If one in eight employees works from home one and a half days a week, that saves 3 billion kilometers of travel and 353,600 tons of CO2 emissions. That equates to the emissions of 150,000 passengers flying back and forth between Amsterdam and New York. This has emerged from research by CE Delft, commissioned by climate organization Natuur & Milieu.
The COVID-19 outbreak and subsequent lockdown measures have made people work much more from home. A poll by the Knowledge Institute for Mobility Policy shows that 12 percent of the working population wants to work from home more after the corona crisis and that they want to do this on average one to one and a half days a week. Natuur & Milieu calculated what this means for the emission reduction of harmful substances.
It showed that if those 12 percent of employees were to work from home one and a half days a week, that would save 3 billion car kilometers per year. This is based on the fact that approximately two-thirds of working in the Netherlands go to work by car. This therefore results in a saving of 353,600 tons of CO2 emissions. 632 tons of nitrogen and 11 tons of particulate matter emissions would also be saved. That equates to the emissions of 150,000 passengers flying back and forth between Amsterdam and New York.
It would also save 1.7 billion euros in social costs. This includes time savings: it saves 78 million hours of travel time per year. It also ensures increased labor productivity and avoids costs due to environmental pollution. Savings on infrastructure maintenance have been disregarded.