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Dec
Quick post on a post I read just now on Treehugger [READ]. The thing that caught my eye was up in the upper right-hand corner where “dark green” (implying good environmental sense) meets “cutting edge” is “working from home”. It made me laugh because I’ve been doing it for five years. Like many “cutting edge, green” solutions the real incentive for working from home isn’t to help the environment – it’s a financial incentive.
Working from home generates valuable tax credits (if you’re self employed) and save on gasoline, wear and tear on your vehicle, emissions from public transit and parking. There are negatives though – as most people who work from home will tell you, you’re going to be in the fridge three times as often as you normally are (wasting energy) and you’re going to have the heat on when, if no one was home, you’d have it off.
It’s always a balance and I’m not denying that working from home is better for the environment than commuting to an office. My point is that incentives (and disincentives) is what drives people to go green – not the warm, fuzzy feeling they get from doing good. Not all of use have Al Gore’s money and apparently emission-free jet.
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Aaron, even if one isn’t self employed they can write expenses for those items they must provide (computer, phone, desk, office, internet) for their job. CRA just requires that the employer write a letter to the employee indicating that the employee must provide these tools from home as a condition of their employment.
Going green wasn’t a consideration for me when I started my Virtual Assistant business and I’m not sure it is all that green. While I don’t have the furnace turned up really high during the day, I do have the air conditioner running in the summer. For my partner and me, commuting was probably greener. The lights, computers, etc. were not on when we were not home and we drove together and took the train. His car is still parked at the station waiting for him to come home and the second car is on the road more than it was when I commuted. The train is still running even though I’m not on it. I started my home-based business because I wanted the flexibility to do the kind of work I liked doing and I love the variety having a diverse roster of clients provides.
Mark,
Excellent point. I’ve heard rumours that some employers have been letting people work from home on occasion but I don’t know anyone whose boss is actually doing this. I think it looks good on paper but few managers trust their employees enough to let them out of their sight that long.
Julia,
Where do you live? If you’re somewhere that has clean power (e.g. hydro electricity) like me, staying home is still greener if you have electric heat. It’s an interesting balance.
My overall point is that I think the case for telecommuting being green is probably highly overstated.
Thanks so much to both of you for taking the time to comment.
- Aaron
Hi Aaron,
I’m in the Greater Toronto Area, Oakville to be exact. We heat our house with natural gas. It would be interesting to know if studies have been done re the effects of working from home on the environment. My dog, however, thinks my working from home is good for his environment – he likes having one of his people home during the day :)
Hi Mark,
My husband used to take advantage of the home office tax write-off when he worked for his previous employer. He does quite a bit of work at home for his current employer (he is in IT). I should remind him to have his manager sign the form. Here is a link for the home office expense form from the CRA: http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/ndvdls/tpcs/ncm-tx/rtrn/cmpltng/ddctns/lns206-236/229/slry/wrkspc-eng.html