"Agile work and all other forms of remote work, including smart working, have proven to be an important tool for change capable not only of improving the quality of professional and personal life, but also of reducing traffic and city pollution and revitalising entire peripheral areas and neighbourhoods considered dormitory".
These are the words used by the researcher Enea of the Department of Energy Technologies and Renewable Sources Roberta Roberto, co-author of the survey which, developed together with colleagues Bruna Felici, Alessandro Zini and Marco Rao and published in the international journal Applied Sciences, analysed the environmental impact of remote work in the four-year period 2015-2018 in the cities of Rome, Turin, Bologna and Trento.
The research numbers
We have already mentioned the numerous and undeniable advantages related to the consolidation of smart working that has occurred in recent years. But the improvements in the environmental field deserve further study. The introduction of remote work or, to be more precise, hybrid employment methods made necessary to face the pandemic, have in fact allowed companies to safeguard productivity and business continuity. But work flexibility, advantageous in economic and managerial terms, has also taken on an important role from the point of view of environmental sustainability.
In order to quantify the phenomenon, we report some significant data:
According to the aforementioned ENEA study, the use of smart working would in fact correspond to a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions equal to 600 kg per year for each worker. A figure closely related to further savings in terms of fuel (260 litres of gasoline or 237 litres of diesel), distance travelled (about 3,500 km) and time (150 hours).
The importance of workspaces
Not only traffic and emissions. Smart working is not limited to avoiding fuel waste. The environmental sustainability of agile work also lies in the efficiency of its internal processes.
Let's think, for example, of the advantages deriving from the exploitation of modern digital workspaces. The latter, thanks to specific Artificial Intelligence features, in fact allow easy retrieval of information and priority documents remotely, allowing a lot of time savings and above all minimising the use of printed paper, ink and energy consumption that a greater number of workflows would cause.
Just as the environmental benefits that come from the use of personal devices for work cannot be missed. A possibility that, if adequately supported by a particular attention to cyber security, is linked to a significant reduction in the number of hardware that a company must purchase and then subsequently disord and recycle.
Environmental sustainability and Gen Z
Smart working and sustainability are, ultimately, two sides of the same coin. That's why NotOnlyDesk has made agile work the key element of its mission. NOD is a young reality and as such it questions and reasons about the future of the vision it has developed.
Environmental sustainability is, not surprisingly, an issue to which the new generations Y and Z pay particular attention. According to a study conducted by Deloitte, more than 90% of Millennials and GenZ are willing, starting with small actions, to make an effort to protect the environment and ensure an eco-sustainable future. But attention to the environment - in addition to the precautions in terms of food supply, clothing and transport - cannot be exempt from finding appropriate solutions also from a work point of view.
One of these solutions is called smart working and represents the only present through which a sustainable future can become a reality.
