Teleworking
Teleworking and teleconferencing does not mean sitting down in front of the television all night and talking about it at work the next day.
Teleworking means working at home, or at a telecentre near home for some or all of the time instead of travelling into an office for a 9am start and returning home at 5:30pm.
Government figures show that at least 7% of the population now works from home at least some of the time during the week, using a computer and a telephone.
Those most likely to telework are managers and people in professional, administrative, secretarial and skilled occupations, but the net is spreading ever wider. For example, 10% of people working in education are teleworkers, and 5% occupied in health and social work telework.
There has been some debate as to whether teleworking cuts car use – does it just mean that someone else in the family uses the car? The evidence seems to show that it does in fact reduce car use.
Studies of teleworkers have shown reductions in car mileage of between 15 and 193 miles per week.
Not only that, but it cuts down on road traffic congestion at peak times, with fewer cars on the road during rush hour.
Larger organisations may find it worthwhile to install their own teleconferencing suite. Smaller organisations can hire them as required. Instead of ten or a dozen managers driving from different parts of the country to be in the same room for a meeting they can see and talk to each other from different parts of the country.
Audio conferencing also saves time and travel, with the obvious difference that you can only hear the other people and not see them.