Posts Tagged ‘telecommute’

The summer commute is actually quite easy. The bike is (or should be) the transportation option of choice and as long as the workplace has a shower and you bring a spare set of clothes it is really not such a big deal. Autumn on the other hand can become quite a challenge. The weather become unpredictable and cycling to work may not be such a natural choice anymore. Well it is for the hardcore cyclist, and hats of to you for peddling year around, but most people simply don’t want that. There are lots of other options to look at instead of driving though.

Public transportation is severely underrated. You walk for some ten minutes, hop on the bus/train and then you have some time to read the news, play with the phone, read or do whatever you do. It is a really nice way to commute greener. Another nice option is ride-sharing (another commute related option Commute Greener! can help you set up). A telecommute is another option, as mentioned yesterday.

Whatever option you choose, you got to prepare a bit. Driving is encouraging us not to plan ahead, it is just a matter of getting in the car and drive away. You can of course do that with a green commute as well, but planing ahead will save time and make the ride smother.SO here are some ways you can prepare for the autumn commute;

• Check bus timetables. Bus/train companies have a tendency to change them about now and not knowing the times can cause massive annoyances.
• Plan the route. If you are going to have to chain the commute you want to minimize waiting time.
• Make sure you have time in the morning so you don’t miss the bus in the morning. That can make you late, and that isn’t a good way to start the day.
• Bring a small umbrella in the bag. At least in Sweden rain comes without warning this time a year (ah who am I kidding, it always rains here).
• Have a couple of thin gloves in the bag/pocket. Especially mornings can be cold, then it gets really warm during the day.
• Get some entertainment. If you have an iPhone or some other smartphone then play with that, otherwise reading, drawing (on paper, not seats, windows or passengers) will make the trip feel much faster.
• Get some kind of sheath/protection for your book. I usually don’t and all of mine are water damaged/dirty/or outright grimy from wet and muddy commutes. I don’t mind but some people do.
• Find some bus buddies. Maybe by using our rideshare feature.
• If you share the ride with someone, be sure you are ready when they come with the car. Otherwise you may not be ridesharing the next day.

Not to difficult, right? This is basically just common sense but can go a long way towards making the commute smother and more bearable. By sticking to taking the bus to work instead of driving you are saving a lot of CO2 compared to if you are driving. You also help reducing traffic congestion and air pollution at the same time as you get some free time. So try it out. It will take a couple of weeks to get used to commuting this way if you are used to the freedom of driving, but when you do you will love it.

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Fredrik

Hi!

Our Scandinavian readers probably haven’t missed the storm raging outside. The sound of howling wind actually drowned my “work music” a couple of hours ago. Not exactly the best weather to commute greener in, right? Wrong!

This kind of weather is perfect for a telecommute. Being able to work while not leaving the sofa, with the coffee machine within easy reach and some good music sounding from the computer sure is a lot nicer then to brave bad weather. Doesn’t it sound great?

There are lots of good points with telecommuting. No driving to work means no CO2 emissions. Ok, you are using electricity to power the computer, heating and light at home, but you are using that anyway. Nobody turn everything out when leaving the hose, so the air condition, radiators, central heating or whatever system you are using would be running anyway. To set up a home office you just need a laptop (or notebook as some call them nowadays), an office lamp and perhaps a printer. That’s not a lot of machines going, nowhere near the emissions you get from driving to work.

Another good point is that you don’t have to become stressed out first thing in the morning by trying to drive or take the bus to work through the storm. Driving is stressful under normal conditions, limited visibility and wet, slippery roads just make that worse. Or getting soaking wet while catching the bus. Wouldn’t a comfortable work session at home with a ten seconds commute be a lot nicer? You get to enjoy the comfort of your own home while being able to keep contact with your colleagues, supervisors, costumers and any people you need to be in contact with to do your job. It works. Really well.

A third good point is that you actually can be very productive while working from home. Apparently, at least according to a lot of blogs I have red about telecommuting, the boss get nervous about productivity when he/she can’t constantly supervise his/her employees. But that can actually lower the amount of work someone do. Not in every case of course, let’s not generalize to much here. Working from home is a lot of responsibility. It is important to stay in touch with the people you work with as well as the management, but at the same time it let you work in a calmer environment that is very different from an open landscape office that is so modern today. With less disturbances you can actually get a lot of work done in  remarkable short time as long as you have some discipline.  As you don’t have any commute to consider you may even use some of that time to get some more work done instead of having to do long hours of overtime at the office at a later stage.

