Working From Home Makes More Sense Than Ever
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 10.21.08
Home office of Mr. Universe in Serenity
In these difficult times a lot of people are working from home, whether they want to or not. A lot of others would like to, but employers have not been crazy about it, even though it can cut overhead as well as your company's carbon footprint. As Megan suggests at Planet Green, "Let your boss know that green telecommuting is a growing trend, that eco-smart bosses and workers everywhere are giving this carbon-footprint-shrinking solution a go, and that you'd like to hop on the emission-reduction wagon." (read more in How to Convince Your Boss You Can (and Should) Work From Home). And if you suddenly don' t have a boss to convince, check out How to Go Green: Job Searches and think about your new home office.
We offer herein our suggestions for keeping your office healthy, furnishing it, some tips and tricks and a tour of TreeHugger home offices around the world.
Reasons to work from home: It's better for the atmosphere.
"Despite slow growth in jobs and travel, traffic congestion continues to worsen, researchers say, costing Americans $63.1 billion a year. The 2005 Urban Mobility Report measures traffic congestion trends from 1982 to 2003, reflecting the most recent data available. If today’s higher fuel prices are factored in, the cost jumps another $1.7 billion." It's even worse than that because the UMS report doesn't seem to count the many health costs associated with stress, air pollution, etc. More at Telecommuting: Why don't you stay home?
It saves a lot of carbon and a lot of money.
Image credit "working from home" by Rob Alinder
SUN Microsystems, a computer and software company known for its flexible work policies (19,000, or 56% of its employees around the world, have access to "flexible offices"), has done a study on telecommuting. What it found is very interesting from an environmental perspective. One of the main questions they asked was: "Does Open Work really save energy, or just transfer energy cost and load to employees?" Answer at: Is Telecommuting Really Greener?
You may not have a choice.
So many people are looking for jobs these days, (and should be reading our ideas for getting recession ready) but others, like Seth Godin, note that "Inc. magazine reports that a huge percentage of companies in this year's Inc. 500 were founded within months of 9/11. Talk about uncertain times.
But uncertain times, frozen liquidity, political change and poor astrological forecasts (not to mention chicken entrails) all lead to less competition, more available talent and a do-or-die attitude that causes real change to happen.
If I wasn't already running my own business, today is the day I'd start one."
So let's look at what you need to make your home office green, healthy and productive.
1) Start with a space that has light and fresh air.
Maybe you don't have the land or the climate (or the money) to do a garden office like the Kithaus or some of the others in our Modern shed roundup, but Sami noted in Planet Green: From schools to offices, natural light has been proven to increase productivity and well-being, so make sure your work spot receives plenty of sunlight. And fresh air can make a huge difference in performance-whether doing your taxes or the daily grind-so open some windows or take a quick walk from time to time. More at Detox Your Home: In the Office, Part 1
Keep Toxic Chemicals out of your office.
Avoid Formaldehyde. So much of the really cheap furniture is made from particleboard that outgases a lot of formaldehyde when it is new; Don't buy it. More at Big Steps In Building: Ban Formaldehyde.
Buy EPEAT certified electronics. They are rated for materials selection, environmentally sensitive materials, design for end of life, end-of-life management, energy conservation, product longevity and life-cycle extension, packaging, and corporate performance.Like LEED for Computers: EPEAT, The Green Computing Standard
Get a plant. The living wall might be a bit much, but Sami says: No doubt house plants can brighten up a home office, but it turns out they can also clean up the air by sucking up things like formaldehyde, benzene, and carbon monoxide by storing them in their roots or breaking them down into less harmful gases. Researchers have even identified the specific plants that can most effectively mop up indoor pollutants. Areca palm and peace lily top the list. Detox Your Home: In the Office
Consider an Air Filter. This one, the Airpod, "uses approximately 60% less material to manufacture, 50% less packaging and 85% less energy than other air purifiers with comparable performance. It also runs on less than five watts of power where other units require 40 watts. No chemicals are used on the filter or elsewhere and no ozone by-products are released from the unit. In addition, all components and the packaging are 100% recyclable." AirPod: A Personal Air Purifier from Blueair
Use Green Cleaning supplies Like Clorox Greenworks or Seventh Generation that don't have toxic volatile organic compounds in them. I used to get headaches every time I cleaned my desk with VIM, but when we switched to Ecover it never happened again. See also Detox Your Home: In the Office, Part 2
