Working from home has many benefits: no emissions, more time and flexible hours to name but a few.

Why is telework a good idea anyhow?

1. No commute time - You are no longer stuck in rush hour traffic. Aside from the huge benefit of free time it also reduces your stress level, saves money that would idle away and reduces your emissions.
   Fact from Natural Resources Canada: “If every driver of a light duty vehicle avoided idling by three minutes a day, collectively over the year, we would save 630 million litres of fuel, over 1.4 million tonnes of GHG emissions, and $630 million annually in fuel costs (assuming fuel costs are $1.00/L).”
2. Flexible work hours and higher productivity- Your most creative time is at midnight? No problem when you telecommute. Telecommuters can work at any time of the day and thus are often more efficient and productive than their office counterparts. You might take a longer lunch break to go for a walk with the dog but you then you can work longer into the evening when you are on a roll. Two thirds of the respondents in the Ipsos study agreed “that telecommuters are more productive because the flexibility allows them to work when they have the most focus and/or because having maximum control over the work environment and schedule leads to job satisfaction and happiness.”
3. More working women - 87% of respondents in the Ipsos study agreed “that [telework] will keep talented women in the workforce instead of leaving temporarily or completely to raise children”. Flexible work hours let you work around your family schedule. You can have breakfast with your children, work while they are in daycare or school, spend playtime together in the afternoon and then finish your work when the kids are in bed.
4. Reduced costs – It’s a win-win-win situation: As employee you save money on fuel and vehicle maintenance. Your organization saves on office space, parking space and also has less costs due to sick leaves (teleworkers are more balanced and healthier). And your city saves money on road construction and maintenance. To top it off the whole society benefits from reduced health care costs.

One person in our Facebook community summarized it nicely:

Bottom line, you can’t beat not wasting hours of your life waiting in traffic jams (while polluting the environment) OR waking up to -30 and going to work without ever having to leave your home OR taking time off when you realllly need a break to perhaps head to the mountains [...] and clear your mind”.

Telework among Commuter Challenge participants

According to Ipsos only 8% of Canadians are working from home or in another location outside their workplace on a regular basis. We checked last year’s Commuter Challenge results for some details: Only 2.31% of all sustainable trips were telecommutes. Among the provinces and territories New Brunswick had the highest percentage of telecommute trips – 4.43% of all sustainable Commuter Challenge trips were telecommutes. Runner-ups are Alberta (3.59%) and Ontario (2.64%).

Telecommute trips by provinces & territories: Most of the 2011 Commuter Challenge teleworkers lived in Alberta. Only the Northwest Territories and Prince Edward Island had no participants working outside their office. (Please note that Quebec, Yukon Territories and Newfoundland had less than 0.5% of sustainable trips as telecommutes and show up with 0% in the pie chart.)

*Ipsos surveyed a total of 11,383 online connected employees from 24 countries* via online survey methodology between October 7 and 20, 2011. Surveyed countries include Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and the United States of America. The employee sample emerged from a screened sub group of an international sample of 18,682 adults aged 18-64 in the US and Canada, and age 16-64 in all other countries, were interviewed. Approximately 1000+ individuals participated on a country by country basis with the exception of Argentina, Indonesia, Mexico, Poland, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden, Russia and Turkey, where each have a sample of 500+.

Signing up for Commuter Challenge

Our programmer has been working feverishly on the tracking tool. You won’t see much yet as most changes happen in the background; they make the system more stable and reliable. But we don’t want to bore you with all the technical details. The important news is: Registration is already open!

Get a headstart and register your organization for the 2012 Commuter Challenge here. Also have a look at our Workplace Coordinator Kit that provides information how to run a Commuter Challenge event in your organization.

Quand?
Mardi 29 Mars 2011
13:00 HAR

Mercredi 30 Mars 2011
09:30 HAR

Chaque coordonnateur de ville recevra un fichier PDF de la présentation qui pourra être partagé avec leurs administrateurs d’entreprise.

S’il vous plaît contactez Kristin ou Kathryn pour de l’information sur la conférence téléphonique ou appelez-nous au (403) 294-0904.

When?
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
1:00 p.m. MDT

Wednesday, March 30, 2011
9:30 a.m. MDT

Every City Coordinator will receive a PDF file of the presentation that can be shared with their Workplace Coordinators.

Please contact Kristin or Kathryn for the dial-in information or call us at (403) 294-0904.

100 jours jusqu’à le 2011 Défi Transport! Voici 10 choses que vous pouvez faire aujourd’hui pour l’événement:

1. Familiarisez-vous avec différents modes de transport qui sont encouragés et récompensés par le Défi Transport.
2. Consultez notre site Web pour les avantages du transport durable.
3. Recherchez une connexion de transport en commun de votre domicile à votre lieu de travail. Peut-être faissez un essai sur le week-end et voyez combien de temps cela prend.
4. Recherchez s’il ya une «équipe verte» ou un bureau de la durabilité à votre lieu de travail. Communiquez avec eux et leur parlez du Défi Transport. C’est plus amusant si les autres vous rejoindre et vous pouvez faire une grande différence ensemble.
5. Contactez votre coordonnateur de ville et demandez sur les plans pour le Défi Transport. Parfois il ya des événements spéciaux, comme des cliniques de vélo ou de foires de transport où vous pouvez vous informer sur le transport durable dans votre ville.
6. Faites le premier pas et marcher jusqu’à l’épicerie ou au café, si la distance est inférieure à 1 km.
7. Si vous devez faire des courses avec votre voiture, essayez de les programmer en une seule journée afin de minimiser l’utilisation de votre voiture.
8. Trouvez un partenaire de covoiturage pour partager un transport du domicile au travail. Il ya quelques organisations au Canada qui se connectent des partenaires de covoiturage, par exemple carpool.ca, Smart Commute ou RideShare.com.
9. Vérifiez auprès de votre employeur s’il ya des incitations pour le développement durable de trajet comme titres de transport subventionnés, les heures de travail flexibles, des casiers à vélo ou de stationnement réservées pour le covoiturage.
10. Joignez-vous à notre liste de diffusion pour recevoir les dernières nouvelles sur le Défi Transport.

Si vous êtes un coordonnateur de l’événement dans votre ville ou en milieu de travail et que vous souhaitez faire l’essai de l’outil d’inscription de nouveaux simplifiée s’il vous plaît contactez-nous au (403) 294-0904 ou Kristin Marquardt à kristin@calgarycommte.ca .