If telecommuting is a possibility for you, why not try it out. It will probably feel weird the first few days of communicating with colleagues by phone, messenger, email and video, but you get used to it. Come to think of it, with coworkers in several countries/states/offices as well as developers and costumers, that is already pretty much the norm for many people today. This just expands upon that way of working one or two days a week, or once in a while and let you be more environmentally friendly as well as stressing off at the same time. What is not to like?

That’s it for tonight guys! Try telecommuting. It is really nice. And make sure to visit us at facebook and twitter as well!

I’m out of here

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Fredrik

An interesting article was posted on grist.org yesterday. It discussed a new Swedish study from Umeå University which show that a long commute increase the risk of divorce in married couples. Now this isn’t happy news, but it is easy to understand why it might be like that. A long commute can really be tiering. Early mornings, late nights, stress and just general bad mood can really put a strain on any relationship, especially if both are having long commutes. In other words, if you are commuting long distances, make sure to find something either relaxing or interesting to do. Preferable both. And to avoid the commute all together of course!

Our own dr Magnus Kuschel working on the commute!

First of all, why not take the breakfast to the morning train? Why waste time on it during morning, when you got some 40+ minutes of dead time half an hour later anyway? The newspaper is another such thing which can be brought and read on the train. That way you save some time during the stressful morning and you get something to do for the morning commute. Every morning you can see women putting their face on during the train ride. As long as that can be done in a hygienic manner, why not? What really matters is to keep occupying oneself  with something that saves you time and which can help you get some more sleep or too stress off.

Another thing to do is to get your surfing done on the train ride. A smartphone or a laptop (notebook) or a wap phone gives some great opportunities and can cut time on those things during the evening when you want to spend time with each others. And you can adjust your Commute Greener! baseline while doing the surfing as well! Well, seriously, responding to mail, sending e-mails, facebooking, twittering and reading blogs or news of one kind or the other takes increasingly more time from us. That time won’t come out of our work time, or we get fired. It comes out of the evening. Why not get that out of the way and get cozy together with the one(s) you love and wind down instead?

Working from the train is another option, which can work out if you have the kind of job which let you do such a thing. Maybe you have reports to read and comment or write, power point presentations to make or check, information to take in etc. If you can work with that on the train it doesn’t always matter that you leave early, as you are still working. Just in another place. While on the move.

And then there is the telecommute option, if it is a possibility. If it is possible to work from home a couple of days/week, you not only save time and CO2, you can get the chance to sleep in a bit and get a rest from the daily journeys. Winding down and relaxing for a day/week can be a godsend, and make you more effective and less irritated, which in turn makes for a better relationship.

To summarize, a long commute can be a pain. With increased stress and irritation it can break relationships and make for a lot of negative things. So turn it around. Plan ahead. Make the commute into something positive, like getting out a bit earlier in the afternoon, surfing and doing “errands” on the computer/phone to neat you more time for relaxation later. Create time for yourself. It isn’t as good as shorten the commute, but it sure helps a great deal. At least in my opinion, and I used to commute some 220 km/day in total every day.

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Fredrik

With all the tension in the middle east it is no wonder that fuel prizes are increasing. I have no idea how expensive it has gotten in the rest of the world, but here in Sweden it costs almost 14,5 SEK/liter, ie about 50 SEK/gallon, about 6,3$/gallon (take that transformation with a pinch of salt, I am using a lot of averages and rounding here). The point is, driving is getting expensive right now. But everybody still need to get to work every day. There are however a lot of ways to save a buck on the commute, while greening it up as well!

• Let’s start with environmentally friendly driving, or eco-driving. If you are good at it you can save some 15% of fuel over a year. I know, we have covered this before, but if everybody learned and followed this scheme we could get a long way towards making the traffic flow more even and reducing emissions. Basically, keep an even tempo, avoid starting and stopping (for example roll slowly toward red lights so you don’t have to stop), drive at the highest gear possible and skip gears (ie 1-2-4 and 1-2-3-5) to keep the motor from working to hard. There is of course more to it, but I am sure you can find better explanations from someone who are better at cars and driving then me.
• By removing stuff like ski-boxes and making sure the tires have a bit more pressure then is recommended in the manual you reduce resistance and thus reducing the fuel consumption. Check with a mechanic before, but many tires can take it, and it can save some fuel as well.
• Carpool/rideshare, and divide the fuel cost… enough said.
• Greener commute options are usually not that expensive, and doesn’t take to much time either. Trains and buses are more efficient then one might think, as long as the system is well maintained, and it is very possible to make commute chains with bike/train, or to just drive to the train station and then park the car/bike. This is getting more and more common over here, and it actually works.
• A bike commute is free when you have the bike and a backpack. And guess what, you save some cash on that pricey gym card as well.
• A telecommute removes the travel costs. How many turns the thermostat/AC/radiators down when leaving home? Not to many. While the electricity bill might be a bit higher, you should save a bit anyway if you don’t go out of your way to turn all lights and appliances on. And having a meeting with you boss while wearing a pajamas might be a new experience:P
• Not buying fast-food on the way home can save a lot. Well not in places where it is actually cheaper, but you get the idea. And home cooking is healthier anyway.
• When you are at it, instead of sport drinks, have some lemonade/lemon-water in the water bottle on the bike commute. Sport drinks are mostly sugar anyway, so home made stuff will probably taste better anyway.

