issues, now.
Social benefits
Humanity improved – being able to meet longer and communicate with children creates better families and better new generations to join the workforce happier, smarter, less burdened, more loved and supported. This will reflect in the work they will do every day after.
Reduced need of anti-depressants. Yes,1-2 hours commute each way, sometimes with road rage, before and after 8 work hours can affect mental health.
More time available for exercise and well-being. Every human being needs that!
Concentration of people of all kinds in city centers can sometimes lead to misbehavior, fights, and threats to others. Not requiring remote workers to be in the city centers daily allows for a less tense atmosphere and enables better organization for large public events, with increased security and safety approach.
Corporate technology benefits
Company equipment is less prone to damages, loss, theft.
Technology equipment is hosted in secure colos or cloud, accessible from anywhere, while physically secure
Minimized risk of social engineering hacking events – sticky notes with passwords are not accessible to random coworkers.
Internet connection – in case of an ISP issues, larger percent of dispersed remote workers can continue work. e.g issues in a given suburban zipcode can prevent several workers from their duties, in contrast, everyone in a central office (downtown zipcode) would be unable to work if internet connectivity is down. This is valid in case of attack on cities in case of war.
More electricity will become available for AI, to alleviate the lack of thinking on human level or at least to help remind Chiefs about previous green pledges.
AI will be remote for the foreseeable future. Including if the decision making is made remotely and only passed over wireless network to a physical, local device. Humanity will support both “intelligence” and device remotely, as it is today, anyways.
There is still opportunity for Common Sense to prevail.
Join the Remote movement! Don’t wait!
Free, Able, Remote
For our Planet, for Us, We go FAR!
Other thoughts
Not all professions and jobs are equal.
The ability to gather and brainstorm when necessary can benefit a great number of projects, but occasional travel is different than everyday commute.
Humanity has a great number of randomness associated with it. Inherently the freedom of will humanity possesses created this variety. Not all personalities and jobs are suitable for remote work, but at the same time the inability of certain number of people to fulfill their duties cannot be affecting every corporate structure and everyone’s lifestyle – this shall not be freedom anymore, but rather forcing everyone in a certain channel of .. thoughts, deeds, life.
I believe in the good of humanity, but humanity needs to stand-up and demonstrate that we have not forgotten what freedom and common sense is, we cannot All abide by rules defined because of Some.
We need to stand up for the planet, the very nature which gives us life, and do something to save it, while saving our sanity too!
Corporations tout humility,,, aiming at green footprint. Chiefs, this is an ideal way to act upon your promised culture! Enable, nurture and support remote work and save the Earth!
This includes MS, AWS, GCP, in fact, the larger the corporation, the more environmental contribution their remote policy can bring.
The Covid shutdown brought to light unapologetic proof that certain professions can function, often exceeding expectations, while performing duties remotely. The same situation proved that internet links and corporate VPN aggregators can handle all corporations usage from wherever their employees reside.
Let’s add this – remote work brings multifaceted savings, and salaries can be lowered as long as taxes are reciprocally lowered as well, for remote workers. Like separate IRS table. Otherwise cost of living is the same for All.
Final note
In an age of AI it appears a bit strange that AI output is not providing focused analysis of all potential benefits that remote work brings to the planet, nature and humanity. AI is not wiling to generate such research, so it had to be made manually, here, now.