Remote working into a greener world

With remote working slowly but steadily making its way into the hearts of the practices of businesses and companies all over the United States, much has been discussed how will remote work and cloud computing in general affect energy consumption and how will it change our relationship with the environment.

There are many arguments that defend the adoption of remote work and among them those that state that remote work will have a big impact on the reduction of the carbon footprint, mainly because of the prominent reduction of commuting and business travelling.

In 2008, the American Electronics Association has estimated that 1.35 billion gallons of gas would be annually saved if every employee, with the option of doing so, would work remotely 1.6 days per week. This would translate into less 26 billion pounds of carbon dioxide being released every year into the atmosphere.

Still there are those who claim, Greenpeace among them, that though it is true that remote work will reduce carbon footprint associated with travelling, it will exponentially grow the energy consumption of data centers, with computers becoming one of the main sources of global ICT emissions by 2020.

However, a report by the Carbon Disclosure Project has shown that companies that adopt cloud computing will reduce their energy consumption. The report says that these companies can save annually $12.3 billion in energy, which is equivalent to an annual carbon dioxide reduction of 200 million oil barrels.

But remote work contributes in other ways to a greener and cleaner environment which are not so immediately perceived by the people, like how electronic documents are substituting paper which is one of the main causes of deforestation, which in itself has a big impact in global warming. Or how virtual offices do not require physical space and furniture and extra equipment. 

In the end remote working will have a deep impact by driving companies and businesses into greener and cleaner practices, and the soon this adoption takes place the better. Among the best remote working solutions available today in the market are RHUB’s 6-in-1 web conferencing and remote support appliances, which are not only between the safest but also among the greenest.

Working from home becomes a reality

Past are the years when remote working was seen as an eccentricity, a trend that would soon fade because nothing can replace the workplace offices which are the heart and the brain of any enterprise, small or large. The years have proved the doomsayers wrong and now, more than ever, remote working (or teleworking) is flourishing, as it shows Microsoft’s Work Without Walls report.

“Telework is no longer a company perk for employees but a business imperative,” stated Ron Markezich, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s U.S. Enterprise and Partner Group.

“Ten years ago, it was seen more as an employee benefit. Today, businesses around the world are seeing telework as a necessity,” he added.

The report shows that 57% of the information workers surveyed in the U.S. have stated that their company has a formal policy which allows them to work remotely. Sector wise, financial services lead with 64%, followed by manufacturing with 58% and professional services with 55%. Area wise the percentage is bigger in Dallas and Seattle with 64%, opposed to the 50% recorded in Los Angeles and Detroit.

Still, information workers said they’re only working remotely half the time they would prefer. On average, an information is working remotely around four days a month though they would like to work remotely nine days. City wise, Atlanta is leading with employees in the area working remotely, on average, 4.7 days a month, followed by Phoenix with 4.5 days. On the other end of the spectrum is Detroit with only 2.6 days.

According to Ron Markezich, the disparity between how much remote work employees would like to do and the remote work they’re actually allowed to have is still a cultural issue, as employers are still bound to the workplace model.

“So much of business was built around the workplace,” he stated. “But over the past few years technology has made it so people can be more productive spending part of their time working remotely.”

However, the workplace model is slowly being replaced by remote working as its benefits are being realized by businesses all over the country. Remote work improves productivity and lowers costs, it allows employers to access a larger talent pool, increasing diversity. Employees have an easier time balancing their work-life balance and allows them to avoid commuting.

When asked what are the main problems with remote working with other employees, the respondents stated the inability of speaking face-to-face and the lack of a quick response, problems that are easily solved with a remote conferencing solution.

The ideal solution then seems to be one that allows remote work and web conferencing at the same time. Remote working technology developers and vendors should focus on the all package in order to provide a full remote working experience, much like RHUB’s appliances.

RHUB’s appliances allow for remote work to be done while at the same time supports video, web and audio conferencing, allowing remote workers to be in contact at all times, as if they were in the same workroom.

More SMBs are adopting mobile work and employees are working longer hours

According to a new research from Timlico, 93% of the directors of small and medium businesses (SMBs) believe that remote and mobile working is becoming more important in the workplace.

The research also discovered that over 66% of small businesses employees have the possibility of working remotely while at medium size companies this number grows to 75%.

But how are mobile workers affected by their mobility?

Another research recently stated that mobile workers are working longer hours. According to the iPass workforce survey on mobile working, workers are using remote connection solutions to work during non-work hours. 38.3% stated they are using the solutions to work during the morning, before office hours, while 36.6% said they use them to work during the lunch hour. 24.7% stated they use mobile work solutions to work when traveling to and from work, 26.6% that they work after dinner and 18.8% that they work late at night. Only 43.1% of the respondents said they never work during the night.

Still, mobile workers seem to be happy workers. The survey shows that mobile workers feel empowered by their mobility and that they are willing to trade off their free time if that means that they have more flexibility about being or not at the office.     

When asked what would make mobile workers disconnect from technology, 48% answered they would do it to spend time with their family and their children, 46% answered “while on a public performance”, 39% said “air travel” and 35% said “while having dinner at home”.

Problems with the adoption of mobile working

Still, the adoption of remote work has problems that SMBs need to deal with, like the losing and stealing of devices (76%) and lack of security of stored data (61%).

Solutions like RHUB’s 6-in-1 appliance can help SMBs dealing with the problems associated with remote connection and remote access. RHUB’s appliance is very easy to implement, requires no IT maintenance and offers complete security against illicit accesses.