Remote work helps the environment. Here's how.

For nearly 76 percent of Americans in 2019, this was a typical workweek: Wake up, get dressed, pile into a car alone, work, drive home, sleep ... and repeat five times.

But starting in March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic forced many employees who weren't essential workers to switch to internet-enabled remote work, that routine shattered. For many, it would never be the same again. 

While remote work grew gradually in the four decades leading up to the pandemic, it "surged" in 2020, according to a working paper from the U.S. Labor Department. In 2022, after vaccines reduced previously staggering death rates, the U.S. Census reported that the share of American workers driving alone to work was 68.7 percent. On the surface, that is just a 7 percent reduction in solo commuters — but it also represents millions of people no longer driving alone by car twice a day.

While the number of people who take public transit to their workplace or walk or bike there has also shrunk significantly since COVID, the shift to remote work and its related reduction in vehicular miles driven is a rare silver lining of the pandemic.

Fully remote workers can have a 54 percent lower carbon footprint than onsite workers, according to a 2023 study from Microsoft and Cornell University.

Researchers found that even hybrid workers, those splitting their time between home and office work, contribute to a significant drop in carbon emissions. That makes sense considering the average passenger vehicle emits about 400 grams of CO2 per mile, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Increased home use of computers, phones, and internet services has a negligible effect on carbon emissions, according to the study. Still, the benefits of remote work are not perfectly linear.

The Cornell researchers found that Americans’ personal car usage — such as driving to errands or social events — actually increases the more days they work remotely. Those who work a hybrid schedule often live farther from the office than those fully onsite — so the days they drive, they expend more carbon than those going into the office full-time.

Still, even with those caveats, the reduction in driving from remote work yields environmental benefits for all, regardless of whether they drive to an office every day or not.

Are bosses getting sick of Zoom?

When CEOs like JPMorgan Chase's Jamie Dimon and Tesla's Elon Musk advocate for a return to the office, environmental trade-offs are likely low on their list of considerations.

Dimon, who mandated his employees report to the office five days a week starting this month, hasn’t weighed in on remote work’s carbon effects but did express that in-office workers are good for business.

"I completely respect people that don't want to go to the office all five days a week," Dimon told CNBC last month. "But they should respect that the company is going to decide what's good for the clients, the company, etc., not an individual."

Musk told CNBC that remote work is "messed up" and questioned its morality, saying it was unfair that blue collar workers didn't have the same telework options as their white collar peers. As part of his position at DOGE, and apparently with President Trump’s backing, Musk demanded in February that nearly all federal workers return to their offices full-time.

"Starting this week, those who still fail to return to office will be placed on administrative leave," Musk wrote on X (a website he runs, along with Tesla and SpaceX, mostly remotely).

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How many people does Musk's mandate effect? A 2024 report from the White House Office of Management and Budget reports that 1.1 million federal workers were eligible for hybrid work, with 228,000 working fully remote (the report appears to be scrubbed from the White House's website, but was previously reported on by Reuters).

The environmental aspect of many of these people getting back into gas-powered cars every day does not appear to be a concern for the Trump administration (the move was probably motivated by a desire for some of these workers to quit). Since federal workers are not limited to the Washington, D.C. area, the environmental ramifications would be felt nationwide.

"Returning federal employees to full-time office work would significantly increase greenhouse gas emissions," Fengqi You, an engineering professor at Cornell University, recently told Euronews. 

Going back to the office? You can reduce your footprint

Even if the federal government and the nation's largest companies aren't interested in reducing emissions, anyone can take individual action. For anyone returning to the office, either by choice or compulsion, there are ways to limit the effect on the environment.

1. Take public transit or walk or bike to work. E-bikes are also a good option for those not ready to commit to pedaling to work every day.

2. There's also carpooling. Nearly 9 percent of American workers were sharing rides to work in 2019; by 2022, that number had rebounded to 8.6 percent after taking a hit during the pandemic.

3. If you do drive solo to work, commit to leaving your car in the work garage or lot during the day. Walk to lunch or errands if possible, which will provide exercise and, in some cases, a Vitamin D boost.

4. Bring snacks, lunch, and reusable utensils and mugs to work. One study found that many office workers believe they use more plastic (forks, spoons, tops of coffee cups) and packaging for their meals than those working and eating from home.

5. When leaving home, shut off all lights and energy sources, including heating and air conditioning units. There's an economic argument for this, not just an environmental one: As the U.S. Department of Energy points out, shutting off lights yields longterm savings and even offers a calculation to figure out how much you could save.