Telecommuting and environmental policy - lessons from the Ecommute program

Telecommuting and Environmental Policy

Table 14. Number of Teleworkers Needed to Reduce 25 Tons of
VOCs Per Year¹

¹Using Scenario 1 - see Table 12 - and figures in Table 9 and assuming 250 workdays in a
year.

Using U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics figures on employment during the 2001-2003 period for
the five metropolitan areas in the ecommute program, the figures in the first column of Table 14
represent the following percentage of total non-farm employment: 0.24% (Washington, DC), 0.30%
(Denver), 0.50% (Houston), 0.13% (Los Angeles), and 0.14% (Philadelphia).²² So assuming that each
teleworker works at home anywhere from slightly less than 1 day per week up to 2 ½ days per week and
assuming the average distances commuted and types of vehicles owned correspond to the figures in
Tables 9, 10, and 11 - i.e., relatively long distances and relatively clean vehicles - between 0.14% and
0.50% of the employed non-farm workforce in these metro areas must telecommute to generate a 25 ton
per year reduction in VOC.

As we have seen, the current institutional context has many barriers to trading telecommuting
credits. If the regulatory situation becomes more hospitable, however, what is the potential for
emissions trading with telecommuting credits? In this section, we present estimates for the potential
credit value per teleworker, assuming no barriers to trading. The value of the emissions reductions per
teleworker is based on two components: the reduction in emissions from telecommuting and the market
price for emissions reduction credits.

5.4. Emissions Reductions from Telecommuting

The emissions benefits from telecommuting are often reported in aggregate terms—that is, total
pounds of pollution avoided. This is fairly misleading because the category of pollutants includes things
like carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide. But not all pounds of pollution are created equal. In 2002
about 20 million tons of NOx was emitted in the United States, versus CO2 emissions of 5.8 billion tons.
A number that aggregates the two pollutants is not meaningful. If pollution reductions from
telecommuting are presented in aggregate terms, CO2 reductions will account for more than 90% of
“total pollutants avoided.” Moreover, the two pollutants have very different impacts on the environment.

The reductions in NOx and VOC emissions (the two pollutants that have the most active
markets) from an avoided vehicle trip are fairly small. Cars today are far cleaner than they were even 10
years ago, and this trend will continue, thanks to new vehicle and fuel standards. The upshot is that
reducing a vehicle mile traveled does not deliver all that much in the way of pollution reduction.

²² Customized table on total non-farm employment created on BLS website. See
http://www.bls.gov/sae/home.htm.

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