Green Work

Does green living mean quitting your job? Not necessarily, but many people are choosing telecommuting as a way to reduce their carbon footprint. Working from home saves gasoline to and from work. It saves the employer money and resources. It saves the cost of daycare and the resources that it takes to care for a child in a professional facility.

Many people choose to carpool to work to save gasoline, and others choose not to drive to work at all. A typical 30 mile commute to work and back, five days per week, in a 2006 Honda Civic uses 8,800 pounds of greenhouse gas. That's quite a savings if your car stays in the driveway while you work every day.

Your employer is saving money and resources because you work at home as well. The employer is saving on real estate and electricity, ink for your printer and the copy machine you would use, telephone charges, and many other resources that use fossil fuels to manufacture or run. The equipment that you are not using is also going to last the employer longer, which saves on the landfill waste.

If you are working at home, you don't need to pay for child care, which saves you money. It also saves the day care center all of the same things it saves your employer by the child not being there. The exception is that the employer is still making money from your work, but the daycare is not.

There are some drawbacks from working at home if you are doing it to be green. You are using more resources while you are home all day rather than turning off computers, televisions and lights while you are at work. You will also use your stove, run water, and use your own telephone and ink for your printer while at home. So in going green you need to determine whose carbon footprint will reap the most savings.

Working from home has many more advantages than the green advantage. You can work at your own pace and on your own time, and you will save money on things like child care, gasoline, lunches on the go, and office apparel. Your children will also have the advantage of you at home with them.