Under certain simple conditions, teleworking significantly reduces this impact.
Let's take the example of an employee who, before the COVID, drove 40 km to work and who now teleworks every day. On average, he will save 1776 kg of CO2,eq per year on his travel. Thus, telecommuting contributes in part to a reduction of CO2 emissions from employees.
But under what conditions is telecommuting the most optimal from an environmental point of view?
Here are 3 conditions:
1. Do not over-equip. During the first wave of COVID, we saw many electronic devices (PCs, printers, monitors) running out of stock. Before buying computer equipment for your home, ask yourself: do I really need this equipment? The manufacturing of equipment often accounts for more than half of the environmental impact of the equipment. Manufacturing a laptop computer involves using 850kg of raw materials, 22kg of chemicals, 240kg of fuel, 1'500 liters of water and emitting 200kg of CO2.
2. During videoconferences, let's limit the use of the camera. By only using audio, we will save 61% of digital data. More concretely, 1 minute of videoconference with only audio is equivalent to 0.155g of CO2,eq (or 1.38m in a light car) while 1 minute with audio + camera is 0.403g CO2,eq (or 3.6m in a light car).
3. When sending documents by email, let's prefer temporary deposit sites such as SwissTransfer. This will avoid keeping heavy documents in our email box that we will not use again.
And you, do you regularly telework? Do you apply these 3 simple digital best practices on a daily basis?
Curious to estimate your digital CO2 footprint? It's possible thanks to our digital calculator (https://canope.net/outils/).
If you are interested in responsible digital business, or if you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact us!
A more responsible digital is possible (and it's simple!).
Sources : ADEME et Greenspector
