Four potential environmental benefits of working from home

"It's an ill wind that blows no good" was said during a TV interview with a small jigsaw manufacturer towards the start of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, and it stuck with me during what was a pretty tough following 18 months. I started keeping a list of all the things I was enjoying about the 'new normal', which was of course anything but normal, and looking back over it, a fair few things resulted in positive impacts on the environment.

Simply changing my office location from 3.4 miles away from home, to my dining room table had a knock on effect to several other aspects of the way I was living, and unwittingly I began to live a more environmentally sensitive life.

Travel and transport

In 2019 I flew to three international meetings, and probably drove to at least one a month, and in my organisation, that was pretty normal. In 2020 the number was 0 - that's less about WFH and more about the pandemic, of course, but I think it proved you don't have to be in the room to be productive. I absolutely missed the face-to-face meetings in some wonderful European cities, but the work still got done, and I suspect, at last half of those meetings, will never go back to face-to-face. That's a big carbon emissions saving. My old banger finally had to be recycled in September 2020 and since I was still WFH and we had another car, it was a no brainer to see if we could cope without it (as thousands of people do of course). Going down to one car has had it challenging moments, and we have had to plan a bit better, but it's worked so far, and my bike is finally out of the shed and spider free. It has made me very aware of the limitations of public transport though, some jobs are very difficult to get to/do without a car and that shouldn't be a barrier. Hopefully employers will now see a person doesn't need to be in the office every day to be effective.

Shopping local

I think one of the best things about WFH has been the ability to walk down to my local shops before, during, or after work. Something that was impossible before, even living pretty close to work. We have a wonderful traditional baker that only once a month or so we got to on a Saturday, they now see us about twice a week. We switched to a veg delivery box from a local company during the first lockdown, and I'm not taking credit here, but they just opened their first shop and it's glorious. I'm so inspired, I'm 100% looking for a wicker shopping basket when the car boot sales open back up! Shopping frequently, from local shops is exactly what my grandparents used to do, and I've thought for some time, it's something we really need to go back to, but working 9-5, or often 8-6, means the supermarkets were the only viable option.

Time in the garden

Having a garden this past year has been an absolute blessing, and even though I'm a keen gardener the chances of seeing me in it during the day or after work were slim. WFH gave me the opportunity to go out during breaks and to do a bit of maintenance while I was there. Without the usual half hour commute, I was also able to get in for an hour of so after work, before even thinking about starting dinner, and after a day sat at my desk I really needed the fresh air. The result was that the garden looked better than it ever has. More flowers = happy bees, topped up water = happy birds and I finally managed to stay on top of the veg watering to get a really good crop. Gardening is well documented to be good for our mental health and the environment, and that's win win for employers I would have thought.

Drying washing outside

Talking of gardens (I know how lucky I am to have one) getting a load of washing done and hung out during the week might be a joy only a middle-aged office workers can appreciate, but what a joy it is! Stick a load on while you're having breakfast, hang it out between zoom meetings (when you'd usually be walking from one to the other) and bring it in dry at the end of the day. I don't have a tumble dryer, but if I did I imagine I'd have been using it a lot less. In fact, and I'm not ashamed of this, we've probably used the washing machine less too, as not leaving the house to go to work has been pretty liberating when it comes to clothes. If my breakfast ends up on my jumper now, I just take it off for meetings and get a few more days wear out of it!

There's always a flip side of course, and there's no doubt during the winter the energy consumption in the house went up significantly, but it appears that in 2020 renewable energy sources outweighed fossil fuels for the first time. It was only by 1%, but it's going in the right direction, and I think if your energy is green, the environmental benefits of even a few days a week WFH are massive. These environmental and wellbeing benefits are compelling I think, and I'll certainly be fighting hard to retain this way of life.