Telework Exchange

Commuting time and expense is not just a burden on each individual employee – it also factors into an agency's total carbon footprint. So as Federal leaders begin to contemplate how to effectively reduce their environmental impact, telework must be a major part of the conversation, stated Bob Perciasepe, Deputy Administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), during his luncheon address at the Spring 2010 Telework Exchange Town Hall Meeting held April 8, 2010, in Washington, D.C.

The EPA, he explained, has a number of interests in this issue, but one is strictly personal. The agency has determined that the commuting done by its own workforce makes up 25 percent of the agency's total greenhouse gas emissions.

"One day of commuting by all EPA employees equals 20,000 gallons of gasoline and enough carbon dioxide emissions to equal 22 houses and all the cooking and electricity they would use during the course of the year," he explained. "But if we took just 75 EPA workers and let them work at home two days a week for a year, that would be 14,000 gallons of fuel savings and 10 tons of greenhouse gas savings."

President Obama also sees the correlation. In October 2009, he signed Executive Order 13514 – Federal Leadership in Environmental, Energy, and Economic Performance – to instruct agency officials to, among other things, look specifically at their employees' commutes and what impact it has on their overall carbon footprint.

The entire directive takes a cumulative approach to the problem, specifically directing agencies to make it a top priority to reduce greenhouse gases, reduce waste, conserve water, and leverage the Federal buying power to obtain more energy-efficient products and sustainable goods and services.

To meet the very specific sustainability goals outlined in that Order, the Federal government must reduce its total greenhouse gas emissions 28 percent by 2020. The Executive Order has three scopes, or phases. The first two address fleet vehicles (or the official vehicles owned or operated by the Federal government) and government-owned or -leased buildings and facilities. The third scope requires agency officials to study its employee commuting profile and how the use of telework, flexible work schedules, or mass transit might maximize their long-term strategy to reduce their organization's greenhouse gas emissions and overall carbon footprint.

"If the Federal government is going to make progress under the President's Executive Order, we're going to need to be looking at the amount of vehicle miles we travel to come to work every day," Perciasepe said. "And one of the ways we're going to be able to accomplish that is not only through increased use of mass transit, but also through more flexibility in how and where our employees work."

"Although the scope dealing with commuting impact is not an immediate requirement, agencies need to be moving forward now," Perciasepe stated. "If an agency isn't already looking at that, they're going to be hard pressed to be prepared to deal with it when it comes up in that part of the Executive Order," he explained.

However, the good work agencies already have done with telework and flexible work arrangements leads Perciasepe to believe that the Federal government will be able to lead the rest of the country by example on this issue. The president's directive will have other impacts as well, he noted. By reducing greenhouse gases, agencies also will help reduce in equal amounts other environmental toxins, such as benzene, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen oxide.

Beyond President Obama's directions, EPA has been taking its own groundbreaking steps to try to bring greenhouse gas emissions under control. Late last year, it declared that greenhouse gases are an actual threat to human health. The agency also is working with the Department of Transportation to steadily increase fuel-efficiency standards in new cars and will work to encourage innovation in battery technology, electronics, and material composition.

"However, those steps, while beneficial, won't be enough," Perciasepe said. "Even after the new technology is implemented, further reductions will be required, and those further reductions in the transportation sector of greenhouse gases are most likely going to come from reduced driving," he explained. "So you can see why the EPA is interested in telework."

For the full text of Executive Order 13514 – Federal Leadership in Environmental, Energy, and Economic Performance, visit http://www1.eere.energy.gov/femp/pdfs/eo13514.pdf