Look for Green Office Supplies. It is all about air quality and keeping VOCs out of your workspace. " You're ready to work, and work green, but you're missing toner for your printer, a calculator and batteries to power it, and sticky notes. Thankfully, there's The Green Office, an online retailer of recycled, environmentally friendly, and sustainable business products, school supplies, and paper." The Green Office: Sustainable Everything for Work
Even the big boxes have green. Office Depot has "upped their ante to the green business world with a series of documents, publications and lists designed to help themselves and their customers be a little greener. They've published a "Guide to Buying Green", a fairly comprehensive guide for incorporating more recycled material, more non-toxic ingredients, and more modular (e.g. replaceable parts, refillable pens) parts into your office supplies; a companion, of sorts, to their "Green Book" catalog of "environmentally-preferable products." There's also the "Top 20 Ways to Go Green at Work", a laundry list of better options for your office, from the products you buy to the electricity you use. Taken as a whole, it's not a bad "beginner's guide" to going green at work. Office Depot: Going Green at Work
Next: Office Furniture
Thirsty for more? Check out these related articles:
- Looking For Holiday Deals After the Holidays? Choose Companies that Offset Shipping
- 9 "Green" Gadgets of Questionable Repute
- 10 Green Tips to Recover from Holiday Clutter
- Less is More: Sheds For Living
I would say the most important thing when working from home is to actually put on ironed and clean work clothes. Then you will be less likely to lie down for frequent naps.
If you just wear a bathrobe all day, you will stay in weekend mode.
Absolutely. When you consider how many people leave a perfectly good computer at home to travel x miles to another computer to do their job it definitely makes sense to work from home.
One day a week working from home saves around 20% of the cost and carbon footprint of commuting...
Wednesday is a good day of the week to work from home - it doesn't blend into a weekend!
As someone who has been working from home 100% for the past 4+ years and who prior to that has worked in a typical office for 10+ years I have learned a few things. First you have to prove yourself to your bosses that you are responsible, not a goof off, go above and beyond and are very productive. You have to be able to justify what is in it for your boss/company, even well beyond the green effects and less office space, BS. Most very large companies that I have experience in don't really care that much that you are saving gas, don't take up office space, etc... Bottom line can you be trusted to work without supervision and be productive.
If you manage to convince your boss to let you work from Home here are a few things to keep in mind to keep you from losing your mind.
1)setup an office space of some sort that is away from everything and everyone in your home. You have to be able to set boundaries between office time and personal time.
2)get dressed, eat breakfast just as if you are leaving for the day. This helps get you on a routine and keeps you from goofing off and taking naps when you should be working.
3)Keep in touch with your office. Since I am one of the few people that was allowed to work full time from home everyone else is still in the office and "out of site, out of mind" is very easy for those people left behind. Don't let them forget about you. Make sure they know you are engaged in projects, issues. Attend all conference calls, ask that they setup a conference call if the meeting was originally just for those in the office so you can attend.
4) along those same lines talk to your boss more frequently than you normally did and ask about his perception of your performance and if he/she has any concerns. Don't wait until review time.
5)Take lunch. leave your office/home for lunch. Try not to eat and work at the same time. You really need to make working from home resemble as close to working from the office as possible so that work and personal life doesn't become indistinguishable.
Hello.
I'm the photographer of the 3rd image used in this article. The black and white photo of (myself) typing at a laptop keyboard.
I'm excited to see my image used on such a widely read website, but per the creative commons usage license, please include a photo credit.
The image is titled "Working from Home" and the credit should be to "Rob Alinder."
The image is officially hosted here: http://flickr.com/photos/veo/472753942/
Thank you.
found this comment from the AirPod post. might not do the job unless you have an extremely small room:
Consumer Reports gave the AirPod the LOWEST rating of all the air purifiers it tested in December 2007.
http://blogs.consumerreports.org/home/2007/10/airpod-purifier.html
Working from home can be great but you have to be disciplined. It's easy to get distracted when there's no one looking over your shoulder. Also, when you set your own hours, be prepared to compress more work into less time.
Fantastic article! There seems to be a lot of "telecommuting" press coverage out there right now, from both the green and money saving prespective, but most just try to convince the reader that it is a good idea without giving any real tips on how to do it. As a work-at-home contractor, I really appreciated all of the resources provided and I highly recommend taking advantage of all of the great web 2.0 apps out there. I use Yugma for online meetings, this cuts down on driving to meet with clients, and GIMP and Google apps for projects.
