Telecommuting, the ultimate green job?
Telecommuting can make any job greener, but it also may become one of the hottest green job trends.
Mon, Aug 03 2009 at 10:44 AM EST
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Photo: mccun934/Flickr Green jobs. You hear all about them lately, but what are they, exactly? This is where the problem lies; there is no concrete definition of a green job and if you ask five different people to define it, you’ll likely get five different answers. Just look at Jonathan Kesselman’s “On the Streets – Green Jobs” episode as evidence. Defining green jobs is difficult.
With the surge of renewable energy jobs in the nation, people often associate green jobs with wind turbine manufacturing or solar panel installation. Naturally, these industries are considered green, but other trends are emerging. One growing job trend that is beginning to make its mark on the green jobs movement is telecommuting.
Although today’s technology allows for employees to easily telecommute, a surprisingly small number of people actually do so. I think that corporate culture is to blame, at least in part, for the relatively low percentage of people who telecommute.According to a Washington Post article, only 7.7 percent of 1.8 million federal employees telecommute. However, not all positions lend themselves to telecommuting. Of those positions in which an employee could, realistically, work from home, only 18.6 percent of employees telecommuted.
Although those figures seem low, telecommuting rates vary from state to state and across industries. A good site for researching telecommuting rates in your area is Undress 4 Success. According to the site, only 4.88 percent of the residents in the Phoenix metropolitan area telecommute. However, these remote workers account for a 155,456 metric ton reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Telecommuting may just be the ultimate green job, especially if the telecommuter works for a green company.
Now that I’ve piqued your interest in telecommuting, I thought I’d give you some guidance on finding a telecommuting job. One company, FlexJobs, is dedicated to telecommuting, freelance and online job opportunities. The staff at FlexJobs practices what they preach -- they all work from home.
“The idea for FlexJobs came about in 2006 by Sara Sutton Fell, an experienced entrepreneur who at the time was pregnant with her first child. She had started looking at flexible work arrangements for herself, and discovered how challenging it was to find something (a) legitimate and (b) in line with her career.” Source: FlexJobs
She touched on one of the biggest obstacles to finding a work-from-home opportunity: legitimacy. There are so many scams out there, and it is hard to filter through them. FlexJobs does the background research for you. The staff researches all of the jobs before they are listed on the site.
FlexJobs has a section of their website dedicated to eco-focused telecommuting opportunities. Jobs currently listed on the environmental section of FlexJobs include energy auditor account representative, wildlife blogger and eco-focused cartoon graphic artist.
As Americans navigate their way through the nation’s economic woes, many are looking for ways to save a little green. Telecommuting is one way to save a little green and become a little greener. I’ve heard the phrase “greener is the new green” used quite a bit lately. Telecommuting is just one way a person can become a bit greener.
Photo: Arbron
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Comments
Jehnavi
09/28/2010 04:10 AM
This growth of this kind of industry is one that is necessary for four reasons: one; http://www.globalwarming360.net/working-towards-a-greener-future-literal... it is one that is capable of bouncing back even the worst of economies, bearing the brunt of recession; two, it provides the.... More
Max
09/21/2010 14:58 PM
I think telecommuting is one of the greenest things a company could offer. It's crazy when you think about how much pollution an average person with a 45-minute commute each way creates. I think companies should be offered some sort of incentive for allowing their employees to telecommute. It doesn't take any LEED training to come to that conclusion.
abel
08/30/2010 00:38 AM
Telecommuting- Working from home has many advantages. It conserves energy. One of the largest sources of pollution is the automobile. Telecommuting reduces the need to go for the office from your home, so there is less pollution. Reduces the frustration in traffic jams. Working from home gives an opportunity to share their time with family. Time spent journey from home to office and office to home can be save.
.... More
Garen
11/12/2009 02:58 AM
I believe telecommuting will increase drastically over the next decade. With the tough economic times people seeking are work from every possible angle, and telecommuting is a really good attraction to many different people. Working from home does really have it benefits, not only is a way of "going green" obviously by not driving to work each day you are saving the environment.
I have heard of Flexjobs, but have you heard of Freelancers Oasis? They simply provide jobs where you.... More
telecommuting jobs
09/18/2009 14:29 PM
The surge of renewable energy jobs in the nation, people often associate green jobs with wind turbine manufacturing or solar panel installation. Naturally, these industries are considered green, but other trends are emerging. One growing job trend that is beginning to make its mark on the green jobs movement is telecommuting.
Joyce Fredo, Flexible Resources
08/07/2009 10:38 AM
We agree that telecommuting is the greenest way to work, keeping cars off the road, reducing cost and gas consumption, and also allowing people as much as 3 more hours a day to work. It also allows small businesses to grow without having to incur added overhead by needed bigger office space. One obstacle we often see is managers who worry about managing a staff that is not always in the office. Clearly, the best employees remain productive and focused at home. In fact, most find it less.... More
mhincha
08/05/2009 14:24 PM
It has been great to read all of these comments. I first telecommuted in the late 1990s - it was just a few times a month but it was a nice break. I also felt refreshed when I returned to the office.