In these times, even a small saving can be important. Why not try to green up the commute in one way or the other and save not only some money but our environment as well. Especially eco driving is something everyone should always practice. And when we are at it, why not take the opportunity to contribute to reducing the oil dependency by using zero emission alternatives!

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Fredrik

So far this week we have discussed why a green commute is a good option. So I thought, let’s take it one step further; how do we make the green commute easier.

Changing habits can be a daunting task. If it wasn’t there wouldn’t be the abundance of diets, training methods, cures and so on. And it may be the same with out choice of transportation. After all, if you have driven to work all your life, and your parents and grandparents did the same, taking the bus or going on a bike ride might not feel all that natural. So, why not try to;

• Prepare carefully. Where is the bus stop, when do the bus come, how long time will it take (assume it will be late, just to be on the safe side), make yourself acquainted with the pay system, and count the  stops on the way. If you already know every step it feels calmer and less stressful.
• See above for the bike commute. Be sure to scout the route, look for less trafficked streets and make sure the bike and backpack functions.
• Get a good umbrella and/or proper rain gear. Being wet is not fun when you have to sit at the office for several hours. By the way, get some good winter clothes, especially shoes.
• Plan the commute with your meetings. If you have a very important meeting and are worried about being late and getting sweaty/muddy, then by all means drive. A green lifestyle should be easy and inspiring, not a prison. Adapt.
• Start with one day/ week and step it up. One day doesn’t seem that much, but it is still 20% of the weekly commute. 20 % is a significant cut. Step it up when you feel it is getting comfortable with your greener commute. On another side, your supervisor may accept being late once in a while (if you are lucky), but it is easy to get late if you don’t know the bike or bus route…
• Gather some friends/co-worker and make a competition of the greener commute. The one who changes the most wins a prize. (By the way, to all the head of departments who are interested in improving the environmental impact of your department; a fun competition with a prize may be a good way to go! This goes for many environment related things.)
• I have said it before, and I am saying it again, be sure to bring some kind of entertainment to the public transit commute. Maybe not the first time if they don’t call the name of the next stop though.
• If you are able, try a telecommute. It is really nice.
• And last but not least, learn Eco-driving. This is a very smooth way of driving that minimizes the fuel consumption and wear on the vehicle, ie. it lessens the environmental impact. Two ground rules is to avoid start stop driving (ie. plan far ahead) and drive on high gears.

S0. There were some tips on how to make the transit to a greener commute easier. I think we have a couple of other similar articles in our archive if you want more tips. The bottom line is that with some preparations anyone can green up the commute and save a buck or two in the process. So try it out. And by the way, if you have your own commute tips, don’t be afraid to share them, here or at facebook.

Have a nice weekend everyone!

I’m off

Fredrik

By the way, want to know more about Commute Greener! and how it works? Check our instruction and background videos at youtube

Winter is a wonderful season. The snowy landscape looks wonderful, the kids loves playing in the snow, and you can do various activities not available in other seasons. But winter weather can make the commute an annoyance. So why not try some telecommuting? A two minutes commute (from bed to the desk) sure beats struggling through snow and rain to get to work.

A telecommute is a nice way to save some money, time and CO2. Talk about gathering Zero emission kilometres. But not every supervisor want their employees to work from home. It can be a matter of trust, a matter of control or just a matter of wanting to be able to see the employee. Or some other reason. So how to get the your boss to agree on a telecommute? Well, there are many ways, like this article describes. Some of the arguments are better then others, and some may not work on every workplace, but it sure is a good way to start. Well worth a look.

A telecommute can really be a good thing. There are so many good points in telecommuting, for the environment, for the health situation AND for the greens (ie.$), both the companies and the environments. Reducing stress gained from the commute, and being able to work in peace and quiet in the comfort of ones own home is very nice. In our modern information society were everyone has the means to communicate by voice, text or video, not being able to keep in touch with your co-workers is not really an issue. Security might be an issue though, as a private computer on an unsecured connection is easier to attack then a computer on a big company. But there are secure workarounds for that too today. In other words, why not try it out.