I'd only like to add one thing, when you switch to 100% work from home you will be tempted to feel guilty about your new found freedom... and the increased productivity which will allow you to spend a few less hours at the desk.
Also survivor guilt may kick in too. All your old friends are still making their aweful commute,and still slogging away and playing politics at the office.
Fight with all your might to resist this guilt urge. Yes, you are happier, and yes you are more productive... there's nothing wrong with that :-)
If 50 people are working in an office sharing lighting, heating and cooling and other office resources, there is a certain economy of scale. If everyone is sitting at home with their lights, computer, fax, printer, air conditioning or furnace, etc, I am willing to bet this is less efficient and causing more pollution than working in an office. In a perfect world, people would green their commutes, their offices and homes and then the impact of any working mode would be reduced.
Have you tried open office for a word processor? 3.0 now has native Mac support.
LA: Maybe 3.0 will work, the earlier version ran on som X11 thing and crashed half the time, I did not like it at all. I went out and paid for iWork (not expensive compared to Microsoft office) and am very happy with it so have not bothered trying Open office again.
Regarding Clorox Greenworks - how environmentally friendly are they when one of the ingredients is ethanol? I've yet to see anyone address this issue, and I'm curious about where the ethanol comes from and whether it's a sound alternative to other chemicals. Thanks for the informative article!
Re: Greenworks & Rose - I agree. Clorox Greenworks is nothing if not greenwashing, and it is sad that it keeps getting promoted over true green products. I have turned down countless ads from them on my site; they are not a green product compared to what is available out there. Less toxic than bleach? Sure thing - but so is most everything.
i wish i could work from home
I love this post. We run our co. from two homes and love that we do. There are a ton of great ideas and the visual value of the story is wonderful. @Theodore - take a look at Tim Ferriss book - the 4 Hour Workweek. It has many guidelines about the transition from job to home (assuming you can and want to) and how to TEST and EXPERIMENT until you find the style of working at home that suits you. It is a VERY STRONG RECOMMEND to read that book if you want to work from home. Wonderful job on the story. Best, Jason
This is a great blog.
Trust is one of the key barriers we have to jump over before working from home hits main street. One of my colleagues is tackling this issue at Monash University - you can contribute to the research - see the link at a recent blog I posted: http://www.nowwearetalking.com.au/blogs/green-files/a-matter-of-trust
Turlough
Alright, one thing was missing... What about the display?
I am in the market for a large, widescreen, easy on the eyes, and long-lifed monitor. My eyes are going downhill fast due to the crappy laptop that my company gave me.
Anyone have any good ideas on what to go for? I know that I will be needing high brightness and contrast, a NON-GLOSS screen, and if all else is equal, a decent response time. I of course would like a display that has low power consumption.
I've done a few "test runs" of working from home ahead of a move to do so full-time. Trouble is my partner works from home too, and my teen son is home-schooling/self-schooling - which means that when I'm at home I'm seen as "oh, she's here so let's ask her to clean / cook / make coffee / drop everything to do our stuff". As much as I try to set a schedule for myself, my to-do list gets hijacked without fail.
Then there's the fact that I'm not used to having to do business with other ears and eyes listening/watching in on calls, screen work etc. I tend to wait until I have time and space alone - which rarely happens, so business suffers.
I've realized I'm going to have to invest in a work-from-home office space separate from the house where I can go and WORK without interruptions or having to chuck it all in every 5 minutes.
Working from home takes a lot of discipline as you have to treat it like a regular job, set your alarm, eat breakfast,rush out the door, then come back inside and get to work.
I was very impressed about opportunity to work from home and registered to website work-home.org now i have lots of offers to work from home... I am very happy about being boss of myself ;) Did you hear something about that? Maybe you know something too?
Working from home is better in any case.
The only disadvantage is probably that it's not really socializing....
people serious about working at home at 2 monitors. not much of that here.....
I was very impressed about opportunity to work from home and I register to website www.work-home.org now i have lots of offers to work from home.. I am very thankful my friend who told me about this website. I quit my job and I am working from home only. I am very happy being of my family together all the time ;) Did you hear something about that? Maybe You know something about that too?
Telecommuting, e-commuting, e-work, telework, working at home (WAH), or working from home (WFH) is a work arrangement in which employees enjoy flexibility in working location and hours. In other words, the daily commute to a central place of work is replaced by telecommunication links. Many work from home, while others, occasionally also referred to as nomad workers or web commuters utilize mobile telecommunications technology to work from coffee shops or myriad other locations.