How smart work can positively impact the environment

Which costs are borne by commuters?

In Italy, 1.8 million commuters use their private means of transport to go to work every day.

According to a recent study we carried out, workers spend on average € 6.72 per day for fuel to get to work to cover distances within 20 km, and € 11 for journeys comprised between 20 and 50 km.

We must also take into considerations the hundreds of thousands of people moving to big cities for work every day or occasionally, as, in these cases, costs for road tolls – if required – must be added to the cost for fuel.

If we consider also this aspect, total daily costs reach € 11.72 for journeys within 20 km, and € 23.00 for journeys longer than 50 km.

This means that the total cost borne in one year to get to work is comprised between 2,000 and 5,000 Euro, depending on covered kilometres. Moreover, these amounts do not include the purchase cost of the car, which can be amortized in years, and indirect costs relevant to vehicle maintenance and related taxes to be paid.

Which is the environmental cost of going to work by car?

Environmental costs must be added to all of this. CO2 produced by cars daily amounts to 4.8 to 21.5 grams, depending of the fact that covered kilometres are, respectively, less than 20 or more than 50. This has a huge impact on air quality, also considering that these cars are usually “empty” and transport only one person (the driver) moving every day to reach big cities.

How can smart working help?

Smart working includes all corporate policies aimed at improving work-life balance, ranging from flexible working arrangements in terms of time or location, to forms or corporate welfare to help working-parents or employees engaged in other forms of parental assistance.

Technology is key in these forms of smart working. Remote access to corporate data must be secured to allow a more efficient and tailored form of work, thus increasing employees’ satisfaction and engagement. Of primary importance to guarantee data security are the adoption of secure infrastructures and the assistance of information protection and cybersecurity experts, who can identify risk areas related to the use of IT devices outside the corporate environment.

We believe that the adoption of effective smart working practices can bring positive results both to the environment and to corporate performances, thus strongly increasing the engagement of the people involved.