Now I'm a 100% work-from-home type and it works very well for me but I do see how it may not be the ideal working situation for everyone.
erin.p.fielding
08/05/2009 12:50 PM
I tend to agree with you, Patti - I laud the efforts, but I've worked from home before and I was miserable and tended to be unmotivated (of course, I hated my job at the time, too...haha). I just don't think many companies have the technology available to really allow employees to telecommute.
Patti Ghezzi
08/05/2009 12:07 PM
I am glad I work from home. It helps me lead a greener lifestyle and keep my home life on track, not to mention more time with my child and dogs. But stories and accompanying photos often romanticize working from home. It can be isolating and lonely. I miss working in an office with fantastic people. I laughed a lot back then. By the time my husband gets home, I'm wagging my tail, desperate for someone to talk to and laugh with. We are already a culture that encourages isolated lifestyles..... More
Anonymous
Today 23:18 PM
I once read that our minds process over a terabyte of visual and auditory data every second. Telephone conversations fit nicely in 64k/s. Video conferencing is better, but most systems max out at ~512k/s.
I think that the resistance to telecommuting is less about corporate control culture than about communicating good working relationships at a distance. Once we figure out that problem, telecommuting will explode.
The iPhone generation gets it. The rest of us need to catch.... More
Anonymous
Today 14:41 PM
Every job I have held, could have been done from home. Unfortanately "working from home" can only be done by "trusted employees" and is only for the corporate folks at the top the pyrmaid schemes
Alison Kerr
Today 10:08 AM
My husband has worked from home for most of the last 10 years. Aside from benefits already mentioned are:
- we get to tolerate the house at temperatures which mean less A/C and heating
- my whole family eats healthy meals prepared from scratch
When my husband commuted he worked in an office where the temperature was kept the same all year. When he got home at night he couldn't tolerate the kind of temperatures I wanted the winter thermostat set at after being in a warm office.... More
Grey Garvin
Today 09:02 AM
Over the past 12 years, I've worked 3 years in an office & the rest out of my home. And I have a (very successful) brother who has worked out of a home office for 23 straight years! Benefits:
1. yes, less cars on the roads
2. but also more people in the neighborhood...I informally keep an eye on stuff around my street
3. great for my kids
4. great for other people's kids (as you would imagine, I'm the back-up "safe house" if a parent can't make it home right on.... More
Anonymous
Today 00:29 AM
I've worked from home for several years and it is awesome. You get back your commute time which in my case was a few hours a day. My car stopped accumulating miles. I have a 2002 that has only 54k miles on it. Sure you could use public transportation but that just makes it take even longer to get to work and back. I am being 'green' with my own time and that is where it really counts. You can tell your boss its to save the environment, but the real reason is obvious.
Anonymous
Today 00:09 AM
John Davis neglects the FACT that the office can be half its usual size if half the workers telecommute. My employer does not have an office space for me, I could not work at work because I would have no desk and nowhere to plug in my computer. Most businesses rent space and they can just rent less. The worker's computer is on no matter where they work, that is moot. And YES, I do work during the time I would otherwise be commuting. It's called making a good impression on the job, and a.... More
Byron
08/03/2009 23:22 PM
As someone who telelcommutes, I don't think you can say that telecommuters use significantly more energy at home that those that are away. You are not going to turn your heat or AC completely off when you are not home. the savings really come from the main office being smaller in the long run as well as the gas savings. Then throw in that I don't waste an hour or more each day driving = better quality of life.
Sarah
08/03/2009 22:49 PM
Sure you save energy in the commute, but what about the energy it takes to heat or air condition dozens of individual homes versus one office? Commuting to work using public transportation is much greener than telecommuting.
Angel
01/03/2010 17:38 PM
Most people don't turn off their heaters or air conditioning when they leave for work so I would say it is defiantly beneficial to not have to power and additional location for someone to go work at when they can work at home.
Anonymous
08/03/2009 21:56 PM
Show me a study that includes the increased cost of energy the telecommuter uses (Lights/Heating/Cooling/Television/Etc). Everyone cites the savings of the commute (car emissions, time spent in traffic). I'd love to see an employee that works an additional X amount of time that they would be in traffic.You work 8 to 5. If you drive an hour each way, you are not about to work 7 to 6. There's increased cost of heating and cooling the house. An Office building is still heated and cooled regardless.... More
Lori
08/12/2009 10:56 AM
Check out this article: "Telecommuting Saves Carbon Emissions" http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/138062/telecommuting_saves...
Anonymous
08/03/2009 19:20 PM
The Wa Post article you cite stating "...only 7.7 percent of 1.8 million federal employees telecommute" detracts a tad from your credibility since that article was published in 2005. Otherwise, useful post.
Liz
08/03/2009 18:00 PM
Reston, VA employer TANDBERG is supporting Statewide Telework Day by encouraging its employees to use video conferencing to work from home today. With half of our staff (75) teleworking, we are eliminating almost two metric tons of carbon emissions and saving almost 100 hours of productivity by not sitting in traffic. Read more about it here: http://bit.ly/lZ8z4
