Should ESG professionals challenge the “back to office” trend?

The business dilemma: office leases vs remote work

It's a challenge for businesses with leased office space commitments to balance working from home with the ongoing costs, so it's easy to see why the obvious answer might seem to be to get people back in the office. But there are good ESG reasons why maintaining work from home and flexibility can be better for the business and the workforce overall.

JRP has no office, all our staff are remote, either from home or supported to work from desk spaces if needed. As a result we have no scope 1 & 2 emissions to report, and whilst there can sometimes be quite a bit of travelling the majority of days start at home with a good work-life balance.

Emissions comparison: commuting vs heating

Businesses need to think carefully about what they are comparing and take an all scopes emissions view. Scope 1 & 2 buildings emissions need to be compared as a minimum against scope 3 home working and commuting emissions when considering the direct comparison of office or home working.

Typically people add very little extra heating to their homes for working, and if there would be someone else at home anyway and no change to the home heating regime, none of that is attributable to their employer.

However if the business is maintaining an office mostly empty and people are working from home that becomes an issue of two lots of emissions for the same operational impact. Divesting from city leases can be difficult with tie-in periods and the question of a prestigious or known address, and there are other economic questions of how this impacts the dynamics of other city businesses. But in itself this is not a good reason for a business to maintain a big city office that is not relevant to its core operations.

Rethinking the base of operations

It could also affect business travel - travel direct from home vs coming in to a place of work first is likely to reduce the overall mileage when considered holistically. This doesn't need to limit transition to sustainable transport either, as many employers have funded installation of home charging to facilitate company EVs to be based at home for on the road fleet setups that would otherwise drive from home to a yard to start the day.

Human impact: commuting, cost, and wellbeing

We know that people work differently and home vs office working suits different people, so advocating for home working on sustainability grounds can get into sticky territory from a HR and wellbeing perspective. However, a recent survey across Europe has found that UK has the joint worst overall commuting experience of the 34 countries surveyed with duration and cost playing a large part in the overall score.

UK named worst country in Europe for commuters, tied with Greece

Stepping further out to take an ESG lens on the question, the wellbeing of staff throughout their work day starts with the commute, and taking this into account brings the question of whether employers should be requiring commuting if it is not essential to the business. This might not mean entirely home based is the answer, but allowing for flexible commuting to avoid peak times, compatibility with childcare or other commitments, or even just taking the stress out of using public transport by explicitly permitting a window of arrival rather than a strict start time.

The amount of time staff spend getting home before they can wind down from work could be a consideration in mental health and risk of burn-out, and therefore whether they are coming in safe and fit to work at their best the next day.

Strategic considerations: climate change risk

Climate change and associated risk is also a consideration relating to home working that can be a more challenging conversation. As we move to patterns of more warmer summers and fewer colder winters (State of the UK Climate - Met Office) the urban heat island is an additional consideration for expectations of commuting. Bringing people from typically cooler suburbs into even hotter cities without an operational need is not good for their health or their performance, and the increased cost and emissions of air conditioning doesn't help business performance.

But if you have a largely urban workforce already subject to extremes of heat, it is important to consider the role your workplace is playing in their wellbeing if they would struggle to maintain their homes at a good temperature during the working day at times of peak temperature.

The solution to that might not be to say you need to keep your air conditioned office as proof against more 36-40 degree days, but you might want to consider what the appropriate response to ensuring safety and performance of your workforce is. This might be a mix of site-based and home working and considering when their work needs to happen operationally, as well as sharing recommendations for keeping cool sustainably.

What about IT?

Other climate risks might mean your staff should be prepared to shift operations to home based, as part of your incident response (such as flooding or extreme weather) and your IT infrastructure will also need to be able to adapt to this changing need. On site data storage is energy intensive and performance can be impacted adversely by high numbers of external data queries (compared to onsite network queries) using more energy for power and potentially cooling. Many companies are moving to remote/cloud data storage as a way to reduce the energy intensity of their data management and increase the adaptation to higher numbers of home working staff.

What businesses should do next

As cost of living continues to increase, and people feel generally more confident advocating for their wellbeing and work-life balance in the post-covid world, getting the balance right on home working is important for staff retention as well as for ESG and emissions management.

To make sure your business gets it right:

• Include home working and commuting in your all scopes GHG emissions footprint. (Note: This is expected to become mandatory under the upcoming updated GHG Protocol and SBTi inclusions.)
• Complete energy audits of on site data storage including cooling systems and f-gas registers
• Undertake a climate risk analysis for your sites and compare this with commuting zones.
• Add targeted questions to staff surveys to capture employee perspectives and challenges regarding commuting, flexibility, and wellbeing.

If you have any questions about any of the above, or are looking for support with your ESG objectives, you can book a call to speak with one of our team.