In an environmental perspective, telecommuting is great. Radiators and electricity is running at home whether you are there or at work, and you save in on CO2 and other pollutants from driving. Not only that, but there is also the matter of traffic congestion, less exposure to particles and noise. From a health perspective, less noise, particles, stress and a more comfortable environment of ones home may even lead to less sick days due to health issues.

Do a youtube search on telecommuting… You will be amazed with how many videos of happy home-workers there are out there. One of the funnier features a cat with a fondness of sleeping on the keybord. Small things like that can make it fun to work, or should I say more fun then usual, and burn of some stress without affecting the daily productivity.

So, for the environment, your health and your wallet, try it out or at least suggest it to your superiors. Maybe once or twice a week. See if it works, and be flexible. And if that doesn’t work, be sure to commute greener.

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Fredrik

Telecommuting is a nice alternative. No morning rush traffic, less stress, you get to sleep in a bit and you don’t emit all the extra carbon dioxide. Yep, I wrote about that some time ago.

While browsing my feedly, I found a rather interesting article about how the environmental benefits of telecommuting isn’t universal. The article can be found in the Washington post.

The main theme of the article was that even if you work from home, skipping the car-commute with all its emissions, you still have to use energy for the computer, the printer, heating etc, while at the office, you share those things, and therefore use less energy per worker.

My first thought when I red that was; what? Do you turn of the heater/air condition when you leave for work in the USA? I know I don’t, but I come from a different culture, and we have different heating/energy systems. But I am sure you still keep the temperature steady when you are out, as coming home to a cold house is no fun experience.

How is the state of insulation in the typical American house? Should the use of the dishwasher, TV, or car used for quick errands really be counted? This is stuff you would do anyway, AFTER work hours in normal cases.

This article has some scientific backing. I haven’t had time to read it yet, but the way to calculate the total emissions seems very interesting. The total emissions of a telecommute is somewhat similar to a bus/train commute, according tho their calculations. Spontaneously I would say that the calculations are flawed as the emissions from heating, energy, printer etc. of a telecommute would be present anyway, no matter how you commute. But as I said (…wrote…) I haven’t had the time to read the study…

Should telecommuting be considered a zero emission commute alternative? I would say so. The total emissions will still be lower than with a car commute, and almost everything is stuff that will be there anyway. And loosing the car means less other emissions, like NOx and VOCs that causes huge problems. CO2 is only a part of the problem after all.

Still, I know I will think more about this. And maybe even do some calculations of my own. Nothing is ever as simple as it seems.

I’m off

Fredrik

You know, it is not easy to change habits when it comes to the commute. Especially if you have been driven, and everywhere. All modes of transportation have some drawbacks, such as the need for extra planning and preparation. But there is a way that don’t cost you anything, reduce your travel time AND is very comfortable.

Telecommuting. Working from home.

Let me tell you one thing, it is a nice option if you have a job and superior that permit it. I’m sitting at home with a nice cup of coffee with my favorite music playing in the background right now. The drawback is that you are a bit isolated, but on the other hand, a two minutes commute and loads of freedom is worth it.

Commute Greener! is designed for CO2 emission reductions from traveling to and from work, so this is really something we encourage you to try. Telecommuting is worth testing, once or twice per week if not full time. Not only for that nice feeling, but for other reasons as well. First of all, you get more time in the evening. The commute eats up a lot of time after all. And if you have a family, you get more time with them. Just be sure to let the kids know that you are working, otherwise I guess there may be to many interruptions.

Second of all; this is a good form of zero emission commuting. You cut your emissions from the commute by 100%. Because of this, a telecommute is great for all of you who live in the suburbs with bad bus communications and lacking bike lanes. And you don’t even have to worry about those nasty traffic jams that always seems to form at 5 pm when everyone are on the way home.

Meetings can be done over phone or video, saving car trips. Not only can you do this from home, but with the technique we have today it should be the standard way when you have meetings between offices in different countries or cities. It is smooth and effective, saving large amounts of CO2 and unnecessary downtime. And every standard computer has everything you need for it nowadays.

So in other words, try it out. And even if the higher ups aren’t so keen on the idea, suggesting video conferences and other means of digital communication instead of costly journeys should fall in good ground.

That’s it for today. Have a nice weekend guys!And remember to Commute Greener!

I’m off to do some statistics

Fredrik