It seems the perfect combination of conscience and convenience, but working from home may not be so good for the planet after all.
In fact, the growing numbers who avoid daily commuting could actually be contributing to global warming, research shows.
They typically produce almost a third more carbon dioxide in a year than staff based in offices.
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The conclusions will come as a shock to leading industry figures and government officials, who are keen to promote home working as a way for businesses to reduce their impact on the environment and ease pressure on the creaking transport network.
More than 3.4 million people, about 12 per cent of the work force, now regularly work from home. But research from WSP Environmental, a firm of independent consultants, found that while home workers can save carbon emissions by not commuting, the extra heating and power they use during the winter months can outweigh the benefits.
In an office, heating and electricity are shared but staff working alone at home use more energy to heat their properties.
David Symons, the director of corporate services at WSP Environmental, said: "In homes it is rarely possible just to switch the heating on in one room, so people are heating a whole house through the day in the winter, which uses a lot of power.
"Even boiling a kettle for one person instead of for a few people can increase inefficiency. Encouraging home working is seen as a quick win for companies trying to reduce their carbon emissions, but it is not that simple."
The research found working at home during the summer could help reduce carbon dioxide emissions, since few properties have air conditioning and the heating is turned off.
If an employee works at home all year, however, he or she pumps out 2.38 tons of carbon dioxide, whereas a typical office worker produces only 1.68 tons of carbon per year.
Helped by computers and modern telecommunications, home working has become increasingly popular as a way of improving the balance between people's personal and working lives. The number of home workers has risen by more than half a million in 10 years.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.j ... work27.xml