Work from home - save the planet

May 17 2007 By Graeme Whitfield, The Journal

Companies which allow employees to work from home will be doing their bit to ease traffic congestion and reduce climate change, campaigners said yesterday.

National Work Wise week started yesterday with a call for as many people as possible to work from home tomorrow to show how productive they can be.

Work Wise campaigners say the widespread introduction of smarter working practices will significantly reduce the need for travel to work and on business, making a huge impact to the levels of carbon dioxide emissions from cars and other means of transport.

Earlier this year, the Stern report predicted environmental apocalypse and huge damage to the British economy if action wasn't taken to reduce climate change. And this week a report said that the 1.3m tonnes of carbon dioxide produced by call centre staff each year could be cut by allowing them to work from home.

Enabling more home working and more flexible working would also reduce peak time congestion, Work Wise said.

Simon Roberson, regional chairman of Work Wise North-East, said: "This will probably be one of the least costly and most effective steps that companies could take to make their contribution to reducing emissions.

"Adopting smarter working practices is a win-win situation: not only will it help reduce emissions, it will also provide staff with a better work-life balance and make them more productive."

The North-East is the first region in the country to take up the Work Wise campaign, encouraging flexible working, staggered journeys and home working to alleviate the need for commuters to travel to and from home. Benefits include a fall in peak time congestion and overcrowding, the campaigners say.

Organisations and employees across the UK, both public and private, are being invited to take part in the National Work from Home Day which takes place on Friday, as part of Work Wise week activities.

Phil Flaxton, chief executive of Work Wise UK, said: "The need to work from nine to five, five days a week, is an anachronism in this modern 24/7 global world: there is no need for it.

"The realisation of the damage our working patterns are causing the environment, further underlines the need for us to have a workplace revolution so that we can minimise the impact of human activity on the environment"

Work Wise Week is being staged by Work Wise UK, a major five-year initiative, to encourage the widespread adoption of new smarter working practices, such as home working, across the UK.

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Maximising time with sons

When little Harrison Butler was born, what his dad Denis and mum Lesley wanted more than anything was to be there when he spoke his first words and took his first steps.

For the couple from Stockton, Teesside, it was important not to let their son grow up without having an influence over his development and without being there for the most important moments of their child's life.

And when Harrison's baby brother Max came along two years later it became doubly important to maximise the time they had as a family.

The pressures of a mortgage and the usual living costs meant they had a balancing act to contend with, so they decided to split the working week with Mr Butler working in the middle of the week and his wife taking Monday and Friday to return to her teaching job.

Mr Butler, a training adviser at the North East Chamber of Commerce training centre in Middlesbrough, said: "We didn't want to be one of those families where we don't see the children. We wanted to have an input in their upbringing. The first three or four years are really important. Sometimes you hear stories of parents having regrets that they missed their child's first words or first steps.

"We wanted to be there for these important developments. From Harrison's birth, there has always been one of us there."

Mr Butler's employers have installed technology to allow him to work from home if necessary, and said the sacrifice of lost earnings has been well worthwhile. He said: "It is something that you cannot recapture. It is hard to explain." He said: "It is so magical and it is wonderful to be part of it."