Yesterday was Earth Day 2014. This was a good day for each of us to spend a few minutes taking stock of the role we play in protecting the earth and its resources. Or, in some cases, recognizing that we are not paying enough attention to being good stewards of our precious planet. There is always room for improvement, but we have some good news for our Workspace-as-a-Service colleagues.
On Earth Day we learned that each gallon of gas produces about 14 pounds of carbon dioxide. Over a year, an average American car drives 12,000 miles and produces 3.4 tons of carbon dioxide.
Our industry is in a very special position to be a conduit for people to make a difference in their annual mileage. The more touchdown workspaces offered close to people’s homes, the more our industry contributes to that reduction in carbon dioxide emission. This gives real workable options for reducing commute miles.
If an average on-demand workspace center helps just 35 workers eliminate commute time one or two days a week, and in the process help reduce their annual miles by say just 10%, 11 tons of carbon dioxide is saved annually from being released into the atmosphere. We believe that the vast majority of on-demand workspace providers help more than 35 virtual office clients or coworkers cut their commute by at least that much.
With 11,000 providers worldwide, that’s 121,000 tons of CO2 emission saved every year industry-wide, and growing!
That is participating in real change!
There is a body of research that shows that mobile workers work more hours than their average commuting counterpart and that the majority of workers believe they can be as productive or more without going to the office at least 2 day a week. This realization, combined with increased sustainability awareness by corporations and their desire to reduce their real estate footprint for cost cutting reasons, is driving more and more teleworkers to use on-demand workspace providers close to home.
So let’s grow the numbers of teleworkers and mobile workers we host in our centers and see how much more carbon dioxide emission we can save come Earth Day next year!
