To mitigate climate change, starting today, anyone who can just as easily work from home—or in a space very near home—should.
Learn more.A CloudCommuter works near (or in) their home via the internet to reduce their commute and their carbon footprint.
Today many of us no longer need to commute into the office every day in order to effectively do our jobs. Fewer commutes will help mitigate climate change. And since today’s technologies allow for meetings with anyone anywhere, its time we ask ourselves why so many people suffer the drudgery of commuting to work unnecessarily.
The CloudCommuter Initiative encourages fewer daily commutes worldwide to reduce CO2 emissions.
More CloudCommuter workers offer us a low cost opportunity to reduce our energy needs and carbon emissions while unburdening our tired and congested infrastructure. Several recent reports state that the nature, pace and consequences of climate change require urgent action.
The CloudCommuter initiative is for anyone who wants to reduce the number of times they commute or reduce their commuting distance.
If we assigned a lost productivity value of, say, $20.00 per hour for everyone who commutes, America squanders four hundred billion dollars per year to arrive and leave work. And today, with longer work hours and two-parent (or single parent) workers, commutes are especially costly on families as well as on communities.
To mitigate climate change, starting today, anyone who can just as easily work from home—or in a space very near home—should.
Learn more.With industry experts, develop guidelines and workspace requirements needed for employers to benefit from CloudCommuter employees.
Learn more.With leading architects, build secure shared work facilities, purpose-build for cloud collaboration, that can universally communicate with each other.
Learn more.America needed to spend at least $255 billion per year over the next half-century on infrastructure to keep the system in good repair.
The nature and pace of observed climate changes pose severe risks for our national security.
The comprehensive cost of each unintentional death from motor-vehicle crashes (not including real income not received) is $4,538,000.
In 2013 the cost of operating a car, including insurance, depreciation and finance charge is $6,059 per year (US).
Transportation in the US accounts for the largest share of greenhouse gas emissions.
Gasoline has been responsible for about two-thirds of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions over the last 20 years.
There are 232,137,000 light vehicles (cars and light trucks) in the U.S.
The average commute time in the US is 25.4 minutes; 50.8 minutes per day, 17.7 hours per month.
28.7% vehicle-miles traveled in the US are to and from work.
Only 3% of organization allows all or most employees to work some regular paid hours at home on a regular basis.
Mexico City adds two cars to its roads for every person it adds to its population.
Family and work life can be better balanced when working away from the office.
Teleworkers feel ‘more in control’ of their work, which in turn eases work-related stress.
Working away from the office engenders a more positive attitude towards work.
Fewer or no work-related interruptions add to a general feeling of wellbeing.
Sensitivity to congestion is the determinate factor in how people organize in and around cities.
Since today’s technologies allow for meetings with anyone anywhere, its time we ask ourselves why so many people suffer the burden and drudgery of commuting to work unnecessarily.
The average commute time in the US is 25.4 minutes, or 50.8 minutes per day. That equates to over 200 hours per year getting to and from work. Now multiply 200 hours by the one hundred million people who make that commute to work on a daily basis.
For thirty years we’ve waited for the paperless office. It has finally arrived. What’s changed is the cloud. While today many organizations allow for occasional work-at-home on an as-need basis, only 3% allow all or most of their employees to work at least some time at home on a regular basis. We’ve made great progress building greener, more efficient workplaces. The fact is, we now use more energy commuting to work than our working buildings use for heating, cooling, lighting, and other energy uses.
China spends 9% of GDP on infrastructure, and Europe about 5%, while the US spends 2.4%. But investing in more technology instead of more roads may be a better bet for America. The Census Bureau expects the US population to grow by 40% over the next four decades, therefore transit demands will increase as well.
More work-near-home workers would strengthen and revitalize local businesses, especially for economically depressed areas where good-paying but distant employment doesn’t mean moving away. Today, with longer work hours and two-parent (or single parent) workers, out-of-town commutes are especially costly on families as well as on communities. And when companies close up shop, entire communities aren’t devastated, which increases the odds laid off employes will find new work, especially if the entire community is already strengthened by many other gainfully employed CloudCommuters.
Cloud Commuter workers can mitigate security risks. The attack on the World Trade Center was magnified for Greater New York company’s who’s workers were concentrated in the Twin Towers. Catastrophic weather events that temporarily put entire regions out of business are growing more common. Even a flew epidemic disrupts business. However when an organization can broadly distribute human resources throughout an extended region, a single tragedy is less detrimental.
Numerous studies demonstrate an increase in worker productivity for organizations by their telecommuting employees. And national aggregate productivity could increase with an array of cloud community facilities across the US, promising less time squandered in traffic, faster job placements from wider search nets, lower costs for start-ups, fewer concentrated disruptions, faster collaboration, faster scaling, faster buys, faster sells.
Cloud commuting can no longer be reserved for employees with special circumstances, but rather a standard business practice—indeed a best practice. The stakes are too high for workers, for families, for our nation and for the planet. If relieving our transportation infrastructure and reducing traffic isn’t reason enough for cloud commuting, several recent reports stating that the nature, pace and consequences of climate change requiring urgent action certainly is. Beginning with the low hanging fruit, each of us can individually mitigate that risk. If the flap of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil can set off a tornado in Texas, what can one more cloud commuter do? Everyone of us who can just as easily work from home, starting tomorrow, should.