Are you interested in doing your part to save the planet? If so, then you might want to think about working from home. During the pandemic, the vast majority of people were working from home and the planet started to heal. Pictures from around the world revealed animals in places that they hadn’t been in decades and the ozone layer actually improved for the first time in years. There are lots of reasons why working from home helps the planet. Here are a few key points to be aware of.
Save On Fuel
First, you could think about working from home to save money on fuel. For many people, the worst part of going to the office each morning is the daily commute. While this is understandable, it’s important to recognise that it’s also a massive nightmare for the planet. The commute to and from work takes a big chunk out of the environment and releases massive levels of carbon into the atmosphere. Even if you have a great car or an electric vehicle, you could still be doing a considerable amount of damage to the plant with your long drives to and from the office.
Dramatic changes in mobility, production, and consumption patterns, temporarily reduced global CO2 emissions by 17% in April 2020.
Save Energy
You can also save energy by working from home. If people are working from the office, then it’s always going to result in a massive level of energy usage. Even a small office will require the lights to be on, the security systems to be working and the countless computer systems to be plugged in. That’s really just scratching the surface and there’s a lot of other energy drains in the typical office environment to be aware of as well. If you work from home, then you’ll still be using energy but it’ll be a lot less than the standard amount of a business property.
Choose Your Tech
If you work from home, then you’ll also have the freedom to choose what tech to use on a daily basis. This could include options such as a green friendly computer or the right mobile phone. Ultimately, you are always going to face far less restrictions than if you are part of a big business environment. There are countless reasons why you have to choose certain tech for an office space that may not be particularly green friendly. This includes security requirements and connectivity issues.
Homeworking leaped from around 5% pre-Covid to 47% during April 2020. Research from Spain’s Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals suggests this had a significant impact on air quality.
Increased Air Quality
Lowering GHG emissions results in air quality vastly improving, shockingly more people die from air pollution compared to malaria and HIV/AIDS, according to a report from The Guardian. Overall, if you work from home, you will be helping to improve air quality levels in your local area. By both reducing overall energy usage and reducing the amount of driving that you do each day, you’ll be lowering the level of carbon released into the atmosphere on a daily basis. Even one person working from home instead of in the office will make a huge difference.
Reduced Food Waste
Of course, working from home can also mean lower levels of food waste. The reason for this is simple. If you are working in an office environment, then managers may be required to provide snacks and other food including lunch items. Most of this won’t get eaten. Instead, it all ends up in the trash and this leads to more pollution. It also means that there is less food for those who need it the most. If you work from home, you are more likely to only have the food you need because you know your personal requirements.
If 3.9 million people worked from home at least half time, that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions in an amount equivalent to removing 600,000 cars for an entire year!
Improves Quality Of Life
While it won’t impact the environment directly, it’s worth pointing out that working from home will help improve your quality of life. This means that you’ll be happier and less likely to engage in activities that will hurt yourself and impact the environment like smoking. Various research studies have shown clear evidence that working from home is beneficial to individuals for a number of key reasons.
Reduce Usage Of Materials
Another key point to remember is that you will be able to significantly reduce the usage of certain materials that are more likely to damage the planet. This includes possibilities such as paper and plastic. Both can be greatly reduced if you are working from home. As an example, you won’t need to worry about issues with countless pages of paper being printed each day in the office environment. You’ll quite literally be saving the trees, simply by staying at home.
If you’re interested in learning more about the bigger picture, how the economy could be reassessed in a way that benefits people and the planet, you might enjoy reading Value(s) by one of the great economic thinkers of our time. Mark Carney examines how economic value and social values became blurred, how we went from living in a market economy to a market society, and how to rethink and rebuild before it’s too late.
Jobs You Can Do At Home
Now that you understand some of the key benefits of working from home from a sustainability perspective, it’s perhaps worth exploring some of the different blogs and work models that may be suitable for you. There are options available for every type of mindset and interest.
Blogger
First, you might want to think about working as a blogger. You could start a blog if you enjoy writing or if you have a unique voice and opinions that you want to share with the world. Blogs can be about anything and everything and the subject matter won’t determine whether or not your website is a success or not. In terms of how to make your blog successful, you need to create catchy blog titles that are going to grab the interest of your target audience. You also need to learn the basics of SEO. While SEO is often more confusing than most people realise, there are lots of online courses that you can take online.
Marketer
Next, you could think about becoming a marketer. While a marketer isn’t a role that you absolutely need to complete from the comfort of your home, you absolutely can do this. There’s nothing about marketing which means that you need an office space. Even if you are working with a larger team you’ll be able to communicate through video calls and other tech options including instant messaging. You can either market as a freelancer or apply for a role as part of a larger company. You could even do both at the same time if you can manage your workload effectively.
Online Tutor
If you are interested in education but you don’t want to work in a school, then you could also think about becoming a tutor. The big benefit of working as a tutor is that you will be able to set your own hours. You can tutor children in person or you can decide to tutor purely online, again using the tech available at your fingertips. The main point will be making sure that you put together the right learning tools and materials that are going to help children understand everything that they need to know. Don’t forget that you can also teach different ages which will make this role more or less of a challenge.
Ecommerce Seller
You could also consider setting up a business as an ecommerce seller. The benefit of becoming an ecommerce seller is that you will be able to run your own business and take the majority of the profits. People often assume that it’s difficult to set up a successful ecommerce business. However, this is not the case. To do so, you need to make sure that you are exploring your key competitors. You should also think about finding the right platform for your online shop. One of the best possibilities would be Shopify which is used by millions of companies around the world.
Child Carer
Next, you might want to think about working as a child carer. This is a great choice if you love working with children or you have experience in schools or a similar environment. You can work as a child carer from the comfort of your own home, taking care of one or multiple children. Do be aware that parents will expect you to be fully accredited for this role with the right security checks in place. You will also need to set up the right environment in your home that is going to provide fantastic wellness benefits for the kids you are taking care of.
Freelancer
Finally, you could operate as a freelancer. As the name suggests, working as a freelancer, means that you will have the opportunity to work on a variety of different contracts for companies and on individual projects. As such, you are always going to be able to find the tasks and roles that you are specifically interested in. One of the biggest challenges as a freelancer will be managing your time effectively and ensuring that you are always able to find more clients for your business.
We hope you have found this article useful as well as informative. Remember, if you already have a job at an office or a larger business, then you can think about exploring an alternative which is a hybrid business model. This essentially means that you will spend the majority of your time at home and work a couple of days in an office environment each week. The full details can be ironed out with your manager or the business owner. However, these days most businesses are at least open to the possibility. It also provides a brilliant work/life balance and means that you can spend more time with your friends and family.
