Towards a conceptual framework of direct and indirect environmental effects of co-working

Abstract

Through virtual presence, information and communication technology (ICT) allows employees to work from places other than their employer's office and reduce commuting-related environmental effects (telecommuting). Working from a local co-working space, as a form of telecommuting, has the potential to significantly reduce commuting and is not associated with deficits of working from home (e.g. isolation, lack of focus). However, environmental burden might increase through co-working due to the infrastructure required to setup and operate the co-working space and potential rebound effects. In this paper, we (1) develop a framework of direct and indirect environmental effects of co-working based on a well-known conceptual framework of environmental effects of ICT and, (2) apply the framework to investigate the case of a co-working living lab established in Stockholm. Based on interviews and surveys conducted with co-workers in the living lab and infrastructure data of the co-working space, we roughly estimate associated energy impacts. Results show that energy requirements associated with operating the co-working space can counterbalance commute-related energy savings. Thus, in order to realize energy savings co-working should be accompanied with additional energy saving measures such as a net reduction of (heated) floor space (at the co-working space, at the employer's office and the co-workers home) and use of energy-efficient transport modes.

“Quantifying the implications of behavioral changes induced by digitalization on energy transition: A systematic review of methodological approaches”

“…Similar conclusions are reached by Bieser et al [69], analyzing how the co-working practice impacted the time use of employees in Stockholm via the time use diary approach. Together with Vaddadi et al [70], they discovered that it could lead to a substitution effect concerning the transport mode, as co-working spaces are usually located in the neighborhood of the households, providing an incentive to use bikes, public transport or walking instead of traveling by private cars.…”

“…Twelve papers analyzed the energy implications of behavioral changes due to teleworking, with eight studies adopting analytical models to quantify them [61], [34,73], [69,70,72,74,76]. The energy savings obtained by less commuting are considered in all of them.…”

“…The energy savings obtained by less commuting are considered in all of them. Additionally, three of them corrected these savings by including the increase in the residential energy demand [70,74,76], two included the change in the energy demand of offices spaces [70,76], two addressed the rebound impact arising from the increase in non-working related trips and the substitution effect on transport mode [69,72].…”

“…While the EEIO approach is connected to the quantification of the spending effect, different approaches have been used to analyze the same users' behavior effect for the same ICT application. For example, concerning teleworking, the time rebound effect was quantified via surveys [67,71], time use diaries [69,70] and empirical data [75].…”

Opportunities of 5G Mobile Technology for Climate Protection in Switzerland

“…Many further studies on the GHG abatement potential of ICT can be found in the literature, e.g. [31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40], for an overview see [41]. Some technology providers and consulting companies have already investigated indirect effects of 5G on GHG emission in other countries [42,43]; however, we could not find a study published by the scientific community.…”