The COVID-19 pandemic fundamentally altered work patterns for Americans, with a significant shift to remote work reducing solo commuting. From 2019 to 2022, the percentage of commuters driving alone dropped from 76% to 68.7%. This change, part of a larger response to the pandemic, has decreased carbon emissions, with fully remote workers showing a 54% lower carbon footprint than those onsite. Despite the overall benefits of remote work, the effects are complex, with varying impacts on personal car usage for other activities.
Increased home use of computers, phones, and internet services has a negligible effect on carbon emissions. Still, the benefits of remote work are not perfectly linear.
The shift to remote work and its related reduction in vehicular miles driven is a rare silver lining of the pandemic.
While remote work grew gradually in the four decades leading up to the pandemic, it surged in 2020, fundamentally shifting American work life.
Fully remote workers can have a 54 percent lower carbon footprint than onsite workers, indicating significant environmental benefits.
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