Thursday, October 18, 2007

Shedworking is green (and you don't have to leave home)

Builderau reports today on risk management company Climate Risk Australia's new report which estimates telecommunications networks can help reduce Australia's greenhouse gas emissions by up to five percent by 2015, and save Australian businesses and households as much as AU$6.6 billion annually. Here's what writer Marcus Browne says:
"The report identified seven areas in which the telecommunications industry could implement solutions to cut carbon emissions, ranging from the use of broadband to remotely manage power for appliances not in use or left on stand-by, to using teleworking and high-definition video conferencing to decrease reliance on commuting by car and air travel."
Meanwhile a piece at InterGovWorld by Rosie Lombardi shows how "new technologies will play a big role in developing the economy" in Saskkatchewan where young people have been leaving for the boom-towns of Alberta. The article contiunes:
"However, we've seen a shift in the past two years with folks returning as Alberta acquires more big-city problems," says Richard Murray, executive director of IT policy and planning at the Province of Saskatchewan. We have a number of advantages here: small-town life, inexpensive cost of living, beautiful environment," he says. With the rise of teleworking, it will soon become unnecessary for people to leave to get jobs or start businesses."


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3 comments:

  1. The "green-ness" of working from home depends on your environment, I think. When you figure that you computer, phone, lights et al all consume the same amount of power whether you're at an office or at home, there's an obvious benefit in the lack of commuting emissions produced by the home worker. That said tho, if you're in colder or warmer climes where you're running air conditioning or heating for just one person, that can easily cancel out the benefits...

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  2. Anonymous9:53 PM

    Yes, that's true, although a well built garden office with decent insulation shouldn't require anything too drastic. I think the social point is important too - increasing shedworking and homeworking will mean that communities don't need to be fragmented as much as they have been due to commuting or even emigration.

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  3. True enough - although that's only if you're lucky enough to be a shedworker, and not a bogstandard telecommuter working from a spare bedroom (like me, alas!).

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